Rabbi Myer S. Kripke talked about Warren Buffett

Myer S. Kripke, Omaha rabbi and philanthropist, talks about investing with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Rabbi Kripke died in 2014 at age 100. This interview with UNO Professor Jeremy Lipschultz and friend Jenni Schlossman in 2011 at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home focused on Kripke's family friendship with the Buffett family.

Online Communities and Social Media Literacy

Read my new entry in The Huffington Post reporting Howard Rheingold's view on the need for balance between production and consumption of culture. Click here for more...

Social Media Communication (2015)

The Huffington Post, ChicagoNow & YouTube

Thank you for visiting my site.  You can read my most recent commentary in the The Huffington Post and ChicagoNow. It's been a busy year.  Watch our documentary about Warren Buffett! Anchorman Mort Crim is narrator for this unique look at the Wizard of Wall Street.

Rewind 1978: Vague standards, technology and broadcast indecency

The United States Supreme Court oral arguments on fleeting expletives -- namely "fuck" and "shit" -- on the broadcast airwaves represent an ongoing legal challenge since the 1970s. Back then, the justices split 5-4 on the side of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and its rules designed to protect children. Congress pressured the FCC, and it responded. By the 1990s, amid Howard Stern and shock radio, courts upheld the channeling of profanity to late-night hours, presumably giving parents a fighting chance to insulate their small kids from the offensive language. However, it was never clear that carving a "safe harbor" of overnight hours protected the First Amendment rights of adults to see and hear unregulated free speech. Enter the Internet. By the late 1990s, the Supreme Court protected Internet indecency, thus leaving over-the-air broadcasting, as some called it, "second-class citizens." By the time of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, a rear-end shower shot on a crime drama, and the live awards show and sports broadcast fleeting expletives, it was becoming clear that our Internet kids probably did not need protecting that might have been possible in the 1970s limited broadcast world. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York twice concluded that Fox Television had it right. The FCC essentially turned heels on its original policy that allowed for live broadcast fleeting expletives. Two of the three judges seemed to go further in recognizing that the Supreme Court had it wrong back in 1978. As I wrote in my 2008 book, Broadcast and Internet Indecency: Defining Free Speech, "Broadcast and Internet indecency are fringe speech at the edge of social tolerance, and this is why we can understand free expression values through the social conflicts that routinely emerged." So, the oral arguments are the latest social and legal artifact allowing us to see social values amid a changing technological landscape.

A future of news 3.0 in Denver

As a major October snow storm headed into the Denver area on Oct. 25, reporter Kevin Torres and his live truck operator headed outside the newsroom on assignment to cover impact, which included accidents. For decades, live local television news produced predictable content. What is new and exciting at 9 News is the blending of backpack journalism, mobile media technologies and social media strategies.

As snow fell in advance of a 9 p.m. news live report, Livestream viewers of Torres' channel  went along with him behind-the-scenes. Much as Erving Goffman might have described it, the video stream and chat room offered a "backstage" glimpse into the workings of TV news. Torres became noticeably tense, as his truck operator was unable to bounce a signal into the station. With all of the drama of reality TV, our viewpoint was carried back inside the truck for a quick drive to the Golden, Colorado exit.

Although I met Torres last year at Omaha 10-10-10, it still felt like parasocial interaction when I typed into the chat room that the video stream had an Apollo 13 feel and sound. My duct tape joke didn't go over that well, although Torres did let us know that this was an older live truck. Once on air from Golden, tension subsided. The 10 p.m. live shot went off on time and with professional ease. We could monitor the backstage streaming video, as well as the on-air broadcast at 9News. After Torres finished, he was back with his online audience for a quick wrap-up and goodbye for the night.

Torres is willing to share with   online fans most of his side of cellphone calls to the station, which ended once by unfortunately dropping what he said was a new phone. This live and unrehearsed aspect to the online stream helped magnify authenticity and strengthen engagement because viewers see  Torres' engaging off-air personality. He also let us know that he was checking facebook, Twitter and email at different points in and out of the broadcasts.

Few reporters and stations are sharing this much about what happens away from the bright lights of TV cameras. I applaud Torres and his station for experimenting with this innovative social media approach. It offers the opportunity to drive audience traffic online, on the air and back online. While this may not be the future of local news, it is an attractive real-time model that follows the rules of computer-mediated communication: identity (branding), interaction (two-way) and community-building (online). If Web 2.0 demonstrated the tools of social media, Web 3.0 will be about refining communication.