Inauguration Video

Here is the three-part series of videos on YouTube of the recap of my adventure in video and pictures. It's a little long, but I think it's worth it :)



Link to my channel if you prefer: http://www.youtube.com/user/kenglish7

One moment in history - Final Recap of My Adventure

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I’ve been struggling to think about how to describe my experience at the inauguration. I’ve gone through the pictures and videos trying to piece together a description that would accurately encapsulate what I experienced on my adventure, but I’ve come up lacking. Not that there isn’t tons to describe, but the palpable energy and emotion I felt is truly indescribable. However, fueled by my desire to inspire those who watched my journey from afar, I wanted to attempt to explain.

As far back as I can remember I have been thoroughly passionate about the topics of history, government, and politics. It began in earnest when I was in the fourth grade and had a teacher named Mr. Heggan who taught us about American History and Government. With every new topic, my interest was piqued, desiring to learn more and more about how our country was built and how it worked. Then when I was in junior high school, I had a teacher named Mr. Dorsey who fueled my passion even further by enlightening me about the global perspective and how the United States fit within the world network.

I also remember my first trip to DC in the eighth grade. While other kids were goofing off, I was in awe of the American History museum and couldn’t get enough of the monuments. As we walked past all of the buildings, I was in my own world.

When I was in college, I participated in a program at Georgetown University called the Institute for Political Journalism. I took courses at the university, worked at Radio America (conservative talk radio station), and was able to immerse myself in the culture of Washington, D.C. I often joke that DC is my Hollywood because seeing a politician or other political figure is more invigorating to me than perhaps running into Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. That time I lived in DC cemented what I already knew in my heart.

Fast forward several years…

Standing there on the National Mall, with 2 million of my closest friends was invigorating. It was as if we were all one big group of family and friends getting together to celebrate a birthday or bar mitzvah or wedding. Yes it was cold, but we sang and danced along with the performances on the jumbotrons broadcasting Sunday’s concert. Yes, there were millions of people. For those that watched on television, think of those images and multiply it by 10…that was what it was like in person. Watching flags flying, people waving, and hearing the cheers and laughter…priceless.

However, it was not about the cold or the security or the waiting in line. It was about the people, the emotion, and, I’ll borrow the popular term from the campaign, it was about hope. In a time when all seems lost, we came together to celebrate. To celebrate? What do we have to celebrate? We have our pride, our diversity, and our hope.

The one theme running through the whole time I was in DC was the feeling of hope, pride, and joy at the prospect of starting anew. It wasn’t about politics or the economy or even race, the inauguration about getting back to knowing who we are as Americans. The trip was a whirlwind, full of emotion and excitement. The pictures and videos can only reflect a fraction of that. Truthfully, I didn’t need to take any pictures or video for me because I believe I will remember that day for the rest of my life.

As I watched the sun set on that day, I stood looking at the monuments that dot the cityscape of this historic and powerful town. I paused to soak in the atmosphere of the marching bands playing a few blocks away, the cheers and laughing, and the smiles on the faces of those who passed. I wonder how I will remember this day five, 10, even 50 years from now, but in that moment I was proud and inspired, not politically, but personally. That day meant so much to so many people that they rearranged their lives, stood in the cold for hours, waited for everything, just to get a glimpse.

I am thankful that I had the chance to share in that experience and I hope that I can live up that ideal we were all there celebrating…being proud to be an American.

A Week Later

From Michael Castengera (http://media-consultant.blogspot.com/)

SO, HOW MANY WATCHED: As we noted in last week’s MfM, we may never know how many people watched the inauguration. According to Nielsen Media Research, an estimated 37.8 Million Americans watched the event across the 14 broadcast and cable networks airing the coverage throughout the day. Nielsen should release the Live +7 viewing shortly. Regardless, that puts it just behind the Ronald Regan inauguration viewing in 1981 (which, if I read the numbers right, was about 41 Million). Of course that doesn’t take into account online viewing. Nielsen Online reports that visits to Current Events and Global News sites jumped significantly on Election Day, and based on my addition of just the top ten sites, that puts another 48.5 Million unique visitors into the mix. The top three sites were CNN (11 Million), MSNBC (10M) and Yahoo News (9M). After that it drops dramatically to the number four spot with Fox (4M). Further add into the mix viewing on YouTube where CSpan’s video of the inauguration and address drew 3.2 Million views and CNN’s coverage another half million. And that’s to say nothing about the record 2 Million people who actually turned out in person.

INAUGURATION SIDE NOTES: Five of the top ten videos viewed on inauguration day were directly related to the events of that day. No surprise there, but a little surprising is that his actual inauguration address came in at seventh place. The most linked-to video on inauguration day? Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream. Two of the other popular videos that day were The Presidential Pledge produced by celebrities Ashton Kucher and Demi Moore on MySpace; and on YouTube, it’s will.i.am’s Yes, We Can which has had more than 16 Million views. An oddity in the mix – even with all the political hoopla of the day, the third most linked-to video was the YouTube Street Fighter video game. The biggest beneficiaries of the Election Day coverage were the digital networks of ABC and CBS which nearly doubled their unique audience on that day. And despite all the furor surrounding the dominance of Google and the decline of Yahoo, the actual Yahoo News website drew five times the unique audience (9 Million) of Google News (1.8M).

Inauguration Adventure

Well, I've decided to set out on an adventure to the Presidential Inauguration. I spent weeks e-mailing various organizations and government officials to get tickets...only to be thwarted at every turn. I actually thought I had a ticket from a friend just this week, but it turned out to be only an invitation sent to millions. After all that I was disheartened and had decided not to go. However, a great friend asked me whether I would look back in five years and regret not going...and well, I think I would.

With that said, I'm heading out on the journey tomorrow (Saturday) for over 600 mile trek to Washington, D.C. I'm breaking up the trip up into two legs. First I will drive to Blacksburg on Saturday and then continue the trip in Maryland on Sunday. I'll be staying with my wonderful aunt and uncle in Rockville and hopefully meeting up with some friends while I'm in town. The trip back is going to be more interesting because I'm going to do it all in one 10-hour trip. It's been awhile since I drove that length on my own, but it should be a fun adventure.

I will be tweeting (www.twitter.com/scullyke12) and uttering (www.utterli.com/kenglish7) updates throughout the day, snapping photos, and shooting video with a FlipCam & DVD camcorder. Because I can't bring my laptop with me to the mall, the longer versions of my coverage will have to wait until after the inauguration and I'm back in Rockville. Hopefully, I'll have a good report up no later than Wednesday morning.

EDIT:
Photos - Flickr Set
Video - Inauguration Station

Here's the Google Map of my trip:

View Larger Map

Journalism Interviews

On election day, I had the opportunity to give a guest lecture to Geoffrey Graybeal's (one of PhD colleagues) classes. I discussed online political campaign communication. Since the lecture, I've had a few students interview me for their election analysis stories. I thought they had some interesting questions that I thought I would post here to see what your answers would be.

Here are a few of them:

Do you think that young voters were actually influenced by the information available on new media, or did they just use it as a way to publicly support the candidate that they had already decided to vote for?

Did young voters use new media to try and influence their friends to vote for a particular candidate? How did they do it? Did it work?

Do you think the way Obama used new media in his campaign will forever change the way campaigns are run?

Useful and Interesting Links

Here are a few links to various Web sites and blogs that I think are useful and/or interesting (some are older than others).

Politics/Election
Secrets of Election 2008 - Newsweek
Obama's Newest Web Presence - Office of the President-Elect
Fireside Chats in the Digital Age - Personal Democracy Forum
Barack Obama, The Social Web, & The Future of User-Generated Governance - Brian Solis

PR
Tactical Transparency - Paull Young
Public Engagement - Richard Edelman
Understanding Social Media - PRSA
Survey about Online Newsrooms & Social Media - PRSA

Misc
Shuttle Launch by Hyku

A New Day, A New Beginning

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama! It is truly a historic moment. We should embrace and celebrate, but not forget the work ahead to get this country back on its feet.

I think this song and video encompasses our time:

The Week in Technology

Here are some fun links from my RSS feeds as well as other items I've found over the past week or so that I thought were interesting.

Highlights from the SCNR:
Courtesy of Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu:
New Media, New Influencers and Implications for the PR Profession
SNCR Closing keynote: The transformational power of blogging

For Students:
Skills for Young PR Pros (From Voce Communications)

General:
Email - The New Interface
Twitter for Journalists

In Politics:
PoliticsOnline.com Covers the 2008 Election
Search Engine Use in the 08 Election
Web on Candidates

Interesting Blogs of the Week:
Philip Young - Mediations
Fun - Athens Door Guy

Just for Fun:
Student "Tweets" His Way Out of Prison

Upcoming Events: Wish I could participate in this

In other technology news, my laptop is very close to biting the dust and I've been on a search for one over the past few months. Here's my dilemma...I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 and it's served me very well and so has Dell. I have had a couple major service issues including a soda management problem and they've taken care of it through their 'Accidental Damage' coverage. Basically, I need a system that travels well, is affordable and if a PC, has XP (I don't want to deal with Vista).

Note: KS - Yes, I know...get a Mac.

Making it to Spring Break

Well, I've been quite neglectful with the blog this week trying to get through this last week before a much-needed Spring Break. I've been quite busy since the weekend's crazy pace of technology. In addition to the normal hundreds of pages of reading, writing my weekly paper, etc...I started my first experiment on YouTube this week. I was thrilled today to get into the study groups and start seeing what the young people are going to say about the videos, their political views, etc. Research can definitely be a rush...yes, I am a geek.

Over Spring Break, in addition to getting a start on my final projects and various other work, I'm going to take 5 days to go kayaking in South Carolina. Tonight starts that process when I go to the campus pool and learn how to roll, self-rescue and generally not panic in crazy conditions that we may encounter on our trip. Though I've been kayaking several times, this is really the first several day trip and only the second time I've done sea kayaking (the first time did not go well). So, Sue and I will be heading out Saturday morning and getting back on Wednesday night of next week. We have to have 3 days worth of food and water with us and we will be taking all of our gear with us as we cruise around the waters off of South Carolina. We have dubbed it "Survivor South Carolina." Here's the schedule:

So wish me luck on my little adventure and I will be sure to let everyone know how it was when I return...if I do (just kidding).

Some interesting links from my weekly reading of blogs, websites and various other web surfing:

Edelman Videos on YouTube

IABC taking the lead on the Social Media Release

Hillary makes a funny

5 New Web Apps

The Huck on SNL

I thought this skit was rather entertaining from last night's Saturday Night Live.

Thoughts on the Election

I just love the pictures they select on DrudgeReport...they love Hillary :-P

Anyway, many people have been asking me about my thoughts on the Presidential Election and wondering who I actually voted for in the GA primary. I've been reluctant to share because at heart I'm an academic and we really should manage to stay objective in our thinking. It also aides in our viewing of election materials, articles, and various other mediums we choose to study. I am by no means saying that I don't have an opinion, but I choose to exercise that opinion privately.

With that said, I would like to share some of my objective thoughts about this election season thus ar. I will refrain from making predictions because I'm neither a pundit nor an fortune teller for the American voter. I like to leave it up to the process...that's what it's there for.

The number one trend I'm most thrilled about in this election is the shear amount of involvement, discussion and engagement with politics. I love to hear people discussing politics around campus, on the bus, in coffee shops and elsewhere. No matter what you think about red and blue states, we as a nation need to continue this engagement and educating ourselves on the political process. I was so happy to see more explanations of the delegate system and how the political process works. These thoughts may be my idealism showing, but I don't think I'm in the minority either.

Another trend I think is related to the engagement is the overall lack of negativity between candidates. Though there have been examples of classic attack including the "war of words" (interesting article about that: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=cp_fpfs1pmkq14&show_article=1) and McCain's most recent comments about Obama's inexperience. However, overall, the candidates have attempted to put themselves up for election without taking down their opponents. A student asked me during a recent lecture about political advertising about how the lack of negativity would play as we went forward. My thought is cynical because I don't see it lasting as we go into the general election period. The party loyalty is important right now, but once it is Republican versus Democrat...we will most likely regress back into the typical negative attacks.

As the primaries go forward, especially with the Democrats, I think it's now important to concentrate on policy differences between Clinton and Obama. Yes, there are a lot of similarities, but also differences. These are what should make the difference...not gender, race, etc. On the subject of change...as Clinton stated in one of the debates, no matter which candidate you choose on the Democratic side, there will be change. [No bias intended].

As for McCain, I do not think he should be attempting to influence the Democratic primaries. He should work on maintaining party loyalty and focus on his choice for a VP. Also, come up with solid plan for Iraq, other than another 100 years of occupation. [A joke...no more]

In other news...I'm thrilled to see that the first search result that comes up when you Google my name is this blog :)

Super Tuesday!

Here we are...Super Tuesday. We have reached the most important day of the 2008 Presidential Election. Some people were excited about LOST coming back last week, others are anticipating a resolution of the writer's strike, but I have been teeming with excitement waiting for today's primary elections.

No matter what the pundits or polls say, it's up to the American people to choose who the candidates in the Republican and Democratic party will be this Fall.

If you are one of the following states, get out & vote: California, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, Alaska, New Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts.

Polls open in Georgia at 7 a.m. and stay open till 7 p.m.!

I look forward to updating later today :)