Chideo comes to CitySquare

Chideo provides an effective platform for non-profit leaders, as well as celebrities, speak up for their causes. 

Not long ago, Chideo added a podcast feature.  Check out my interview with Drew Hamilton here or here. 

Thanks, Drew and Chideo! 

Social media and isolation

I remember well the first time I rode a New York City subway train. 


The scene looked about like this photo. 

No cell phones. 

No iPads. 

No electronic notebooks of any kind.

Just a sea of newspapers attended to by intent, silent, isolated readers apparently lost in worlds of their own as they tried to make sense of the news of the day. 

Lots of people criticize the new forms of media available to us today.  Often we hear that community suffers thanks to the constant availability of information and our connection to it.  We're told that Facebook, Twitter, email and the rest compromise our connections to one another. 

I expect there is some truth in such observations. 

But, then again, the real challenge remains as to how we use media.  We can connect or disconnect.  We can decide to engage our fellows via new and amazingly fast forms of media that actually advance the interests of community, or we can turn away into our own worlds defined by isolation of our own making. We've witnessed the youth of the world unite, organize and bring radical change to society and culture very, very quickly. 

"Poor people" find themselves cut off from many of the advantages of new media, but that is changing, thankfully.  Maybe one of the best investments we could make would be to bring everyone into the new and rapidly changing world of digital connection. 

Before making that first trip to New York City, I recall being coached by veterans to the experience to avoid direct eye contact with people on the streets and in the subway system.  I was sort of set up for not connecting. 


You know what I did, don't you? 


I bought The New York Times and blended in!

New Community Media Resource

They are among the most iconic names of DFW TV news:  Tracy Rowlett, Troy Dungan, Iola (Eye-Oh-la) Johnson, Scott Murray, Gary Cogill, Robert Riggs, Phyllis Watson and Jeff Brady.  

Starting October 1st, they will lead a team of veteran journalists united in a new one-hour morning talk show on KTXD-TV Channel 47 called "The Texas Daily."

The idea is to produce a smart news program with familiar faces who can put the news headlines in perspective and offer opinions for the Baby Boomer generation, an over-40 audience that's tired of  the wrecks, rain and robberies covered by most local newscasts.

For the first time, we'll have a conversation with commentary about what's happening in North Texas, and what matters. 

Jeff Brady will host the program weekday mornings from 8 - 9am. More than a dozen other journalists will join him on a rotating basis in the KTXD studio (in Addison) to provide opinion and perspective. 

So tune in to 'The Texas Daily' on Channel 47 - starting Monday October 1st at 8am!