Girls in Tech “Journalism 2.0″ Panel: Speak Loudly and Carry a Big Stick
by Kara Swisher
Posted on August 13, 2009 at 6:07 AM PT
Last night, BoomTown moderated a really interesting panel for an organization called Girls in Tech, titled “Journalism 2.0 RoundTable.”
Girls in Tech describes itself as a “social network enterprise focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent & influential women.”
With those lofty requirements–combined with the fact that I was a girl when we had yet to land on the moon–I have no idea what I was doing there.
In any case, it was held in the San Francisco offices of MySpace and covered such topics such as: How blogging and citizen journalism have changed the landscape, what works in the highly connected digital media space, and, of course, the ups and down of being a woman in the male-choked tech industry in Silicon Valley.
The panelists included former San Francisco Chronicle tech editor Deborah Gage, ZDNet’s Jennifer Leggio, Ubergizmo Editor Eliane Fiolet, VentureBeat’s Camille Ricketts and TechieDiva’s Gina Hughes.
It was a lively discussion, with highlights such as Fiolet telling a hilarious story about an encounter of the irksome kind at a gaming conference and jokingly recommending violence as a solution, and Hughes talking about the sometimes trollish commenters of Yahoo (YHOO) when she blogged there.
Overall takeaway: Be loud, be proud and ignore all the noise. That, or make some more–and, preferably, via Twitter.
I also did a short interview at the event with social media blogger and PR guy Brian Solis about his latest book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.”
Natch, here is a lovely video I did–interviewing Solis, Hughes and Ricketts–which also includes yet another cruel “no comment” from Facebook’s talk-to-the-hand PR terror Brandee Barker:
Comments
It’s about time tech journalism catch up with the rest of the trade. My own branch of journalism – photojournalism – was the first to welcome women into practice. Born in 1870, Jessie Tarbox Beals was the first well-known woman photojournalist, and many followed. The proved successful because they did the work and did it well.
Let’s hope tech journalism becomes as enlightened 109 years later.
Posted by Eric Welch at August 13th, 2009 at 8:01 amIf Facebook ever grows up they will be even worse than Microsoft (hard to imagine). I dread the day.
Posted by Mac Beach at August 13th, 2009 at 10:07 amThanks for taking the time to be there- we love your snarkiness
(meant in the most positive way possible!)
Posted by Jennifer Kutz at August 14th, 2009 at 11:53 amThe event was great, thanks for taking the time to do it! Your sense of humor made it all the more fun
Posted by melissa rzeppa at August 14th, 2009 at 2:25 pmGreat event, thanks for making the panel insightful & entertaining! Check out my takeaways @ http://tiny.cc/aHCgY
Posted by Colleen Wickwire at August 17th, 2009 at 10:28 am