abouttheuptake´s Profile
The UpTake
The UpTake is a citizen-fueled, online video news gathering organization.
Since its inception in July 2007, The UpTake has advanced the frontier of news gathering through social media.
TheUpTake.org is our online news channel focused on politics and the media. The site is built on a social networking and video publishing platform that allows us to scale our coverage and organize our citizen journalists. We use cutting edge technologies like cell phone cameras loaded with live broadcasting software to instantly publish our reports to the web.
Our goal is to empower everyday people to become citizen journalists.
In an era of draconian cuts to news organizations of every type, citizen journalism is more important than ever. Citizen journalists are empowered to report and record news from their perspective. The UpTake Institute, our training arm, will support and help focus their efforts.
In the last year, The UpTake's groundbreaking coverage has been reported on by the Associated Press, the BBC, CNN and many local Minnesota news outlets and sites. Our videos have been seen by millions of viewers, and citizen journalists in 22 states have submitted stories to us.
Our work is distributed simultaneously on multiple content and social networks . You can also find us on:
Our goal is to empower everyday people to become citizen journalists.
In an era of draconian cuts to news organizations of every type, citizen journalism is more important than ever. Citizen journalists are empowered to report and record news from their perspective. The UpTake Institute, our training arm, will support and help focus their efforts.
In the last year, The UpTake's groundbreaking coverage has been reported on by the Associated Press, the BBC, CNN and many local Minnesota news outlets and sites. Our videos have been seen by millions of viewers, and citizen journalists in 22 states have submitted stories to us.
Our work is distributed simultaneously on multiple content and social networks . You can also find us on:
Chris Dykstra, Board Chair
Chris has more than 20 years of progressively responsible business experience, the last 15 of which have been spent in software and web development. He’s a founding partner in Warecorp, a web and software services company with development centers in the former Soviet Union. Warecorp balances traditional web and software engagements against its mission of serving as an incubator for socially conscious technology startups and progressive activism. The first of these startups, Zanby, is a social networking and organizational platform. He lives on a lake in Minnesota, has a kayak and a canoe, 4 boys, 3 cats and an undying love of soccer. // chris.dykstra at theuptake dot org // Twitter
Michael McIntee, Executive Producer
Michael is a former network TV news executive with 29 years of broadcasting experience. He started and ran All News Channel – a 24 hour TV news channel on DirecTV and managed and syndicated “First Business,” the number one-rated morning business program. He has also created and supervised programming for cable networks USA, VH1, and Lifetime. He is the founder of TimeScape Productions, a company that produces online videos and podcasts and manages user-generated video for magazines, associations and other organizations. Michael is an expert producer, writer, video editor and occasional fill-in host on Air America Minnesota. He has a fondness for new technology but insists he’s not a geek // mike.mctintee at theuptake dot org// Twitter
Jason Barnett, Executive Director
Jason Barnett is a founder and Executive Director of The UpTake http://theuptake.org/ an online video media organization known for it's ground-breaking coverage of the 2008 Republican National Convention and 2008 Presidential primary and general election coverage. Before starting The UpTake, Jason has been an entrepreneur and self-employed artist, working for 12 years with product design and collectible manufacturing companies. In his volunteer life, he’s been a progressive activist and online organizer. Jason helped develop and lead DFL Links, and online organizing and outreach organization for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party of Minnesota, for which he was named 2006 DFL Volunteer of the Year. Through his work developing online strategies for progressive candidates, among other efforts, Jason has developed important relationships within Minnesota’s emerging New Media infrastructure. He lives in Saint Paul with his wife, daughter and son, and is a stay-at-home dad, feeling strongly that someone needs to be home to protect the cats from the two small humans. // jason.barnett at theuptake dot org // Twitter
Chuck Olsen, Chief Correspondent
Chuck is the founder of Minnesota Stories, called one of the best videoblogs by the New York Times and winner of two Vloggies Awards. He is the producer-director of “Blogumentary,” a documentary feature film about the rise of political and personal blogs. His work has screened at the Walker Art Center, Harvard University, and on renegade laptops around the world. In politics, Chuck has helped the campaigns of Rep. Keith Ellison and Sen. John Edwards use online video successfully. Chuck is the Minneapolis correspondent for Rocketboom and works as a freelance producer, videographer, editor and educator. The rest of the time, Chuck serves as a scratching post for his cat, Mooki, who has his own videoblog but is not running for office. // chuck.olsen at theuptake dot org // Twitter
Noah Kunin, Senior Political Correspondent
Noah is the founder of Blanked-Out, a political blog known for its political analysis and first to file coverage of the I-35W Bridge Collapse. Noah has an eclectic background in genetic engineering, anti-Iraq War and environmental activism and non-profit technology management. In 2006, after working on the 2004 Presidential race and the 2005 Minneapolis Mayoral race, he joined an esteemed list of former political operatives turned journalists. He is much happier at lampooning media spin than enabling it. // noah.kunin at theuptake dot org // Twitter
Tom Elko, Correspondent
Tom Elko is a Twin Cities-based journalist focused on environmental and political reporting. Tom is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and alumni of Michigan State University's Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute. Twitter
Corrine McDermid, Colorado Director
Corrine L. McDermid had a free-range education at a public school of choice. This left her with itchy feet, and so she loaded up on student loans and went to an international school for a BA in English, where she spent one school year in Nairobi, Kenya, and one school year in Mexico City, Mexico.
After making a 45 minute documentary during her AmeriCorps service, she went to the University of Westminster in London for an MA in Journalism, which focused on the emerging field of videojournalism. She currently makes no fixed income working with her alma mater free-range k12 school, freelancing for Rocky Mountain PBS, and committing acts of journalism and spreading the gospel of citizen journalism as the Colorado Director of TheUpTake.org. Though she has an address in Denver, she feels most at home on planes, busses, trains, boats, ships, helicopters, etc., with the sounds of many languages in her ears. Online she is generally found under clmcdermid. // corrine.mcdermid at theuptake dot org // Twitter
Jennifer Whigham, Communications
Jennifer's been a waitress, an actress, a music critic, a senate campaign techie, and, briefly, the lead singer of an 80s cover band. Combined with her Political Science schooling and political junkie family, she thinks this probably qualifies her to do just about anything. Or at least fake her way through it. // jennifer.whigham at theuptake dot org
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