Generating income is one of my objectives, going to college (finally) is another. Perhaps my basic plan is unrealistic, but what I'm hoping for is to fill holes in my largely self-taught base of knowledge and correct flaws in my writing skills while simutaneously getting my feet wet in online journalism.
Building a reputation and audience is something I have some experience in, however I went about it the wrong way. My biggest mistake was assuming concepts such as free speech and legitimate criticism were respected by the media establishment. Perhaps in the realm of politics it is, but I can tell you from personal experience when it comes to sports entertainment and marketing that is definitely not the case.
Here's the story. After a few years on the message boards dedicated to a certain segment of professional sports decided to built a YouTube site. It lasted for little over a year, in that period it achieved 970,000+ views and developed a worldwide audience. In order to take this interest to the next level I registered a domain name and began spreading the word. Some of the content was self-produced, some rebroadcast of archives that'll likely never see public distribution again (not deemed commercially viable), but the material that really drew MediaGiant's ire was video evidence of pandered to the interest of one very powerful partner while chocking off growth opportunity among a competing sport on the same network. Essentially from the top of the decisionmaking chain to the production level they did everything possible to kill off a sport who's history with the network stretches back decades. I exposed their agenda while doing what they intentionally failed at - promoting the sport. A deeply entrenched circle of corrupt journalist didn't appreciate my work either. It's amazing what people will do when careers are tied to corporate business agendas.
During a critical point in the contract renewal process between the sport's sanctioning body and the network rumor on the web pointed to serious disagreements between the two sides. The very week talks concluded with the sport taking the majority of their material elsewhere someone inside the MediaGiant stepped on me like a bug. Copyright violation was the excuse, the fact they had no intention of ever attempting to make .01 cent on the video did not play into the decision. I had rights to most of what I had, this one slipped through the cracks. YouTube was non-responsive to my fair use arguement. Many of my fans felt they were disserved. What I took away from the experience; when popularity and influence exceed the capacity to defend against moves to shut you up, well, they shut you up! One last note; the domain name service was involved in the censorship campaign, this I am certain of. Without elaborating in detail I can state with full confidence this assertion is based on more than mere conjecture in this case it was IT security, not YouTube, and the company has ties to all entities involved.
So, if I'm to rejoin the fraw I need to develop some strategy to ensure the same process isn't repeated. Do you have any suggestions to achieving this aim or links to legal resources? I haven't encountered anyone else with a similar experience, but maybe I haven't looked in the right places.
