Brindle Media

Archive for the ‘baby boomers’ Category

“Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who get their news from the Daily Show!” exclaimed an acquaintance I saw at a BBQ this weekend.

Yes, I admit it. I get a lot of my information about what’s going on in the world from Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert along with Google News, daily email updates from our local Hearst Corp. newspaper, a weekly business-focused paper and CNN, our local Time-Warner Cable all-news channel, the local NPR affiliate, Don Imus’ morning show on WABC-AM, New York (online) and the CBS Sunday Morning show. Rarely, if ever, do I watch a national or local TV newscast. To be honest, they’re not even on my radar.

I also read the local Hearst newspaper on a daily basis, TIME magazine, Business Week, The New Yorker, U.S. News & World Report and Esquire.

I like that on Jon Stewart’s show nothing’s sacred. He mocks all hypocrites whether or not he’s on their side. Stewart will also engage in intelligent discussions with guests with whom he disagrees politically. William Kristol, Bill O’Reilly and John Bolton immediately come to mind.

I get concerned when people tell me that they only watch Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, read The New York Times and listen exclusively to NPR or folks who only watch Fox News and Bill O’Reilly and who listen exclusively to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on the radio. Rather than developing a broader perspective,
these people intentionally limit their input to reinforce one political viewpoint and that can be dangerous in a democracy.

It’s an interesting paradox that when there were fewer media outlets and less choice, we were exposed to many different ideas which we considered irrelevant or with which we disagreed. Now, in this age of virtually unlimited information sources, we can narrowly control the information to which we are exposed and which can reinforce our prejudices.

You can subscribe to my blog at http://buzz4boomers.blogspot.com

Today marks the start of the 2009 Saratoga Season which is a major cultural event for those of us who live in New York State’s Capital Region equidistant between New York City, Boston and Montreal. Unlike at most race tracks in America, thoroughbred horse racing at the historic Saratoga Race Course is a family affair where moms, dads and kids outnumber the cigar-chomping Oscar Madison-type old men and picnic near the paddock

Tim Wilkin, who’s a sports columnist for Hearst’s Albany Times Union, listed some of the questions and concerns regarding this year’s Saratoga Season in today’s paper:

• Super filly Rachel Alexandra working out in the morning at the
Oklahoma Track.

• Can trainer Todd Pletcher recapture the magic?: Pletcher tries to
reclaim perch as dominant Spa trainer.

• Rain: The spring and early summer has had lousy weather. Can
Saratoga catch a break?

• Bird is the word: Could have Derby winner Mine That Bird and
Belmont winner Summer Bird in Travers. And Rachel Alexandra…?

• The house: If all three come to the Travers, how many people are
going to come watch?

• Great 2-year-olds have run at the Spa in the past. Perhaps the 2010
Derby winner is in the house.

• One for the old man: 8-year-old Commentator goes for his third
Whitney win.

• Twilight racing: Two cards this year. More people like it than don’t.

• No clear cut choice to win jockey riding title: Alan Garcia, Johnny V.,
Edgar Prado just three who could take it all.

Read more about this year’s Saratoga Season at www.timesunion.com/sports/

With all the talk about Twitter, I decided to sign up several weeks ago. To be honest, I still haven’t found much value in it.

With Facebook, I can read someone’s post, respond to it and see the response. If I write something and post it on Facebook, I get a message in my email box when someone responds. Neither of those things happen with Twitter.

In fact, after several weeks of trying, I still haven’t figured out how to respond to someone’s post on Twitter. It’s just not obvious to me.

If you decide to join Twitter, you can follow me at www.Twitter.com/brindlemedia

I’m creating this blog to help those of us born between 1946 and 1964 to cope with the rapid changes that are happening all around us. Remember at the end of the last century when a big question was what we were going to do with all of our spare time? I don’t know about you but even though I left my last “official” job over two years ago, I don’t find that I have a lot of spare time.

One of the challenges I’ve encountered is that I don’t have a college degree. When I was 13, I decided that I wanted to be in the radio business. During my sophomore year at Northeastern University in Boston, I was offered a job in broadcasting and I was learning so much and having so much fun that I left school and pursued my career. Over the next 40 years, I had a successful communications management career in places like Providence, Albany, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York working for companies like NBC, SFX, AM/FM and MTV Networks.

Despite not having a college degree, I was also invited to teach a communications course at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, served as a faculty advisor at Siena College and was certified by the New York State Education Department as a licensed private school teacher. Nevertheless, I’m finding many organizations refusing to even consider me for employment because I don’t have a college degree. I’ve also noticed that many of the online job application forms that HR departments are using to screen candidates no longer include “Some college” as an option.

Have you encountered this problem? Have you figured out a way to deal with it?

Tell me about it.

Language is a great tool for making people feel either special or stupid.

If you’re feeling intimidated by the words being used to describe various aspects of New Media, try to isolate the definition to something that has meaning for you.

“Populate” basically means to add your database or contact list.

To “mash” means to combine dissimilar elements to create something new and different.

I know that I still start feeling overwhelmed when reading social media blogs and being confronted with a list of terms I’ve never seen before. That’s OK. Just think of the process as learning a new language and find a way to reward yourself for your continuing education.