Schmuck Alert is a blog set up to expose cases of abuse of power against members of the media.

SCHMISSION STATEMENT: “Always Be Rollin’…” That’s what we teach ‘em at The Lenslinger Institute. So whether you’re a rent-a-cop, a shackled crackhead or just some bystander with a bad caffeine buzz, keep your meathooks to yourself. Or you could end up HERE where your lopsided drop-kicks and warbling cries of “Wolverine!” will echolong after your bitter spittle has all dried up. Don’t say we didn’t warn ya….. ”

Ruud Elmendorp is a Dutch freelance video journalist working in Africa. He is a one man show with a dvcam camera and a laptop and in his words “It’s all you need to make broadcast television.” Some of Ruud’s work is online and he has a blog for daily reading.

College Photographer of the Year Competition Announces Winners: Winners were announced Saturday, November 15th at the conclusion of judging for the 63rd College Photographer of the Year competition on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. Judges viewed 13,313 still images and 169 multimedia projects entered by 566 student photographers from 121 colleges and universities in 13 different countries.

The 63rd College Photographer of the Year is Tim Hussin of the University of Florida. The winning images are here.

I was accepted to and paid my confirmation fee to the Nova Scotia Community College Radio and Television Arts program for 2009. The course outline includes “writing, reporting, and reading the news for both radio and television. You will be active in the community -interviewing people, recording the sound and shooting the visuals, as well as writing and presenting the stories on the air. In your senior project you create a documentary about social issues and engage the community to develop real life stories.” 

I applied last year but the course was full so needless to say I’m very much looking forward to this year.

I can’t believe videojournalist.ca was still available.

Newspaper publisher and broadcaster Canwest announced Wednesday it was cutting five per cent of its workforce across the country (about 560 jobs) The cuts come as part of a streamlining of operations in the face of an economic slowdown. CanWest employs about 10,500 people in Canada and claim the cuts would save $61 million a year. Stock in the company dropped 25 cents to 90 cents and down from a high of about $7.30 11 months ago. The company, once worth billions, now has a stock market value of about $85 million. 

The more I read about the decline of major media operations the more I’m convinced being a multitasking freelancer is the way to go. I received an e-mail this week from a new media site called vjmovement.com (not online yet) and they are looking for freelance video journalists from around the gobe to start producing stories and to help create a media network for freelancers. The media industry is certainly changing course and going through an evolution for those wishing to work in the field.

Here is a zip file for 18 Canon Xh-A1 presets courtesy of dvinfo.net. The zip also contains a list for each presets function. To install a preset create a folder on the memory card titled “PRESET” (all caps) and place the preset files in it. The open the menu, select ‘CUSTOMIZE’ then ‘CUSTOM PRESET’. Now select ‘CARD - CAMERA’ from the column on the left, ‘IMPORT’ and then select the file you want to use. Choose ‘SELECT POSITION’ and the preset number then ‘EXECUTE’ and you’re good to go. Close the ‘MENU’.

I’ve updated my ‘About Me’ page and am now working on foxing all my links and archives. It’ll be awhile yet. I’ll be adding a gallery as well.

Something happened to my blogger account and my old blog died. It kept giving me a “java.net. Connect Exception: Connection timed out” error and nothing I tried could fix it. I still have an archive of everything and will post it up ASAP with links. Bummer.

So I decided to go with Wordpress. So far so good and I am liking the control panel for posting much more then Blogger.