Posts Tagged ‘blogging’
6 Years of VivirLatino – Still Causing Trouble as Latin@ Blogging Shifts
1:27 pm By Maegan La Mala · Media|VivirLatino · 6 Comments
12 Oct 2011I started today thinking about how difficult it has become to maintain VivirLatino and keep it up and running the way I want to. 6 years ago today, this site went live and it has three editors (of which I was one) and owners who had the best of intentions but who also wanted to capitalize on what was to become the “Latino internet boom”.
That was never my interest and it still isn’t. I, having already been personally blogging about my experiences as a single Rican activist mami in nyc, was and still am interested in the way life/struggle was (is) a reflection of larger social and political issues. This means that I rarely look at page stats, am a bad hustler/marketer, and have sacrificed a certain level of “success” because of my refusal to sell out to trends and/or organizations, because I don’t mind being confrontational if that means keeping it real.
6 years later, there are two editors (including me) and I own the site. My intentions, my integrity, my politics, and my passions have no changed but the face of Latino blogging has. I have witnessed a shift away from critical analysis and a move towards marketing our experiences. In the post Obama election period, I have seen the beltway (Washington d.c.) shift in terms of the level of engagement they (represented by both politicians and non-profit orgs) are willing to have with spaces like VivirLatino. We are not the “traditional” media and thus can be shut out in a way that mainstream media cannot. I have also seen a steep decline in revenue, mostly because as the recession get deeper and deeper orgs didn’t have the money so many of us independent bloggers struggled to get. As a result the field of independent (meaning not tied to an organization) Latino political/activist bloggers has gotten smaller and smaller. Dear and talented voices have gone silent (online- their work continues in other spaces) and trust me – when you are a space like VivirLatino – you need all the allies you can get.
NOI Summit Part II : The Art of Talking Past and Walking Over Immigration
8:59 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Activism|Blogs|Immigration|media justice|Netroots Nation|Pittsburgh|Politics · 2 Comments
14 Aug 2009
A disturbing trend that I saw layed out at the NOI Summit and throughout various spaces here at Netroots Nation, is how blogging/pushing for Comprehensive Immigration Reform is being framed.
For us Latino bloggers who write about immigration as a part of our lives, not as a public policy issue, we do not have the luxury of waiting for there to be a CIR bill to pick apart pedazo por pedazo. At the NOI Summit it was asked of the “immigration bloggers”, how can white mainstream progressive bloggers write about CIR in a way that engages their readership and pushes for action. The way the question is presented puts immigration not as an issue of people’s daily lives, and in some cases deaths, pero rather as a way to define who are acceptable political targets on Capital Hill. Cuz for real, my vecinos in Corona, Queens, aren’t thinking about Congressman Schumer with his talk of illegals as their champion. They don’t want to be Luis Ramirez.
Read more…
NOI Summit Part I : The Art of Coming to the Table
9:37 am By Maegan La Mala · Blogs|Internet|media justice|Netroots Nation|Pittsburgh · 3 Comments
13 Aug 2009
Gracias a America’s Voice I am in Pittsburgh for the Netroots Nation conference. After a almost full day here I have many thoughts on Netroots Nation and the role of independent activist bloggers within the wider blogosphere or netroots, if you will. Pero even before that, I was invited to be part of a summit hosted by the New Organizing Institute . The summit specifically joined LGBT and immigrant bloggers to sit at the mesa. The conversation included some people whom I consider not just co-luchadrores pero amigos as well.
The conversation was centered on how we can cross support each others’ efforts especially in the context of marriage equity and comprehensive immigration reform. Unfortunately, especially in the mainstream progressive blogosphere, these issues are still viewd as mutually exclusive, as if there are no gay undocumented families. DreamActivist talks on this intersectionality specifically.
What was more interesting for me personally, given my 16 year history of activism on various levels and in various mediums, was an issue of language if you will. Semantics. Word choice. It’s a theme that has reared its head here in Pittsburgh a few times. For example, is calling a legislator pushing for a specific legislation to be passed the moves of an organizer? Is that the activist thing to do? Is a desire to work with the Hill activist? What about this huge move towards list building as a strategy? Can activist bloggers also be wed to mainstream orgs and maintain legitimacy? Can you be both outsider and insider?
Netroots Nation Blogger Panel Online!
11:58 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Events|Internet|Politics|Texas · Comments Off
21 Jul 2008For many of us independent Latino bloggers, going to Netroots Nation wasn’t an option for financial reasons. While I take issue with a conference that claims to be changing the face of progressive politics while pricing independent political bloggers out, the fact remains that conversations happen in these spaces that we need to be a part of.
XicanoPwr, via Matt Ortega, posted a video recording of the “Our ‘Dos Centavos’: Strategies For Latino Bloggers.” panel. The panel tackled issues of importance to the Latino blogomundo including why we blog, the issues we blog about, and our (in)visibility.
Latinos del Mundo : VivirLatino Wants You (to write for us)
12:00 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · VivirLatino · Comments Off
25 Jun 2008
Yeah, that’s right, we’re looking at you. Ever read VivirLatino and say, “I could do that!” or wanted to write about an issue impacting the Latino community where you are? Bueno, now’s your chance. VivirLatino is looking for some bloggers to help keep up with all that is happening!
Contact us via our handy contact form. Leave us a comment. Link to your blog. Send us a carrier pigeon. Ok, not the last one, but the point is that you contact us. So we can continue to make VivirLatino grow, together.
Death by Blogging
11:51 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Health · Comments Off
8 Apr 2008
What exactly is the price we bloggers pay to work in our robes? Death!!!
They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece–not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.
A growing workforce of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.
Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.
Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.
Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion, and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.
SF blogger becomes longest held journalist
5:14 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Blogs|Controversia|Justice|Media|San Francisco · 2 Comments
6 Feb 2007
We get a lot of comments on this blog when people don’t like what we write, saying that “real journalists” would try harder to show both sides, check facts more diligently, not be biased, be more objective, etc. etc. I chuckle when I read these comments because neither Maegan or myself think we are traditional “journalists” and we don’t pretend to objective either.
We are a lot of other things, among them blogger, writer, artist, business people, parent, activist and a host of other words can describe us. We’re not journalists in the traditional sense. We are regular people who care enough about something (Latino issues) to post about it every day, and state our opinions. BUT, we are in fact the media. Right?
If a controversy that has unfolded right here in San Francisco is to be a case study on that statement, the government probably doesn’t share that sentiment. Today San Francisco blogger Josh Wolf becomes the journalist (there’s that word again) who has spent the most time in prison for refusing to hand over information to the U.S. Government. While his friends and family held a press conference at our City Hall this afternoon to rally support for his release, Josh sat in a Federal prison in Dublin, California, all because the government doesn’t buy that he deserves the journalist’s right to withhold information.
Immigration, blogging and the power of media
3:25 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Immigration|Movies|New York City · 1 Comment
21 Mar 2006
My friend Oso pointed me in the direction of a very intriguing documentary project being developed in the Bronx which proposes to explore how using social mediums such as blogs affects the lives of new immigrants:
What happens when immigrants in the Bronx start blogging? Can social media help people communicate better with friends and family back home? Can it help communities sustain themselves? The Bronx Blog Project is a multimedia documentary about community, immigration, homesickness, and technology. Focusing on the experiences of a handful of ESL students and utilizing video and the Internet, the project documents the effects of new communication technologies on people looking for better, cheaper ways to communicate to friends and family both in the United States and their home countries, and wishing to develop and maintain new communities in the U.S.
Hola!
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
About | Advertise with us | Contact | Twitter
blog advertising is good for you
blog advertising is good for you
- Scrying Nicki Minaj, Stupid Hoe, and #Afrofutures | Nuñez Daughter: [...] forest of things that seem to matter a lot–like fingers waving in presidential faces [...]
- Karen: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/09/120109fa_fact_auletta [...]
- Karen: I just read this about Rubio. Let's see the GOP make him a VP nominee. LOL http://www.democraticu [...]
- Martes Media Minute : Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Medicaid Mama y Midwife Victory, Cervical Cancer Awareness month, & Mala’s Mami Closeup, | VivirLatino: [...] last week’s liveblog of a conversation on cervical cancer and Latin@s, Bianca Laureano s [...]
- Emiliano: thanks for your reviews. i feel like you tell it like you really feel. [...]
- Sexy Singing and Scary Primetime TV Latino Stereotypes : Glee & The River
- Explaining the Sudden Hiatus
- Eye on the Florida Primary : Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Most Anti-Immigrant of All?
- Live Blog/Tweet of Obama’s SOTU Address Tonight 8:45 EST
- Martes Media Minute : Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Medicaid Mama y Midwife Victory, Cervical Cancer Awareness month, & Mala’s Mami Closeup,
- VL Pelicula Giveaway!
- Today at 1 pm EST : Conversation on Latinas and Cervical Cancer
- Today in Latin@ History : Birthday of Martha P. Cotera
- Mistaking Immigration Proposals for Policy in an Election Year
- Casa Blanca Camino 2012: DREAMing of Hypocrisy in Iowa
