Time Inc. is laying people off. Gannett, the owner of 85 newspapers, is laying off 10% of its workforce. Newspapers are seeing 4.6% reduction in
circulation.

What can they do about it, and what the hell does this have to do with Silent Star Wars, a short film by some dude named Geir in Norway?

Contrary to what a lot of new media “evangelists” say, traditional media sources are not dead. If you checked the links I referred to, they are all traditional media sources and I contend that the sensationalist and somewhat incestuous nature of the blogosphere ensures that traditional media sources indeed stay afloat. However, anyone who’s spent anytime in the blogosphere at all appreciates that media is evolving. Readers can add feedback, ask questions, and actually get to know each other. In these very confusing times, such a feedback loop is useful, fun and even comforting to everyone.

People engaged in new media contend that watching TV is “simple”, but I’m sorry, there is a lot of very reputable content on TV and in news publications. People will flock to wherever the most valid content is. Period.

Traditional media sources often get great content and access to people a regular blogger wouldn’t, but it often feels as if they are making silent films when they could be making talkies. They have the means to deliver engaging as well as interactive content–they just don’t. They get access to all sorts of influential people that they show you in their glass cases, even though the technology that allows us to interact with these people is already there.

When talkies first came out, some movie makers and actors embraced them. Others never made the adjustment and paid the price by never getting work again. Interactive media is new, but you’ll have to figure it out.

So my message to traditional media outlets is this: quit making Silent Star Wars. It’s a great film but the talkie version is much cooler, especially when Darth Vader speaks.

**a note: Geir, your video is very clever and very cool, but if I’d never seen Star Wars before, I’d have to pick Lucas’s version. Sorry.**

When Lisa Goddard from the Capital Area Food Bank first told me that hunger was unacceptable, I kindly agreed with her and grabbed a Clif Bar to munch on. But then I realized that she was talking about the thousands of people who are on food assistance right here in Austin. Here are some statistics from the Capital Area Food Bank website that will blow your mind:

There’s More Need Than You’d Think
* Nearly one in five adults and one in four children in Texas is hungry.
* 41,000 children under the age of 18 in Travis County are confronted with food insecurity every day.
* 82% of Food Bank Partner Agency recipients are food insecure. 49% of recipients experience outright hunger. (Source: Hunger in America 2006: Central Texas Report, in association with America’s Second Harvest)
* 61% of Austin Independent School District (AISD) students are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Austin is EXPENSIVE
* 76% of households receiving assistance from CAFB Partner Agencies report incomes below the federal poverty level. (Source: Hunger in America 2006: Central Texas Report, in association with America’s Second Harvest)
* 106,930 (12.6%) of Travis County individuals live below the Federal poverty level ($18,850 for a family of four). (Source: Austin Community Survey, 2004)
* The annual income needed for a Travis County family of four without employee sponsored health insurance to “afford” to live in the Austin area is $53,080. That’s 257% above the Federal poverty level. (Source: CPPP.org, The Family Budget Estimator Project)
* Austin continues to have the highest cost of living in the state of Texas, exceeding housing costs in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth.

Kids and the Elderly Are Hungry. How Messed Up is That?
* While the child poverty rate in Texas is 23.2%, for the CAFB service area, 35% of the household members receiving food are children. (Source: Hunger in America 2006: Central Texas Report, in association with America’s Second Harvest)
* While 12.4% of Texans in poverty are elderly, only 7% of households receiving food through CAFB are elderly. (Source: Hunger in America 2006: Central Texas Report, in association with America’s Second Harvest)

September is Hunger Action Month. Personally, I think every month should be Hunger Action Month, because there is enough food in this world for people to not go hungry and being hungry really sucks. But alas, now is the time when we show people how important this cause really is.

Lisa and a bunch of cool people in Austin are planning a Ham Up Tweetup to get food, and in particular protein, to feed the 21 Central Texas counties that CAFB helps. Follow Lisa on Twitter and at her blog for more updates on how you can help, and don’t forget to change your avatar and upload it to the Flickr group to show people that Hunger is Unacceptable.