1998 Live Interactive Video Series

Supplementary Information for "Preparing for New Media Careers"


On this page, you will find guest biographies, and links to sites which they suggest as being of interest.


Guest Biographies

John Whitehead jfw@cisco.com is an Information Technology Engineer and Technology Analyst with Cisco Systems. As part of the Advanced Technology group, he researches new networked and multimedia technologies and recommends technology solutions for Information Systems groups within Cisco.

Prior to Cisco Systems, John founded and was the technical director for WRAL OnLine, the 24x7 news Web site of WRAL-TV the CBS affiliate in Raleigh, NC. Previously, John researched the intersection of sound, psychology, and computers at the Human Interface Technology Laboratory of the University of Washington in Seattle. There he created virtual environments to experiment with presenting sound in interactive, visual ways. John's educational background includes a B.S. in psychology and course work in computer science and media studies from Duke University. He has performed music, worked as an audio engineer, and owned a digital sound editing business.

John Whitehead's suggested links


Bruce Koon BKoon@sjmercury.com
Managing Editor, Mercury Center
San Jose Mercury News

Mr. Koon heads the editorial team of Mercury Center, the award-winning online publishing unit of the San Jose Mercury News. As managing editor, he is responsible for all editorial content for Mercury Center, which publishes on the World Wide Web (http://www.mercurycenter.com).

Since joining Mercury Center in February, 1995, Mr. Koon has created such popular Web features as Good Morning Silicon Valley, a daily high-tech business report, Talent Scout, a high-tech careers site, and Just Go, a San Francisco Bay Area entertainment site. He has also led the effort within the San Jose Mercury News to integrate the online news team with the print newsroom.

Mr. Koon's new media work also includes guest faculty, American Press Institute, Reston, Va., "Managing Online News Operations," April 27-30, 1997 and March 19-22, 1996; guest faculty, Poytner Institute for Media Studies, St. Petersberg, Fla., "Interactive Media," Oct. 20-23, 1996, and Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 1995; presenter, "Imagina 98 Round Table: Who Will Control Information," organized in collaboration with Le Monde Diplomatique," Monte Carlo, Monaco, "March 5, 1998; Los Medios de Comunicacion en Internet," University of Navarre, Pamplona, Spain, Dec. 16-17, 1996; Society of Newspaper Designers World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, "New Media," Sept. 9, 1995; and guest editor, "24 Hours in Cyberspace: Painting on the Walls of the Digital Cave," San Francisco, Feb. 8, 1996.

In the fall of 1995, he co-founded the San Francisco Free Press, Internet Edition, an online newspaper that published for two weeks during the city's newspaper strike.

Mr. Koon began his journalism career as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner in 1973. In 1975, he moved to the National Observer, a Dow Jones general interest weekly based in the Washington, D.C. area. He returned to California in 1977 as a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal in the Los Angeles bureau. In 1980, he became a staff reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 1982 he was named business editor of the Oakland Tribune. While at the Tribune, he also worked on Gannett's USA Today prototype team. He returned to the San Francisco Examiner in 1984 where he worked for 11 years, during which time he was business editor, real estate editor and associate editor. As associate editor, he was responsible for new media and special sections.

In addition to his newspaper career, Mr. Koon has taught at the Department of Journalism, San Francisco State University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of The Daily Californian, the independent student newspaper at the University of California, Berkeley, which he attended in 1969-1971. He was president of the San Francisco Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association in 1996.

Bruce Koon's suggested links


Zsoka Barkacs, 3D animator and digital artist, was also featured in this broadcast Her work can be viewed at ZsokaStudio http://www.zsokastudio.com/


Links

Broadcast sponsors


John Whitehead's suggestions:
WRAL OnLine: http://www.wral-tv.com The home page of the CBS affiliate in Raleigh, NC, which indicates the Web site's relation to the television station (by the TV-screen images and references to on-air broadcasts) while highlighting the features often unavailable on the television broadcast (a variety of subjects, current weather conditions, and visitor surveys all immediately available).
WR AL OnLine documentary "Military Medical Malpractice: Who Pays the Price?" http://www.wral-tv.com/news/wral/5investigates/1997/1005-womack-part1/ This demonstrates how an investigative reporter can enhance a story by including some of the original, unfiltered sources of information.
WRA L OnLine documentary "Crossing the Tracks" http://www.wral-tv.com/news/wral/documentaries/1998/0818-racism-docu/ This shows how people can read a thought-provoking documentary (which is presented less linearly than the broadcast version) and can then contribute to a discussion area.
WRAL OnLine Weather http://www.wral-tv.com/weather/ This demonstrates how WRAL personalizes their Web site by emphasizing their on-air personalities and enhances the television broadcast by offering more information than can be shown in a news program.
Cisco Education Network http://www.cisco.com/edu/ Find out about Cisco's education programs, see upcoming events, learn about using the Internet in schools, and find out about starting a Cisco Networking Academy.

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Bruce Koon's suggested URLs:
Good Morning Silicon Valley http://www/mercurycenter.com/gmsv/
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Conference: Excellence in Journalism and the New Media: The Online Community Takes a Critical Look at Itself http://journalism.berkeley.edu/resources/newmedia/conference/program.htm
Freedom Forum http://www.freedomforum.org/
Freedom Forum Technology http://www.freedomforum.org/technology/welcome.asp
Journalism teachers urged to tame technology http://www.freedomforum.org/newsstand/forum_news/1998/05/f.asp
Merc News may go back to free info http://www.freedomforum.org/education/1998/4/20techsem.asp
The National Association of America's The Digital Age http://www.digitaledge.org/index.html
American Journalism Review's Digital Feed http://www.newslink.org/ajrwww.html
Net Gain: Journalism's Challenges in an Interactive Age http://www.newslink.org/ajrjdmain.html
Steve Outing: Planetary News http://www.planetarynews.com/
Columbia Journalism Review http://www.cjr.org/
Poynter Institute http://www.poynter.org/
Reporter.org http://www.reporter.org/

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