The former head of News International, the British division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is to be charged today with obstructive of justice – as in Watergate, it is the cover-up that gets you. Also to be charged will be Charlie Brooks, her husband, as well as several other News International employees including Mark Hanna, head of security, and the Brooks's her chauffeur, Paul Edwards. All are accused of concealing evidence from investigators last July including removing computers and documents. Three separate charges are being leveled, all said to be conspiracy to pervert the course of…
Journalism
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Most Topular Stories
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Morning Brief: Rebekah Brooks to be charged in hacking case; Human Rights Law Review details wrongful execution in Texas; Greek party leaders meet in last-ditch effort to form coalition government
Talking New Media15 May 2012 | 8:00 am -
Infographic: Moms Hold Big Influence Online
MediaShift14 May 2012 | 3:00 pmThis post and infographic originally appeared on the Nielsen blog Nielsen Wire here. It is reused here with permission. Moms are often at the center of their family's offline life, so it's little surprise that they're also at the center of many of the biggest trends online as well. Whether to look up the latest product reviews or to connect with friends, families and even brands through social networks, American moms are particularly active and influential online. Click on image for larger version. Social Networking American moms use social media frequently, with nearly three out of four moms… -
Maybe newsrooms need to kick the front page habit
JackLail.com13 May 2012 | 12:34 pmI recently did an email Q&A with Charles Duhigg, the New York Times reporter who wrote The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. The interview appears Monday in The Knoxville News Sentinel (I hope you'll read it). One chapter of Duhigg's book deals with civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' Dec. 1, 1955 refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala. and how social habits helped spark and sustain the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott and played a pivotal role in creating the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to social movements, Duhigg… -
The Facebook FTC-IPO Shuffle
SixEstate14 May 2012 | 6:00 amIn four days, barring changes, Facebook will be going public. Its Initial Public Offering (IPO) has been the subject of much scuttlebutt in the news. I’m sure that many people are preparing for the feeding frenzy that will occur once the stocks become available. After all, Facebook is massive, and it continues to grow at an astounding rate. That’s where the bumps in the road manifest themselves. Part of that growth recently has been Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, the hugely popular, smartphone-based photosharing app. Zuckerberg and company paid a cool $300 million in… -
Datatainment – an emerging digital media category
R&D Blog26 Apr 2012 | 9:05 amLooking at data from a consumer perspective, not just as a tech trend, opens up for new digital media opportunities Data is a hot topic with huge ambitions. From what we hear from tech evangelists, "Big Data" might just disrupt and transform everything from how we understand our cities and education, to healthcare and finance. There's no stopping data now. A search in this year's SXSW schedule generated 150 results of interesting talks and panels where data was a key theme. Among them: Maps of Time: Data As Narrative, Data Is the New Oil: Wealth and Wars on the Web, Big Data:…
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CJR
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How I got that story
16 May 2012 | 6:50 amIn March 2011, Lisa M. Hamilton, a writer and photographer, began a series of road trips around rural California. She had a grant from the Creative Work Fund—a San Francisco-based foundation that supports collaboration between artists and nonprofits—to tell stories that would help bridge the cultural divide between the rural and urban parts of the state. Initially she... -
Logue jam
16 May 2012 | 6:50 am“Catalogue” can also be spelled “catalog.” “Dialogue” can also be spelled “dialog.” But “monologue” is rarely spelled “monolog.” The Americans are at it again. The combining form “logue” is French, descended from Latin, and it indicates an engagement of some sort, a discourse, if you will, between people or things. People browse “catalog(ue)s” to “discuss” what items to buy; a... -
Audit notes: Commercialization, GM and Facebook, Saverin's taxes
15 May 2012 | 11:15 pmConor Friedersdorf makes a nice catch on Tom Friedman's Sunday column bemoaning the commercialization of seemingly all aspects of American life: For example, his column is bizarrely titled, "This Column Is Not Sponsored by Anyone," despite the fact that right above it on NYTimes.com there is a banner ad for a Citi/American Airlines credit card. But Friedersdorf... -
Health costs: Is Mass. the only model?
15 May 2012 | 3:19 pmWe all know Obamacare is Romneycare and Romneycare is Obamacare and that the Bay State has set the standard for everything health reform—from the individual mandate right down to ways to cut its gigantic medical bill. Or at least the media have passed along that narrative. The Wall Street Journal’s recent piece, “Same State, New Stab at Health... -
Attachment parenting, detached debate
15 May 2012 | 2:15 pmTime touched a nerve this week with its provocative cover photo of 26-year-old Jamie Lynne Grumet and her 3-year-old son standing on a chair next to her, nursing her left breast while both stare directly (and unapologetically) at readers. The underlying story focused on the “attachment parenting” method developed by Dr. William Sears, which...
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Talking New Media
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PC World launches a tablet edition into the Newsstand; model is the same as its sister publication, Macworld
15 May 2012 | 2:00 pmFive weeks ago Macworld launched a tablet edition into the Apple Newsstand. That app, built using the Mag+ platform, uses a hybrid model where the advertising is reproduced as you would see it in print, but the editorial content is reformatted for the tablet. (You can read my report on the app here.) Now IDG has released a new app for PC World. Like Macworld, PC World had previously released a news app, PCWorld Daily, which was built off the feeds from the website. PCWorld Digital Magazine, on the other hand, is built off the print magazine and, again, uses the hybrid model. The hybrid model… -
Red Bulletin updates its U.S. edition app; a look at the June issue; Aquafadas updates MyKiosk viewer app
15 May 2012 | 11:30 amThe Red Bulletin, the digital tablet magazine from beverage company Red Bull, currently has four different language editions inside Apple's Newsstand: English, German, French and Spanish. Each app has been updated within the past two weeks, with the English edition update released today. Click here for hi-res new iPad image. TNM readers are no doubt familiar with Red Bull's tablet magazine. The digital magazine has been somewhat of a tour de force example of the tablet platform, with embedded videos, native tablet design, etc. The latest issue, June is no different. The issue weighs in at 242… -
Retweet: Google's Chrome browser is said to be coming to Apple's iOS platform; default settings with limit use
15 May 2012 | 10:15 amThe tech site GigaOM is reporting on the possible launch of the Google Chrome browseer for iOS devices. More accurately, they are passing on information from Macquarie (USA) Equities Research. No matter, the launch of Chrome for iOS would be a very good thing. I use both Chrome and Safari every day, and while I hate how much Safari hangs up when it launches a new tab, generally Safari is a better performing browser (barely). But Chrome has at least two things going for it that puts it head and shoulders ahead of Safari for what I do every day: search by typing within the URL form, and… -
Morning Brief: Rebekah Brooks to be charged in hacking case; Human Rights Law Review details wrongful execution in Texas; Greek party leaders meet in last-ditch effort to form coalition government
15 May 2012 | 8:00 amThe former head of News International, the British division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is to be charged today with obstructive of justice – as in Watergate, it is the cover-up that gets you. Also to be charged will be Charlie Brooks, her husband, as well as several other News International employees including Mark Hanna, head of security, and the Brooks's her chauffeur, Paul Edwards. All are accused of concealing evidence from investigators last July including removing computers and documents. Three separate charges are being leveled, all said to be conspiracy to pervert the course of… -
Gannett taps Larry Kramer, founder of MarketWatch.com, to become President and Publisher of USA Today
14 May 2012 | 3:53 pmGannett's president and CEO Gracia Martore today announced that she is bringing on Larry Kramer, founder of MarketWatch.com and former president of CBS Digital Media, to become president and publisher of USA Today. The move is an interesting one for a company known for hiring internal candidates. Kramer will be responsible for the newspaper title, as well as the USA Today Sports Media Group, the Travel Media Group, the newly acquired Reviewed.com, and the Sunday magazine USA Weekend. Kramer founded CBS MarketWatch.com in 1997 where it survived the Internet bubble and was sold to Dow Jones in…
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BuzzMachine
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Creepy
8 May 2012 | 8:18 amI just reamed an ITN producer who emailed me this clip about Google seeking a patent for using background noise in audible search requests and wanted to talk to me “off the record” (why he’d offer that, I don’t know; bad reporters’ reflex) to find out what “worries” I had about privacy and security. Note well that he didn’t ask me what I thought of the technology — whether I thought it was good or bad, how I thought it could be used positively or negatively, what its potential is. No, he showed his bias clearly by asking me to tell him… -
Consumer Reports’ moral panic
3 May 2012 | 6:42 amI’m very disappointed in Consumer Reports for falling into the moral panic about privacy and social services. Today it issues a survey and a Reefer Madness report that covers no new ground, only stirs it up, over privacy and Facebook. Let me address instead the survey. In its press release, Consumer Reports says — as if we should be shocked at these numbers — that: * 39.3 million identified a family member in a profile. Do we really live in a world where it should be frightening to talk about our family? * 20.4 million included their birth date and year in their profile. And… -
Social (network) pressure
1 May 2012 | 8:08 amBy adding an organ-donation tool to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is setting up a dynamic of social pressure for virtue. Is that always good? Now getting us to sign our drivers’ licenses so our vital bits can be harvested to save others’ lives is a moderately low-impact decision. But what about the occasional calls for folks to sign up to be tested for a marrow transplant — as in the drive for Super Amit? That’s no easy decision. Imagine tomorrow, God forbid, one of your Facebook friends needs a kidney. There’s a tool staring you in the face asking you to get tested… -
Journalism Inside®
20 Apr 2012 | 12:42 pmI wonder whether we should be teaching journalists to embed themselves and their abilities into the world rather than always making the world come to them. Thinking out loud… The other day, when Amazon peeved me by suddenly trying to sell me software — who has bought a box of software in years? — it occurred to me: After software left store shelves, demand for the programmers who make it has only grown. So why, as newspapers, magazines, and books leave shelves, is there not more demand for the journalists who make them? Companies are clamoring to hire more programmers and… -
A new BuzzMachine
16 Apr 2012 | 5:26 pmAt long last, and by popular demand (and disgust at my old design), BuzzMachine is reborn thanks to my son and webmaster, Jake. After I’d let my old design go to seed, he didn’t much like me calling him my webmaster. So he took matters into his own hands, rebuilt my WordPress installation from scratch, fixed all kinds of things I’d messed up or neglected over the years, and — best of all — gave me this wonderful new look. The image above — like the photo on the old header — is of a paper-making machine: the old origin of buzz. I’ve been…
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Media Matters for America - Latest Items
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Fox Revives Deceptive Editing Of Anita Dunn Clip
16 May 2012 | 12:27 amMore than two years after Glenn Beck used his Fox News show to deceptively edit then-Obama administration official Anita Dunn's comments referencing Mao Zedong, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld echoed Beck's false portrayal of what Dunn said by airing a similarly edited clip.Fox' Gutfeld Plays Deceptively Edited Dunn Clip Gutfeld: "At Least She's Open In Her Admiration For Mass Murderers." From Fox News' The Five: GUTFELD: See what I did there? I pulled a Goldberg on a Goldberg, which is why I love Anita Dunn, Obama's former communications director. At least she's open in her admiration for mass… -
Fox's Flawed Attempt To Deflect Attention From Romney's Leveraged Buyout Record
14 May 2012 | 5:51 pmFox News is pushing fatally flawed analogies to defend Mitt Romney from criticism over his jobs record at Bain Capital, pointing to the Obama administration's green energy loans and the successful rescue of the U.S. auto industry. These comparisons crumble under scrutiny, as leveraged buyouts are different from providing bankruptcy financing or loans.Obama Campaign Ad Hits Romney On Jobs New Obama Campaign Ad Highlights Bain's Takeover Of Steel Mill Under Romney's Leadership. In a new ad, the Obama campaign tells the story of how venture capital firm Bain Capital, which Romney led at the… -
Fox Finds The Villain Of JPMorgan Chase's $2 Billion Loss: Regulation
14 May 2012 | 4:15 pmIn the wake of a $2 billion trading loss sustained by the bank JPMorgan Chase, many economists have advocated for the strengthening of financial reform to prevent against reckless behavior. Not Fox, however, which has argued that the problem is too much regulation of Wall Street banks.JPMorgan Chase Reveals $2 Billion In Trading Losses NY Times: "JPMorgan Discloses $2 Billion In Trading Losses." From a May 10 New York Times article: JPMorgan Chase, which emerged from the financial crisis as the nation's biggest bank, disclosed on Thursday that it had lost more than $2 billion in trading, a… -
Conservative Media Fail In Their Attempt To Dismiss Report About Romney Bullying Incident
11 May 2012 | 11:34 pmRight-wing media have rushed to dismiss the Washington Post's report that Mitt Romney held down a high school classmate and cut his hair, claiming that "the source" for the story "wasn't actually there." In fact, the Post story relied on accounts from five separate sources, four of whom were named, and as the Post's ombudsman noted, their "accounts remain unchallenged." Romney himself said that he's "seen the reports" about the incident and that he's "not going to argue with that."Wash. Post Article Describes Romney Forcibly Cutting High School Classmate's Hair Wash. Post: "Mitt Romney's Prep… -
Right-Wing Media Minimize Romney's Reported Bullying As "Foolish Games"
11 May 2012 | 3:12 pmRight-wing media have responded to a Washington Post story detailing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's alleged bullying of a high school classmate by dismissing Romney's reported bullying as "foolish games" and possibly just an attempt to enforce his school's dress code. However, bullying has destructive consequences for victims, including heightened risks of depression and suicide.Wash. Post Reports Romney Led High School Bullying Incident Wash. Post: In High School, Romney Ambushed And Forcibly Clipped The Hair Of A Younger Student. The Washington Post…
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Journalism News latest RSS headlines - Big News Network.com
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Why journalists should look at search queries
16 May 2012 | 5:54 amHow one news site scooped a murder by checking Google Analytics, and how Fox News switched focus from gunman to victim after checking what its audience was searching for using ... -
Straw denies Iraq war press link
16 May 2012 | 5:39 amJack Straw has said it would have been "disgusting" had the UK sent troops to war in Iraq only after considering if there was enough press support. The ex-foreign secretary denied Daily ... -
Journalist Re-Arrested As Rights Group Calls for End of Harassments
16 May 2012 | 5:35 amKhartoum - The ordeal of Sudanese journalist Faisal Mohamed Salih continued on Tuesday when he was re-arrested and arraigned before the state security court on the charge of "disobeying law ... -
Phone hacking charges are 'expensive sideshow'
16 May 2012 | 4:44 amNews International chief executive gave a statement outside her solicitor's office in London yesterday afternoon, after answering bail at Lewisham police station. She said: "While I ... -
Ulyanovsk court postpones review of case against Udaltsov accused of beating journalist
16 May 2012 | 1:31 amULYANOVSK, May 16 (Itar-Tass) - The magistrate court of the Leninsky district of Ulyanovsk on Wednesday postponed, to May 25, the review of the criminal case against Left Front coordinator Sergei ...
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The Linchpen
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When a path of discovery becomes a loop and a mini “eureka” moment
11 May 2012 | 9:57 pmI’m fascinated by paths of discovery. Not just the link you share, but the steps you took to get there. How did you end up at this point? I experienced one such path tonight that turned into a loop and gave me a mini “eureka!” moment, so I wanted to share: I met a fellow journalist/geek, Keith Collins, at BarCamp News Innovation Philly on April 28. We were chatting about science and that, of course, led to RadioLab. He mentioned a segment he enjoyed about a pendulum. I did a quick search on my phone and sent myself the link to read later. When I returned to the post, it… -
New role at The Washington Post: Special projects and news applications producer
10 May 2012 | 10:03 amI’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be starting a new role here at The Washington Post, news about which was just sent to the newsroom “We are excited to announce that Greg Linch will be moving into a new hybrid technology / newsroom role starting June 1. Since coming to the Post in December 2010, he has desk-pedaled his way across a few sections. Greg began by producing for the health, science and environment team. Those months rekindled a childhood interest by feeding and growing his natural curiosity about the world. He then put both halves of… -
ONA12 session pitch: How can we better measure journalism?
10 Apr 2012 | 10:10 pmI’ve proposed a session for the Online News Association 2012 conference in San Francisco on: Better ways to measure journalism If you’re interested, please up-vote/comment soon! Voting closes Thursday, April 12. It would begin with an overview of interesting metrics in other fields, how we can learn from those and how we can possibly apply them to journalism. After that groundwork is laid, there would be a moderated discussion among the participants of other examples and how we could best implement new metrics. For more background on the idea, check out: Quantifying impact: A… -
Carnival of Journalism: Responses to “How can we better measure journalism?”
6 Apr 2012 | 10:26 amThis month’s Carnival of Journalism topic, “What’s the best way — or ways — to measure journalism and how?” grew out of a post I wrote in February, Quantifying impact: A better metric for measuring journalism. With this question, I wanted to broaden the possibile metrics beyond just impact. Higlights from the discussion are below. Enjoy! Sheree Martin offered four important questions we must first consider: What is journalism? What is impact? How do we measure? Who is measuring? Kathy E. Gill asked about similar fundamentals, “What matters? What is the role of… -
Music and code: Great insights from David Johnson, Zed Shaw and others
25 Mar 2012 | 11:14 pmSome random thought about music theory and structure (namely, loops) floating around my mind led to an interesting discussion of music and code this weekend. The discussion was topped off quite nicely by a comment Zed Shaw wrote on Reddit about why being a musician can make you a good programmer. [View the story "Music and code " on Storify] If you can’t see the embed above, view the discussion on Storify.
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Blogslot
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Hopefully, Everyone Will Do as They See Fit
20 Apr 2012 | 1:54 pmAs I settle back into the real world, scratching at imaginary insects under my skin after four days of the heroin-y warmth of sharing a cocoon with hundreds of my people in New Orleans at the annual conference of the American Copy Editors Society, I'm marveling at the reaction to a small tidbit from the Big Easy. The editors of the Associated Press Stylebook have gotten into the habit of using our little gathering to stage publicity stunts, declaring the electronics-industry space saver "mic" as preferred over the actual word "mike" as the abbreviation for "microphone" one year, and removing… -
Don't Be a Serial Killer
19 Apr 2012 | 8:22 amNewspaper style generally eschews the serial comma. I'm fine with that. Toast, juice, milk and Trix. But sometimes that comma is useful. If I write about a city's departments of housing, parks and recreation and well-being, do I mean there's a department of parks and recreation or a department of recreation and well-being? And what if my series consists of three or four full sentences? For many serial-comma-phobic journalists, the answer to those questions tends to be: Semicolons! Ugly, unwieldy semicolons. Clearly, those journalists did not actually read the stylebook to which they are… -
The PPT, FWIW
16 Apr 2012 | 12:00 pmI am back from New Orleans and the 16th national conference of the American Copy Editors Society. You should have been there. A few people expressed interest in getting their hands on the PowerPoint presentation that I used in hopes that nobody would look at me during my "Tiny Acts of Elegance" session. I don't think the visuals are all that useful without my accompanying blather, but I aim to please. You can download the file here, at least until the bitching about my last-minute typos causes me to take my ball and go home. Said blather, of course, can be mined from previous posts here and… -
Not Quite a Damn Lie. More of a Darn Lie.
8 Feb 2012 | 9:34 amYou may have read last night or this morning about the December statistic for U.S. job openings being near a three-year high. That's literally true, but it's, well, kind of a stupid thing to say. Because the actual three-year high was the statistic for September. In other words, the December number was the highest in three months. If you want to say the December number approached the three-year high set in September, fine. But "near a three-year high" is just misleading. Woo-hoo! Things haven't been this good since ... oh, I see, just the other day. It's also potentially ambiguous: Especially… -
Penney want a cracker?
26 Jan 2012 | 8:18 amYou may have heard that J.C. Penney is permanently cutting its prices. Well, no, it isn’t. I didn’t go to business school, but I think it’s safe to say that selling your fine Stafford Signature no-iron shirts at 2012 prices is a piss-poor strategy for 2015 and 2020 and 2050. I doubt that’s what the current executives have in mind, and even if they did, I really doubt the current executives are immortal. Not that the company will necessarily outlast them, especially if I’m somehow wrong about all this. (Note to self: Invent time machine and stock up on 20-cent shirts, just in…
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MediaShift
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Journalism and Digital Education Roundup, May 15, 2012
15 May 2012 | 3:17 pmThe best stories across the web on journalism and digital education 1. Students with computer science degrees are in high demand this year (Bloomberg) 2. Libraries in this county are buying, not leasing, e-books (Boing Boing) 3. Tax increase could bring iPads to classrooms in S.C. (Island Packet) 4. Teacher behind Calif. school's iPad program gets laid off (NBC) 5. Students in Vancouver work off "the cloud" (Vancouver Sun) Get the weekly Journalism Education Roundup email from MediaShift This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ». -
Daily Must Reads, May 15, 2012
15 May 2012 | 12:25 pmThe best stories across the web on media and technology, curated by Lily Leung 1. Former head of Murdoch U.K. newspaper empire faces charges in hacking scandal (NYT) 2. Facebook bumps up its share price (Washington Post) 3. Should This American Life fact-check David Sedaris stories? (Poynter) 4. With a new CEO in place, can Yahoo focus on becoming a great media company? (GigaOm) 5. MarketWatch founder Larry Kramer is named publisher of USA Today (Politico) 6. Adweek requires you to share some articles in order to finish reading them (Scott Kidder) Subscribe to Daily Must Reads newsletter This… -
Why Now Is the Time for Media Innovation in Africa
15 May 2012 | 9:00 amIn Africa, where mobile news and digital innovation are growing but startup capital is too often scarce, innovators have a unique opportunity to help reinvent media: the African News Innovation Challenge. The newly launched contest, modeled on the Knight News Challenge, will award $1 million (in increments of $12,500 to $100,000) to projects that create new ways to tell stories, distribute the news, and make money. It will also give technical advice, startup support and mentoring to the contest winners. African Media Initiative (AMI) launched the contest May 10 with backing from Omidyar… -
Infographic: Moms Hold Big Influence Online
14 May 2012 | 3:00 pmThis post and infographic originally appeared on the Nielsen blog Nielsen Wire here. It is reused here with permission. Moms are often at the center of their family's offline life, so it's little surprise that they're also at the center of many of the biggest trends online as well. Whether to look up the latest product reviews or to connect with friends, families and even brands through social networks, American moms are particularly active and influential online. Click on image for larger version. Social Networking American moms use social media frequently, with nearly three out of four moms… -
Daily Must Reads, May 14, 2012
14 May 2012 | 12:03 pmThe best stories across the web on media and technology, curated by Lily Leung 1. Following resume snafu, Yahoo CEO to step down (AllThingsD) 2. Google's head of news compares newspapers to Yahoo (GigaOm) 3. A collection of how-to links for Pinterest users (The Buttry Diary) 4. How Facebook can keep growing: Be the best search engine, ever (Adweek) 5. New tool helps journalists find real-time photos, tweets for breaking news (Poynter)Subscribe to our daily Must Reads email newsletter and get the links in your in-box every weekday! Subscribe to Daily Must Reads newsletter This is a…
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contentious.com
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Five ways to think mobile first (notes for OpenGov Hackathon and BCNI Philly)
27 Apr 2012 | 2:54 pmOn Saturday April 28 I’ll be in Philadelphia to help with the BarCamp News Innovation unconference and Open Government News Hackathon. These events are sponsored by the Center for Public Interest Journalism at Temple University, and are part of Philly Tech Week. Temple is my old stomping ground; I graduated from journalism school there in 1990. And I’m rather stunned at all the huge new buildings that have sprung up around the campus. Good to see the school grow! The reason Temple brought me in to help with these events is because I’m passionate about mobile and about the… -
Boulder better prepared for zombies than Oakland
12 Apr 2012 | 2:19 pmI’m planning a move from Oakland, CA back to Boulder, CO. Clearly, one factor in this project is: how to prepare for the zombie apocalypse, wherever I am. I checked out Map of the Dead – a great map mashup that helps you find the closest zombie survival supplies. Just enter your address to find the locations of the closest gun store, liquor store, grocery or convenience store, hardware store, outdoor store, gas station, doctor, pharmacy, military, police, radio tower, harbor, or airport. They also list the locations of places you’d probably want to avoid during a zombie… -
PR fail: World’s dumbest news embargo
24 Feb 2012 | 4:40 pmI cover technology for CNN.com and elsewhere, so I get a lot of pitch e-mails from PR folks. Some of these are very useful and well targeted. Most are rather “meh.” …And a few are utterly stupid. Here’s one such e-mail I received today, in its entirety. Name of the PR person, PR firm, and client are removed to protect the guilty: I’m writing today on behalf of [LINK TO CLIENT] a leader and innovative provider of device-centric, [TECHNOLOGY] solutions. They wanted to offer you the opportunity to receive some news which is under embargo until 9 a.m. CET on Monday,… -
I’m not alone in this: reflections on social media and digital connection
14 Feb 2012 | 2:18 pmSocial media, digital communication channels, and cell phones often get accused of alienating people, enabling bullies, and breaking down the human ties which are the foundation of society. Bullshit. Personally, I am far happier on a day-to-day basis thanks to these technological tools. They have added considerable love, meaning, joy, and value to my life. With their help, I’ve been able to offer nurturing and support to far more people I care about than ever would have been possible otherwise. So I wasn’t surprised when a recent Pew study found that 85% of adult who use social… -
Not tall enough to ride this attraction
9 Feb 2012 | 2:54 pmMaking some lemonade here. Had a rather unpleasant interpersonal experience lately, and decided I needed to set some clear entry requirements (emotional maturity and communication skills) for people I let very far into my life. So instead of just chalking it up to “Been there, done that, got the t-shirt,” I actually GOT THE T-SHIRT! A friend is working on a better line art version which I’ll be selling online. But for now, here’s the concept. Whadya think? not tall enough You must be at least this tall to ride this attraction. Custom ordered from Zazzle.com. Better…
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DigiDave
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The Screenularity is Near – April Carnival of Journalism
26 Apr 2012 | 2:43 pmYesterday I announced the next project I’m going to work on which will focus on mobile news consumption (Circa). As a result, I’ve been thinking a lot about screens. And my thinking fell in line perfectly with this month’s Carnival of Journalism which asks: “What’s your most dangerous idea to save journalism.” Of course – I don’t think any one thing will “save journalism” but when thinking about screens I think there is an opportunity to avoid decimation. Below is the video response (which is part of this month’s Carnival) but… -
My Next Endeavor – Circa
25 Apr 2012 | 5:06 pmRecently I left Spot.Us. My original plan was to take some time and collect myself before hopping onto the next thing. But the fates had a different plan for me. And when fate calls, you gotta answer. Today I’m announcing the next project I’m going to dive head first into. It’s called Circa (www.cir.ca). It’s in stealth right now. But I can say this much – it will start off as a mobile application and the goal is to create a consumer friendly product that keeps people engaged and informed about what’s happening in the world. The problem set is unique and as… -
My Conversation With Pat Buchanan
24 Apr 2012 | 3:29 pmAt the Columbia Alumni weekend there was a panel on the 2012 elections and one of the speakers was Pat Buchanan (apparently alumni of the J-school). Most of the talk was about politics, appealing to women, etc. But at least twice Pat referred to “the demise of Western Civilization” as a potential outcome. He specifically cited Western Europe. I like to take people at their word, but this seemed like a ridiculous statement for Buchanan to make. Jon Stewart questions were going through my mind: “So do you mean there won’t be a “West” or there won’t be “Civilization”? If the… -
To Spot.Us – Time for Me to Move On
3 Apr 2012 | 2:42 pmMy career since roughly 2006 has been about the process of journalism. It was around this time I stopped being a technology reporter and began managing projects that pushed boundaries to make journalism more participatory and transparent. This has ranged from NewAssignment.net (which included Assignment Zero, Beat Blogging and more), Broowaha, NewsTrust and others. In 2008 I started Spot.Us. Many folks helped along the way. Some notables include the Hashrocket team, Kara Andrade, Anh Do, Jonathan Berger, Lauren Rabaino and of course Erik Sundelof. It should also be noted the whole thing… -
March Carnival – Measuring Efficiency
30 Mar 2012 | 12:06 pmThis is my contribution to the Carnival of Journalism. In usual style I’m altering the question just a bit. I’m also relying on an old post I wrote at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (where I was when the Carnival was first created). This month’s question is on how we measure impact. I think Greg Linch is talking about meaningful impact (on society) but I want to measure a different kind of impact. The impact of the dollars we spend in pursuit of journalism and its meaningful impact. In light of the Bay Citizen merger and the shuttering of the Chicago News Cooperative…
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Newspaper Death Watch
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Audience Expands As Business Contracts
13 May 2012 | 10:59 amThe paradox continues: U.S. newspaper readership continues to grow as the business model collapses. The Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for March are in and daily circulation for the reporting newspapers rose .68% while Sunday circulation jumped 5%. More interesting is that the ABC reported that digital circulation now accounts for 14.2% of newspapers’ total circulation mix, up from 8.66% a year ago. That’s a pretty phenomenal increase on a large number. Before breathing a sigh of relief, though, note that about 2/3 of the ABC report is devoted to disclaiming comparisons of this… -
Traffic to Newspaper Websites Continues to Surge
25 Apr 2012 | 12:07 pmThe paradox continues. Newspaper readership continues to run at all-time highs as the business model crumbles. From a Newspaper Association of America press release issued today: Newspapers improved upon their website traffic in the first quarter of 2012 with a 4.4 percent increase year-over-year in adult unique visitors (113 million) and a 10 percent increase in adult average daily visitors (25 million). Further, newspapers achieved a more than 7 percent increase in unique visitors ages 21 to 34, with average daily visits by this age group up 17 percent and total visits rising by 15 percent,… -
Newspapers Are Fastest-Shrinking U.S. Industry
14 Apr 2012 | 8:53 amLinkedIn and the Council of Economic Advisors crunched data from LinkedIn’s nearly 150 million members about industry trends from 2007-2011. The bad news: Newspapers are the fastest-shrinking U.S. industry. The good news: Online publishing is among the fastest-growing. More on the LinkedIn blog. -
Bloomberg’s Manual of Success
11 Apr 2012 | 8:32 amBloomberg News is one of the few news operations that’s flourishing, and Knowledge@Wharton provides a glimpse of the editorial strategy that fuels its remarkable engine. Founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 1982, the financially oriented global information network today produces more than 5,000 stories per day from 146 news bureaus in 72 countries. Its TV network reaches 310 million people and it is in the middle of turning around BusinessWeek, which it bought from McGraw-Hill for $1 in 2009. Underlying the unique Bloomberg style is a 376-page style manual written by… -
100-Year-Old Laurel Leader-Call Shuts Down Abruptly
29 Mar 2012 | 11:41 amThe Laurel Leader-Call, a mainstay in the small city of Laurel, MS for more than 100 years, published its final edition today. Residents and the paper’s 18 staffers weren’t given much notice; the announcement was made only on Monday by Publisher Mitchell D. Lynch. The Leader-Call, which was purchased by a subsidiary of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. in 1999, reduced its publication from daily to four days a week six months ago. Stunned staffers said the news was a surprise, and a farewell retrospective in the final edition reflects similar comments from members of the…
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editor on the verge
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Why Media Vanguards and Why Now
26 Apr 2012 | 7:22 amSince leaving Philadelphia Media Network, I have been speaking with newspaper publishers and with many of the vendors who supply the services those publishers use and have realized that there is a disconnect between the two. Simply put, publishers require more then most vendors are able to provide — if a vendor is good at sales, they may struggle with publisher relations, if they are good at publisher relations they might struggle with post-sale training and user development. To help both groups be more successful I’m excited to be able to share that I have created Media… -
Survivalist News: How Far Will You Go for Readers?
15 Aug 2011 | 7:55 pmI need your help. No, I was not robbed while on vacation and am not trapped in some foreign city – I just need your vote. That’s right, your VOTE. Kevin Sablan of the Orange County Register and Bill Adee of the Chicago Tribune and myself (representing Philadelphia Media Network) are trying to get our panel “Survivalist News: How Far WIll You Go for Readers” accepted for SXSW 2012. Organized by Sheigh Crabtree of Perfect Market, this is one of a bunch of panels attempting to focus on the news industry, but in my unbiased estimation, the very best. Here’s a… -
Upcoming Speaking Engagement
24 Jul 2011 | 4:49 pmI’m excited to be able to share that I have been invited to represent Philadelphia Media Network and speak at Digital Content Monetization East 2011 taking place from October 11-14 in New York City. For those of you not familiar with DCM East, it is “a multi-stream summit incorporating only the most senior strategists and decision-makers in Film, Sports, TV, Publishing, Games and Music” … “DCM East helps you to sort out the best short and medium terms strategies for delivering revenue through digital content.” While I don’t yet have all the details… -
My Interview at Digiday DPAC
24 Jul 2011 | 4:10 pmAfter speaking on the “Subscriptions, Paywalls and Real Money. Will Users Pay Up or Fade Away?“ panel at the Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference in New York City, I was interviewed by the folks from Scribemedia.org and no, my use of “monetization” is not intended for a drinking game… -
News Worthy of Sharing Online
17 Mar 2010 | 7:12 pmSubject: Special Announcement on behalf of Ryan Davis….. I am pleased to announce the promotion of Yoni Greenbaum to Vice President, Product Development. This move is reflective of Philly.com’s commitment to build and maintain a strong and dynamic management team. Yoni is an outstanding team member, totally dedicated to the growth and success of our company. Since the inception of the product team last year, Yoni has demonstrated an ability to scan the outside market for ideas, bring new concepts to Philly.com and quickly implement change while building consensus. This move makes…
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@PatrickThornton
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My iPad setup
9 May 2012 | 9:20 amOver at the Interchange Project I detail — and I mean detail –my iPad setup, which is a key part of my writing workflow: A big part of what I do is write and take notes, and that part of my workflow will be the main focus of this post. I use several programs for this purpose: Omnioutliner, Byword and Simplenote (note: Simplenote is both an app and a Web service). They each serve a purpose, and I do not like programs like Word that try to be all things to all people. Take a look at Word sometime and ask yourself is that a writing environment that inspires creativity? It looks like… -
On writing
8 May 2012 | 9:11 amThis was originally posted over at the Interchange Project. This is my second day using the Das Keyboard full time. I can’t tell if this is on account of me being just a massive tech nerd or if it really is about the keyboard itself, but I couldn’t wait to wake up this morning and start typing on this keyboard. It was like Christmas for a writer. Wanting to write — anything at all — is every writer’s dream. We don’t dread verbal diarrhea. There is no such thing as too many words. Those can be edited away. We dread those lonely, days, weeks, months and even years when we feel like… -
The cloud without the Internet isn’t very useful
7 May 2012 | 9:21 amOver at the Interchange Project, I write about how I wanted to watch a movie on Friday night that I had purchased and was storing in the cloud but couldn’t because my Internet went down for several hours: My Internet is down. Now I know what it feels like to be Paul Miller. What an animal. While I hope not to find out what it is like to go an entire year without the Internet, I am lamenting my lack of Internet right now. My wife and I were planning on streaming a movie to our Apple TV. Without Internet, our collection of movies and TVs shows that we purchased and are storing in the… -
Episode 20: Punctuation versus links
1 Dec 2011 | 7:01 pmХудожникБогородица Over at the Interchange Project Jeremy and I discuss the whole Jim Romenesko/Poynter affair and much more this week. We think both Romesnko and Poynter were in the right and wrong here. It’s complicated. We wish things would have ended better. Our discussion of Romenesko leads Jeremy to discuss how he handles miss attribution and plagiarism with his students. We then discuss the top 40 most shared stories on Facebook in 2011. Some very interesting finds. And then we… -
Why we read
5 Jul 2011 | 9:13 pmикониикони“I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough…the more one reads the more one sees we have to read.” — John Adams
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Holovaty.com
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Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
28 Apr 2012 | 7:12 pmWe finally moved Django to GitHub late yesterday. Here's a postmortem, to keep the community updated and for the benefit of any projects that take this leap in the future. Background We've used Subversion to manage our code since originally open-sourcing in July 2005. Over the last few years, we started to feel Subversion's limitations, namely: The difficulty of branching. We used tools like svnmerge to keep track of which parts of branches had been updated from trunk, and some of us on the core team used Git/Mercurial on top of Subversion, but this was all unnecessarily complicated -- to the… -
Back in the Django saddle
28 Nov 2011 | 1:19 pmI've been a bad BDFL. As a co-creator and one of the two Benevolent Dictators for Life of Django, my responsibility is to guide the open-source project forward. I did a great job of this for several years: from our open-sourcing in July 2005 (and for about two years prior to that), I was rather obsessed with it, contributing thousands of commits, answering thousands of support questions, participating in hundreds of design discussions, co-writing two editions of a book, writing week in review blog posts and evangelizing the framework at events. Making Django's code and community better is how… -
Introducing the YouTube Insult Generator
16 Oct 2011 | 10:50 pm(It has been way too long since I launched a side project. Time to get back into the game. This blog post is adapted from a five-minute talk I gave today at Ignite Chicago.) Everybody knows YouTube comments are atrocious. This is referenced all over the place, from a bunch of blogs to xkcd (twice!). One guy even took the time to make YouTube Comment Snob, a brilliant browser extension that hides poor quality comments. If only we could extract some value from all that crap. The YouTube community is so huge at this point that "meta" comments are very common. One particular "meta" comment stems… -
Crash tags
14 Jul 2011 | 11:38 pmChris Messina, the guy who started Twitter hashtags, proposed the use of hashtags on Google Plus earlier this evening. There's some major cognitive dissonance going on here, seeing Twitter hashtags on Google Plus. It really hits you over the head with how limiting (and, frankly, silly) Twitter is. I think in a few years people will look back at Twitter and feel like they were, well, duped in a way -- millions of grown men and women, adults, typing in obscure abbreviations and making up messy syntaxes just to fit a semi-arbitrary character limit; large, important companies falling over… -
Job opportunity: Web/mobile developer at EveryBlock
6 Jul 2011 | 1:56 pmWe're looking to hire another programmer to join our small and effective development team at EveryBlock. This is your chance to work on a wide variety of interesting problems, helping improve a great product with a passionate and growing user base. You should expect to have a hand in all aspects of the site, and your contributions will have an immediate, direct impact on the awesomeness of our service. When it comes to developers, we like to hire Jacks (or Jills) of all trades. The ideal candidate will be equally comfortable developing back-end Python code, working with databases (we use…
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Innovation in College Media
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Guest Post: Lessons from Obama’s visit
26 Apr 2012 | 12:33 pmBy Erica Perel, newsroom adviser, The Daily Tar Heel President Obama visited the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill campus Tuesday afternoon to give a policy speech on student loans and “slow-jam the news” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The big events happened early in the traditional daily news cycle: students lined up to get into Obama’s speech starting at 5 a.m. before filing through security. The policy speech happened about 1 p.m., with the Jimmy Fallon taping immediately after. The presidential motorcade left Chapel Hill by late afternoon. Because of the timing —… -
Time to move – things to consider when changing your website
20 Apr 2012 | 11:28 amWhen it comes to “moving” your website, normally that means changing what server the site actually resides on. In college media, “moving” is also tends to mean “let’s change everything how our website operates because there is some really cool stuff we just need right now dear Advisor and we MUST have this to do good journalism because, ya know it is the best thing since Twitter Pinterest!” In college media, moving a website can mean actually moving what computer runs your website or changing what content management system (CMS) you use to run… -
Web options for college publications, 2012 edition
16 Apr 2012 | 10:29 amIt’s been two years since I did a round-up of hosting options for college news sites. In the wake of the recent discussion of the Online Pacemaker Finalists, I figured it was time to take another trip around the field to see what’s out there. And, a disclaimer: This is not a “critical review” of the different options. Each option has its pros and cons, and every college media outlet has different needs and resources. If you want to know more about a particular option, contact the companies listed. I’d also encourage you to ask around at other college media… -
CMA’s new Pinnacle Awards recognize TV, radio and web
12 Apr 2012 | 9:00 amCollege Media Association announced a new contest for college media yesterday. The Pinnacle Awards will recognize broadcast and web tech work by college media outlets. The exciting part for readers and followers of this blog are, obviously, the web categories (which CICM is sponsoring). Here they are: 13. Breaking News Recognizes excellence in digital coverage throughout a 72-hour period of an unplanned breaking-news event or development. Judges will weigh evidence of exceptional journalism under deadline pressure within the 72-hour period following the original event. They will also weigh… -
WordPress leads pack of Pacemaker finalists picked
10 Apr 2012 | 3:39 pmThe Associated Collegiate Press announced their list of 2012 online Pacemaker finalists yesterday. There are 55 finalists, and lots of familiar names. Congratulations to all the nominees. Beyond that, I’m always interested in what’s going on under the hood, in the “CMS Wars!” So, I went through the entire list, looked at lots of source code and page footers to find clues, and identified all but four of the sites’ CMS’s. Previously, we looked at these numbers from 2008 and 2009. In 2010, I commented on the CMS’s used by the winners. The results for…
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Serial Oversharer
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It's probably a good sign that this feels totally normal and natural.
14 May 2012 | 5:01 pmIt's probably a good sign that this feels totally normal and natural.: A live sports show produced by the Boston Globe, on the Internet at noon a few days a week? File under: The New Normal. -
Spring/Summer Reading List Progress Report: Rainbows End
24 Apr 2012 | 5:56 amLate last night, I finished reading Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End, the first book on my reading list.That list, a few of you might remember, was put together from your tweeted suggestions based on my remarkably idiosyncratic and subjective criteria, including “not too depressing” and published after 1999 or so.Rainbows End fit all my requirements, and thanks to Brian Boyer for the recommendation.Not going to author a full book report here, but please accept this short list of keywords and clauses as a sort of reduction sauce: singularity heavily augmented reality ubiquitous… -
Levon Helm in Santa Cruz, 1976.
18 Apr 2012 | 8:30 pmLevon Helm in Santa Cruz, 1976. -
Etsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology
6 Apr 2012 | 8:45 amEtsy Hacker Grants: Supporting Women in Technology: Follow me around the Internet long enough, and you’ll notice I love to pass along links like this. I suppose I did so before I had a daughter, but that nearly 5-year-old fact certainly changes things a bit. So, check this out. All you really need to know is “Etsy Hacker Grants” are scholarships for women to go to a sort of programmer summer camp in New York this year. If that sounds like something you, or one of your favorite women, would be interested in, pass it along. -
Because you need a motion control system for your iPhone’s...
4 Apr 2012 | 5:59 pmBecause you need a motion control system for your iPhone’s camera, using your iPad as a remote control. Sort of. Maybe you don’t think you do, but you do. (via Kickstarter and Raw File)
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JackLail.com
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Maybe newsrooms need to kick the front page habit
13 May 2012 | 12:34 pmI recently did an email Q&A with Charles Duhigg, the New York Times reporter who wrote The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. The interview appears Monday in The Knoxville News Sentinel (I hope you'll read it). One chapter of Duhigg's book deals with civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' Dec. 1, 1955 refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala. and how social habits helped spark and sustain the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott and played a pivotal role in creating the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to social movements, Duhigg… -
Dangerous ideas for pushing the boundaries of journalism
2 May 2012 | 8:19 pmLots of video responses have been posted to April's "Carnival of Journalism" of question: "What is your most dangerous idea for pushing the boundaries of journalism?"You see them on the right in the recent posts list on this site for University of Southern California's J556 class taught by Andrew Lih. Give them a look; they are generally around 1:40.Here's Paul Bradshow of the Online Journalism Blog to get you started: -
Training as a dangerous idea for journalism
28 Apr 2012 | 2:06 pmMy April Carnival of Journalism entry offers up training as my most dangerous idea for pushing the boundaries of journalism.A roundup of all the responses to "What is your most dangerous idea for pushing the boundaries of journalism" will be posted sometime afer April 30.Do you find training as an odd choice? -
Another look at recording police officers on the job
22 Apr 2012 | 4:26 pmGlenn Reynolds (Photo credit: jacklail)Police arresting citizens, including journalists, for taking photos or videos of them performing their official duties and seizing their camera or cellphones has become increasingly common. Typically, the vaguely broad interfering with a police officer laws are used to stop audio, video or photographic recording. University of Tennessee law professor and blogger Glenn Reynolds makes an argument for the constitutionality of recording police that does not hinge on the First Amendment and that covers the recording of police officers in private places as… -
We toot our horn
22 Apr 2012 | 11:26 amThis blog won "Best Blog" not affiliated with a news organization from the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists in awards announced Friday night.Lots of great regional journalism was honored; read through the list.
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Journerdism | Will Sullivan's Stompin' ground for journalists and nerds.
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My next adventure: DC with the BBG
7 May 2012 | 1:11 pmI have some pretty big news: I’m leaving Lee Enterprises to work for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Office of Digital and Design Innovation as their Mobile Products Manager in Washington D.C. I know what you’re thinking, “Did he say the BBC?” Nope. So who are they and what do they do? The BBG‘s mission is, “To inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.” It’s an independent agency of the federal government focusing specifically on delivering journalism to countries who don’t have a… -
New Poynter eye-tracking study focuses on tablet design and user experience
20 Dec 2011 | 11:13 pmTablets have been around for a while, it's time we finally learn how people use them. Well, SND STL was amazing and is finally in the books. After a little recovery and catch-up-on-reading time, I’ve found my next side project: The Poynter Institute’s new eye-tracking study, focused on tablet design and user experiences. I remember when the previous eyetracking studies were released it was kind of like this kid on Christmas morning. I’ve regularly referred to them and re-read them throughout my career and now to be involved in the project now is amazingly humbling… -
31,556,926 opportunities but a link blog ain’t one.
20 Dec 2011 | 10:46 pmFor me (and many others) the end of the year always is a time to reflect and think about the past and future. This year is no different; it’s been an amazing whirlwind of layered and sometimes overwhelming experiences with some of the most fantastic people I’ve ever met. From my RJI fellowship, election to the ONA board (and the plethora of committees and projects I’m tied to for that now), helping lead the SND St. Louis conference, and promotion to Director of Mobile News for Lee Enterprises just to name a few big projects, plus all my work helping co-direct the NPPA Multimedia… -
E-Books offer an interesting opportunity for newspapers
27 Oct 2011 | 2:12 pmThis Oct. 27, 2011 blog post is mirrored from an internal site at Lee Enterprises, my current employer. I thought it might be handy to those outside the company too, so I’m cross-posting it here. It’s easy to get caught up in all the razzle-dazzle of mobile and tablet apps when we think about new products, audiences and revenue opportunities but, we shouldn’t neglect or ignore the potential that e-books can offer also. Apps are great for providing utility and new technical products and functionality and e-books can compliment that by leveraging our core strength or… -
Android’s new “Ice Cream Sandwich” OS offers several upgrades for publishers and journalists
24 Oct 2011 | 2:05 pmThis Oct. 24, 2011 blog post is mirrored from an internal site at Lee Enterprises, my current employer, where I blog regularly about mobile, tablet and emerging tech. I thought it might be handy to those outside the company too, so I’m cross-posting it here. While IOS 5 launched a couple weeks ago and has received much fanfare, Android announced their version 4.0 upgraded mobile operating system last week with several interesting new features for journalists. While there’s plenty of interesting interface improvements and futuristic-features like facial-recognition security,…
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sans serif
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“Reliance has no ‘direct’ stake in media cos”
16 May 2012 | 1:01 amA screengrab of the official press information bureau (PIB) release on 14 May 2012, on the shareholding of Mukesh Ambani‘s Reliance Industries in media companies. Interesting, if true. Also read: Mint says SEBI looking into RIL-Network18/TV18-ETV deal Rajya Sabha TV tears into RIL-Network18-ETV deal Will RIL-TV18-ETV deal win SEBI, CCI approval? The sudden rise of Mukesh Ambani, media mogul The Indian Express, Reliance & Shekhar Gupta Niira Radia, Mukesh Ambani, Prannoy Roy & NDTV Why the Indian media doesn’t take on the Ambanis Filed under: For the record Tagged: Churumuri,… -
Sugata Raju is new editor of ‘Vijaya Karnataka’
15 May 2012 | 5:10 amVijaya Karnataka, the Kannada daily from The Times of India group, has a new editor: Sugata Srinivasaraju, the former associate editor, south, of Outlook* magazine. He takes over from Vasant Nadiger who was officiating as editor following the sudden death of E. Raghavan in March. Raghavan had taken over VK from the paper’s longstanding editor Vishweshwar Bhat, who has since moved to Kannada Prabha, the Kannada daily owned by the mobile phone baron turned parliamentarian, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. ToI bought Vijaya Karnataka in 2006 from the truck operator Vijay Sankeshwar, who launched a… -
How a Hindi newspaper editor became an MP
15 May 2012 | 1:44 amAn item in the gossip diary in The Telegraph, Calcutta: Vivek Gupta, the editor of Sanmarg—the Hindi daily that made the cut in Mamata Banerjee‘s evaluation of newspapers that can find a place in Bengal’s libraries—had always dream of visiting the Parliament. When he took charge of Sanmarg, Gupta informed the Trinamul Congress’s Sudip Bandopadhyay of his wish. Bandopadhyay, the story goes, asked him to come to Delhi and made the necessary arrangements so that Gupta could sit in the visitors’ gallery. In the evening, he took a flight back to Calcutta, but… -
How journalists are aiding the decadent IPL
12 May 2012 | 3:33 amThe academic, writer and critic Mukul Kesavan in The Times of India: “The IPL is, in media terms, such a honeypot, that the traditional distinction between pundits in the electronic and print media paid to comment on sport and the commentators contracted to describe and celebrate it on television, has dissolved. We have seen people wearing both hats without the slightest self-consciousness…. “The people who run the IPL and the journalists who cover it, seem to positively celebrate the fact that IPL teams are playthings of the rich and famous…. “When the governors… -
In a season of 3D movies, a 3D movie magazine
10 May 2012 | 1:17 amIn a season of 3D films, Roopatara, the Kannada film monthly from Manipal Media Network has come out with a 98-page special 3D issue, complete with a free pair of 3D spectacles to view 40 3D photographs of movie stars and movie stills. On the cover is Radhika Kumaraswamy, the actress who no longer makes an effort to hide her relationship with the former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. Filed under: Art, Magazines Tagged: Churumuri, Jogi, Mani Media Network, Radhika Kumaraswamy, Ravi Hegde, Roopatara, Sans Serif
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JackLail.com
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Maybe newsrooms need to kick the front page habit
13 May 2012 | 12:34 pmI recently did an email Q&A with Charles Duhigg, the New York Times reporter who wrote The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. The interview appears Monday in The Knoxville News Sentinel (I hope you'll read it). One chapter of Duhigg's book deals with civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' Dec. 1, 1955 refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala. and how social habits helped spark and sustain the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott and played a pivotal role in creating the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to social movements, Duhigg… -
Dangerous ideas for pushing the boundaries of journalism
2 May 2012 | 8:19 pmLots of video responses have been posted to April's "Carnival of Journalism" of question: "What is your most dangerous idea for pushing the boundaries of journalism?"You see them on the right in the recent posts list on this site for University of Southern California's J556 class taught by Andrew Lih. Give them a look; they are generally around 1:40.Here's Paul Bradshow of the Online Journalism Blog to get you started: -
Training as a dangerous idea for journalism
28 Apr 2012 | 2:06 pmMy April Carnival of Journalism entry offers up training as my most dangerous idea for pushing the boundaries of journalism.A roundup of all the responses to "What is your most dangerous idea for pushing the boundaries of journalism" will be posted sometime afer April 30.Do you find training as an odd choice? -
Another look at recording police officers on the job
22 Apr 2012 | 4:26 pmGlenn Reynolds (Photo credit: jacklail)Police arresting citizens, including journalists, for taking photos or videos of them performing their official duties and seizing their camera or cellphones has become increasingly common. Typically, the vaguely broad interfering with a police officer laws are used to stop audio, video or photographic recording. University of Tennessee law professor and blogger Glenn Reynolds makes an argument for the constitutionality of recording police that does not hinge on the First Amendment and that covers the recording of police officers in private places as… -
We toot our horn
22 Apr 2012 | 11:26 amThis blog won "Best Blog" not affiliated with a news organization from the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists in awards announced Friday night.Lots of great regional journalism was honored; read through the list.
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Technology
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#FedUpWithCringeworthyTwitterHashtags? I am
10 May 2012 | 4:00 amJust over six years after Jack Dorsey posted the first tweet, Twitter now has more than 500 million users and more than 250 million tweets are sent each day. Pick up a newspaper on any given day and you're likely to find Twitter in the headlines; whether it’s over the social media giant’s refusal to [...] -
How crowdfunding can kickstart the Big Society
3 May 2012 | 3:30 amHave you ever watched a terrible TV show and wondered how it was ever made? Spare a thought for the poor commissioner. Not only do they have to wade through dozens or hundreds of pitches every day, but they're responsible for guessing the tastes of an entire market. With production budgets increasing and ever-shifting priorities [...] -
In business, simplicity is difficult
2 May 2012 | 4:05 amBusinesses get caught up in their own brilliance. This danger is particularly acute in industries like technology, communications and finance, where "being clever" and delivering "the latest thing" is particularly prized. With obvious (and very successful) exceptions, these industries build too many camel/bicycle hybrids, and not enough horses. We, as users, get lumbered with having [...] -
Taking the plunge: why you should start your own business
26 Apr 2012 | 4:00 amWhilst launching LoveThis, I have had my fair share of conversations with journalists, investors, users, friends and family asking: “What made you leave a perfectly good job to start your own business?” It was clear that most people asking the question actually had a nagging desire at the back of their head to do their [...] -
There's nothing sinister about Google asking you to decode fuzzy numbers
16 Apr 2012 | 11:10 amThere has been a bit of a flap recently about Google asking people to decode pictures of house numbers, as part of the security tests required for certain online actions. This shows a general distrust of Google, and the changes around privacy in society, rather than there being anything wrong with using the numbers for [...]
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WordPress.com News
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Stay In The Conversation
15 May 2012 | 6:01 pmIt’s now much easier for you and your commenters to keep track of the conversations you’re involved in across WordPress.com. Some recent tests have shown that by subscribing commenters to new comments by default, they are more likely to stay engaged and come back and comment more on your blog. With that knowledge, we’ve changed the default comment following behavior to help you get more conversations going on your blog. We made the initial changes last week and after great feedback from you we just launched an update. Here’s how it works: By default, posting a comment… -
Look at These Gorgeous Blogs
15 May 2012 | 1:05 pmWe’ve added a user showcase where you can view stunning customizations made by people just like you. From complete redesigns with CSS to adding pizzazz with Custom Fonts to clever use of options like background and header, this showcase will spark your imagination and inspire creativity. Discover details about what each showcase blog is doing with WordPress.com themes and customizations by clicking a thumbnail to see a colophon-style list of credits on the left. We’ve also updated footer links so blog owners can show off the types of customizations they’ve made and visitors can… -
Photo Blogging 101, Part 1
14 May 2012 | 10:00 amSpring is in the air. With the weather warming up, now is a great time to get started on a photo blog. Creating a photo blog is a wonderful introduction to blogging on WordPress.com or an opportunity to refresh your current site. Ready to get started? You can sign up for a new blog right over here. Getting started Photo blogs, sometimes called phlogs, use pictures instead of words. While many photo bloggers choose a type of photo that they want to focus on, such as portraits, others use their photo blog to document their life’s events. Photo blogs come in a variety of styles, including… -
New Themes: Just Desserts and Oxygen
10 May 2012 | 8:11 amHappy Thursday! We’ve added some exciting new themes to our ever-growing collection, and we’re happy to tell you all about them. First out of the oven is…Just Desserts. Yep, that’s a theme! Designed by Andy Rutledge, Just Desserts is a deliciously stylish premium theme that’s perfect for blogs centered on food. With its responsive, single-column layout and unique presentation of images and posts on the front page, Just Desserts gives you a delectable canvas on which your mouthwatering photos and text can really shine — even when viewed on smaller mobile devices… -
Find Friends Who Use WordPress
1 May 2012 | 2:32 pmAre you curious to see how your friends are using WordPress? Give the new and improved Friend Finder a try to connect with your Twitter, Facebook, and Google contacts who have WordPress sites! After authorizing WordPress.com to use your Twitter, Facebook, or Google account to find your friends (don’t worry — none of this account information is saved!) you’ll see a list of people you know who have WordPress sites. Click Follow and each time your friend publishes a new post it will show up in your Reader under Blogs I Follow. If you have multiple blogs, make sure to set the…
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MediaShift Idea Lab
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OpenCourt: When Is Intent a Criminal Act?
15 May 2012 | 9:00 amTraditional media organizations cover big cases, and they do it well. Part of what's neat about streaming normal courtroom proceedings as a part of OpenCourt's efforts is being present for the interesting hearings that would otherwise fall through the cracks. For instance, in a scene about a week ago that echoed a plot line from the film "Minority Report," a local defense attorney moved that a charge against his client should be dismissed on grounds the state would essentially be criminalizing a state of mind. Both sides in the case agree the defendant, charged with attempt to commit a crime,… -
How to Decode State Law Histories
14 May 2012 | 9:00 amA rich source of information about laws is found in the history data that accompanies each law in most states, but you've probably never noticed it. For example, Virginia's Freedom of Information Act has a series of exemptions spelled out in § 2.2-3705.1 which has a cryptic series of numbers listed below the law, in the section titled "History": 1999, cc. 485, 518, 703, 726, 793, 849, 852, 867, 868, 881, § 2.1-342.01; 2000, cc. 66, 237, 382, 400, 430, 583, 589, 592, 594, 618, 632, 657, 720, 932, 933, 947, 1006, 1064; 2001, cc. 288, 518, 844, § 2.2-3705; 2002, cc. 87, 155, 242, 393, 478,… -
How FrontlineSMS Users Could Monitor Kenya's 2013 Elections
10 May 2012 | 9:00 amThe FrontlineSMS user community has seen a growing number of user meet-ups across the world in recent months. It's exciting to see community members come together and share opinions and experiences on our software. This is a guest column by FrontlineSMS user Joseph Owuondo, who attended a recent meet-up in Nairobi hosted at the FrontlineSMS offices. The FrontlineSMS meet-up held in Nairobi at the beginning of April brought together a number of organizations, individuals and experts who focus their work on elections and conflict resolution-related issues -- and who all have an interest in the… -
ROFLCon Attendees Get a Memes Blast From the Past
9 May 2012 | 9:00 amIt's 2012. Nerds are in, and Internet memes can actually make you famous IRL. But way back in 2000, things were different. YouTube didn't exist, and a video had to be sent around as an email attachment. (Remember RealPlayer?) Your mom yelled at you for tying up the phone line, and GeoCities plastered banners all over your creations. At ROFLCon, the past was well-represented during a recent presentation by Eric Wu of Eric Conveys an Emotion (founded in 1998); Zblofu of Zombocom; and Jonti Picking of Weebl's Stuff. They were all online in the '90s, but things really exploded in 2000. revisiting… -
How the Indie Audio Community Is Transforming Storytelling
8 May 2012 | 9:00 amA version of this post also appeared in the Association of Independent's in Radio monthly AIRBlast. I first started working with independent producer Kara Oehler in 2005. Almost a day didn't pass without her telling me about something that happened on the "AIRDaily" listserve. I'd been on listservs before, but I had never actually talked to other people about them. These conversations with Kara were my introduction to the network of more than 800 makers brought together by AIR. At the time, I was living in New York but was partially still in Berlin, where I was completing the multimedia…
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MultimediaShooter
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My iPhone Camera App Choices explained on Lofimode.com
11 May 2012 | 3:23 pm -
KDMC Berkeley, The Complete Package of Workshps
8 May 2012 | 2:28 pmCheck out The Knight Digital Media Center’s amazing Summer line-up of New Media workshops: KDMC Multimedia Summer Series Knight Digital Media Center and the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley are proud to announce our Multimedia Summer Series. These multimedia workshops are hands-on workshops designed to enhance your ability to create audience engagement across [...] -
JOB: The Seattle Times News producer
30 Apr 2012 | 3:33 pm -
Inside the Story: a masterclass in digital storytelling by the people who do it best
26 Apr 2012 | 7:04 amInside the Story: now on sale for a limited time! Get it now! And we’re off! It’s taken months of work, several hundred emails all over the world and lots of late nights, but Inside the Story: a masterclass in digital storytelling by the people who do it best is now on sale! On the [...] -
Who is TUCKER WALSH? | A Natural Bad-Ass!
24 Apr 2012 | 6:19 pmHere’s what I love about Tucker Walsh, He’s creating fantastic stories and sharing his process along the way. Take for example this posted video, Weaving a New Beginning, he posted a very informative PROJECT BREAKDOWN: Weaving a New Beginning contribution to the awesome blog that should be front and center on your radar, The Digital Naturalist. The [...]
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Reflections of a Newsosaur
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At risk: The best newspaper ad buyers
8 May 2012 | 7:00 am<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Courier New"; panose-1:2 7 3 9 2 2 5 2 4 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 - -
Average print circ fell 7% at top dailies
2 May 2012 | 1:28 pmContrary to reports celebrating an increase in newspaper circulation in the latest six-month reporting period, the weekday sales of the print editions at the nation’s 25 largest dailies actually fell by an average of 7.3%. Not a single one of the nation’s 25 largest newspapers gained weekday print circulation in the reporting period that ended in March. As illustrated below, the average -
Newspaper digital ad share hits all-time low
23 Apr 2012 | 7:00 amThe share of the U.S. digital advertising market garnered by newspapers shrank to the lowest level in history in 2011, according to newly published data. With the growth of digital formats like highly targeted search, mobile and social advertising vastly outpacing the ability of publishers to develop competitive new products, newspapers sold only 10.3% of the $31.7 billion in digital -
Banner ads flop in consumer-trust poll
16 Apr 2012 | 7:00 amOnline banner ads, which are the primary source of digital revenue for most publishers and broadcasters, are among the least trusted sources of commercial information, according to an important new consumer survey.While 90% of consumers have faith in online recommendations from friends and 75% of consumers value opinions posted at consumer websites, only 28% of consumers in North America trust -
Four ways newspapers are failing at digital
11 Apr 2012 | 7:00 amNearly two decades after the commercial debut of the Internet, most publishers still are applying the anachronistic newspaper model to their digital businesses. This is nuts. And it has to stop, if publishers have any hope of retaining a semblance of the relevance, readership and revenues that historically made them the influential and commercially successful enterprises they would like to
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Ricochet by Chrys Wu
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Livingston Awards Nominees: The Nominated Work
2 May 2012 | 12:25 pmThe Livingston Awards for Young Journalists announced its nominees yesterday. The annual prizes recognize outstanding reporting by journalists under 35. Winners of the $10,000 prizes for local, national and international reporting will be announced June 6. Sadly, the official announcement doesn’t include links to the entries so I’m collecting them here. I’ve started digging, but this seems like a relatively “quiet” award (unlike The Pulitzer Prizes, which get a ton of coverage). You can help me by sending a link to the entry plus some verification (a press… -
Ben Welsh Teaches You How to Create Robot Reporters in Your Own Image
22 Apr 2012 | 11:25 amBen Welsh of the Los Angeles Times Data Desk spoke at the International Symposium on Online Journalism in Austin yesterday, around the same time that I was speaking on a panel about data journalism with Erik Hinton (@erikhinton), Al Shaw (@A_L) and Andrei Scheinkman (@acheink) at NYU Local Young Media Weekend. Ben gave this talk at NICAR in St. Louis earlier this year. Lucky for us, ISOJ streamed it, and La Nacion’s data team captured it. Watch, learn, and dig deeper in Ben’s Delicious stack. Ben also writes terrific material on his site, Palewire and tweets at @palewire. -
Tools, Slides and Links from NICAR12
22 Feb 2012 | 10:25 pmOne of the most popular posts on Ricochet was the collection of dataviz tools, slides and links from last year’s NICAR conference. It was so popular, in fact, that people have asked me to make a similar collection again. So from Feb. 23–26, I’ll be updating this post with all the great things NICARians have to share this year. Follow #NICAR12 on Twitter for the buzz; come to this page for the goods. And if you’re attending the conference, be sure to buy a T-shirt to support IRE, the organization that puts this fantastic event together. Ben Welsh of The Los Angeles Times is… -
Solving people problems
30 Sep 2011 | 4:38 pmIf you want to understand someone, my advice is to sit next to them and solve a very hard problem together. You will learn who they are by watching how they think.— Michael Lopp -
How The Guardian does data visualization
28 Sep 2011 | 10:05 pmLast week, Alastair Dant, lead interactive technologist at The Guardian, came to Hacks/Hackers NYC to show how his team produces its informative and award-winning interactive graphics. It’s a wide-ranging talk about what’s new and inspiring about news technology, and how each team member’s unique skills contribute to the whole. Well worth watching. And if you want to deeply nerd out with The Guardian, check out their Developer Blog. The projects mentioned in Alastair’s talk: Twitter replay of the England vs. USA World Cup match (requires Flash) An interactive map…
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20 headlines from the reading list
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Journalism and Digital Education Roundup, May 15, 2012
15 May 2012 | 9:17 amThe best stories across the web on journalism and digital education 1. Students with computer science degrees are in high demand this year (Bloomberg) 2. Libraries in this county are buying, not leasing, e-books (Boing Boing) 3. Tax increase could bring iPads to classrooms in S.C. (Island Packet) 4. Teacher behind Calif. school's iPad program gets laid off (NBC) 5. Students in Vancouver work off "the cloud" (Vancouver Sun) Get the weekly Journalism Education Roundup email from MediaShift This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ». -
Daily Must Reads, May 15, 2012
15 May 2012 | 6:25 amThe best stories across the web on media and technology, curated by Lily Leung 1. Former head of Murdoch U.K. newspaper empire faces charges in hacking scandal (NYT) 2. Facebook bumps up its share price (Washington Post) 3. Should This American Life fact-check David Sedaris stories? (Poynter) 4. With a new CEO in place, can Yahoo focus on becoming a great media company? (GigaOm) 5. MarketWatch founder Larry Kramer is named publisher of USA Today (Politico) 6. Adweek requires you to share some articles in order to finish reading them (Scott Kidder) Subscribe to Daily Must Reads newsletter This… -
Ikea PS Collection 2012
15 May 2012 | 5:37 amNot so long ago I received an invite to go to the launch of the Ikea PS collection for 2012 at Ikea Ghent. Unfortunately I was too busy to go but I kept my eye on it to see if it was something worthwhile to mention here. Now that I had some time to read up on it & explore the furniture I believe it is. 46 products by 19 designers For this new PS 2012 collection Ikea asked its designers to search for inspiration in more than 60 years of Ikea design history. However, instead of just simply looking back the designers were challenged to bring the designs forward by updating and innovating forms,… -
Publish Your Multimedia Stories In Time Out Chicago
15 May 2012 | 4:48 amRegional magazines sometimes feel like an exclusive club that you can’t get into unless you’re a local. But for the Chicago edition of Time Out, writers from beyond the Windy City are welcome to send in their stories, including music and concert reviews for its TOC website. At over 3 million page views a month, the site isn’t a bad place for a beginner or a journalist passionate about his or her craft — not the money. And photo galleries are also a big deal on TimeOutChicago.com, so editor-in-chief Frank Sennett encourages budding photographers to look to the website to build up… -
Must Reads for May 14th
15 May 2012 | 3:57 amHere are today's must-read digital news stories from around the web: Twitter Will Email You Top Stories From Your Feed MediaShift . Infographic: Moms Hold Big Influence Online | PBS EXCLUSIVE: A Q&A With An Airtime Tester – Business Insider NBA Is World's First Sports League to 5 Million Twitter Followers New York Times Circ Gains Could Top Ad Losses by 2014, Says Analyst – Peter Kafka – Media – AllThingsD Jesse Angelo says things at his iPad news app, The Daily, are ‘going great' – :: Future of Journalism Internet Week Highlights: Old vs. New: The Publisher View | Adweek With…
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Robb Montgomery
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15 best iPad apps for teaching multimedia and real-time reporting
30 Apr 2012 | 4:48 amThe iPad apps for teaching real-time reporting, multimedia reporting and TV news production at the S.M.A.R.T. Media Lab. { Robb Montgomery } -
Sneak peek of the S.M.A.R.T. newsroom: Photos and 3D images
9 Nov 2011 | 3:41 amWorking with funders, partners and IREX staff in Georgia and Washington, D.C., Robb Montgomery developed a set of... { Robb Montgomery } -
Steve Jobs: 1995-2011 - A Visual Obituary
6 Oct 2011 | 7:39 amA multimedia archive that remembers Steve Jobs. Interviews, images, videos, tributes, quotes, and timelines. { Robb Montgomery } -
Video: Egypt’s Faceless Revolution - The director’s cut
15 Mar 2011 | 5:45 pmThis behind-the-scenes film report examines the contrasts in Egyptian society from places few Western journalists have... { Robb Montgomery } -
Using Storify to track the media crackdown in Egypt
3 Feb 2011 | 12:21 pmIndependent media was the target of the Mubarak Regime today in Egypt and all day I have been tweeting, retweeting and... { Robb Montgomery }
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Poynter. » MediaWire
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Los Angeles Times shuts down ‘LA’ magazine, lays off 7 staffers
16 May 2012 | 6:14 amLA Observed | Fishbowl LA | Los Angeles Times A memo from Los Angeles Times President Kathy Thomson broke the news in an email to staffers Tuesday: “…the entire magazine industry has been faced with a very challenging… Read more -
Rob Curley leaves Las Vegas Sun
15 May 2012 | 7:27 pmAfter four years at the Las Vegas Sun, Rob Curley is leaving the news organization. A memo from Brian Greenspun, the paper’s publisher and president, does not specify what Curley is doing next, just that “Rob has decided he… Read more -
Google explains why Adweek ‘survey wall’ stopped Gawker editorial director
15 May 2012 | 3:12 pmScott Kidder, director of editorial operations at Gawker Media, said it was “desperate” that Adweek’s website tried to get him to share a story on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ before he had read it. Turns out, that was a… Read more -
New USA Today publisher Larry Kramer gets to apply his theories about newsroom evolution
15 May 2012 | 2:00 pmNew USA Today Publisher Larry Kramer hasn’t had a newspaper job since 1991, when he left the San Francisco Examiner to found DataSport, and eventually MarketWatch. But he’s thought about newspapers ever since, and in his most recent gig as… Read more -
Susanne Reber joins Center for Investigative Reporting after NPR departure
15 May 2012 | 12:04 pmCenter for Investigative Reporting Last week’s memo announcing Susanne Reber’s departure from NPR, where she was deputy managing editor for investigations, didn’t say where she was headed. Tuesday, the Center for Investigative Reporting announced that Reber has been named… Read more
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SeanBlanda.com
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“Just try shit. Please.” and 4 other takeaways from Behance’s 99% conference
10 May 2012 | 10:55 amIf you’ve been following along at home, my professional life is in a self-created state of flux. The conference's namesake quotation as displayed on the program. As a result I’ve been doing my best to get out of the weeds and explore other fields to get inspired for the next move. Part of that personal journey happened last week at Behance’s 99% conference1. The conference is targetted towards “creatives” and focuses on turning ideas into action. Speakers included Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, How to be Black author Baratunde Thurston, Graphic Designer… -
We need better entrepreneurial journalism courses. Here’s how to fix them.
20 Mar 2012 | 11:20 pmI have an immense respect for the work of Jeff Jarvis at CUNY. While other people talk about revenue models for journalism, Jarvis actively teaches his students to explore for-profit businesses (see his curriculum here). However, I find myself wanting more from Jarvis and other professors that teach entrepreneurial journalism. What exactly, are they teaching students? What is the success rate of these programs? I often wonder what the ideal entrepreneurial journalism class would look like. Below is my best guess on the class I wish I had when I went to school based on… -
I’m leaving Technically Philly. Here’s why (and what’s next).
22 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amNow for the scariest sentence in the history of this site: effective June 1, I’ll no longer be involved in the day-to-day operations of Technically Philly and Technically Media. The reason: we’ve had great success running Technically Media as a tribunal, equally dividing roles and responsibilities between the co-founders: Brian James Kirk, Chris Wink and myself. As our business grew and diversified I had a growing opinion that we needed more leadership by having less leaders. It was time for me to lead, follow, or get out of the way. I want to make perfectly clear that this is not… -
On Content: less is more
13 Feb 2012 | 3:02 pmI’ve been experimenting with Tumblr lately. It’s half curiousity, half my fascination with online content delivery1. Tumblr’s CMS allows users to easily share links, pictures, videos and text treating them all as its own content type with its own front-end design. The content nerd in me loves this. After my initial glee at receiving followers and likes,2 I’ve discovered the majority of Tumblr blogs are just whimsical collections of animated gifs and irreverent one-off blogs. Even worse, I felt a sudden need to constantly have fresh material on the blog. I kept… -
The 6 totally awesome upcoming trends in 2012 that may only interest me
1 Feb 2012 | 12:56 amI’ll admit: this is a bit late for a “new years” post. But lately, my bookmarks folder in Google Chrome has been filled with articles about the following six subjects, which I think will have a big impact on the upcoming year: It's not a roo-mah. The Internet Fridge is coming this year. The Internet of Things – One of my favorite action movies is “The Sixth Day.” In the movie, which takes place in the future, the main character finishes off his milk and his fridge automatically orders a new carton1. The “Internet of Things” is the concept of…
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Megan Taylor: Web Journalist
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teach yourself to code
30 Apr 2012 | 9:21 amteach yourself to code, resources for people to want to learn programming. By Kate Ray. -
Open Thread Mondays: A Manifesto For Hyperlocal | Sheepshead Bay News Blog
30 Apr 2012 | 8:46 amI believe local journalism, local government and local economies are the linchpins of a vibrant, healthy nation. For decades, as conglomerates swallowed up independent news outlets across the nation (our own local paper, Bay News, is owned by News Corp. – the same company that owns Fox News and the New York Post, for example), local coverage was watered down because community reporting is expensive, and stockholders want dividends. And because corporations can view employees as easily replaceable cogs, one reporter who lives in the community and has covered it for decades is just as… -
Aviator
29 Apr 2012 | 2:20 pmTrying on aviator goggles at the Air and Space Museum in DC. -
Dalek dress
25 Apr 2012 | 6:40 amBeautiful Dalek dress by Somevelvetmorning via BoingBoing -
Put my CodeYear progress up on GitHub to motivate myself to stick with it
23 Apr 2012 | 4:16 pmPut my CodeYear progress up on GitHub to motivate myself to stick with it: megantaylor/codeyear.
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SteveOuting.com
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Dangerous idea: Embrace journalistic algorithms! #jcarn
29 Apr 2012 | 6:53 pmMy poor blog gets neglected, but fortunately there’s the monthly Carnival of Journalism thought-fest, which I try to participate in every month, if possible. At least the Carnival prevents me from completely ignoring my blog! This month’s Carnival prompt is a fascinating one. Put forth by University of Southern California professor Andrew Lih and his students, the provocative question is: “What is your most dangerous idea for journalism?” Here’s my answer in a video (at the urging of Lih, to get Carnival folks out of their text habit, I suppose): In the video I… -
Journalism’s impact: Is it becoming less than that of social media? #jcarn
24 Mar 2012 | 10:38 pmIt’s that time of month again: Carnival of Journalism! And this month’s question (a tough one, by Greg Linch) is: “What’s the best way, or ways, to measure journalism and how?” … To define it a little better, the real question is: How do we best measure the impact of journalism. OK, it’s going to take someone smarter than me to give a good direct answer to that. I’m sure one or more of my fellow Carnival-goers will rise to the challenge. When I look at the question, I can’t help but get sidetracked into thinking how social media (i.e.,… -
Carnival of Journalism deadline is Feb. 24!
17 Feb 2012 | 12:32 pmThe Digital News Test Kitchen at CU-Boulder and I are hosting this month’s Carnival of Journalism, a monthly blogfest in which anyone can participate by answering the Question of the Month. I’d been wanting to play host to a Carnival, and got my wish for February, thanks to Carnival overseer David Cohn. Here’s the question: “What emerging technology or digital trend do you think will have a significant impact on journalism in the year or two ahead? And how do you see it playing out in terms of application by journalists, and impact?” Got an opinion? A good answer? A… -
Can good journalist + good capitalist = possible?
25 Jan 2012 | 4:21 pmThis month’s Carnival of Journalism, hosted by Michael Rosenbaum, asks the provocative question: “Can a good journalist also be a good capitalist?” I’ll probably open myself up to charges of being “ageist,” but here goes… Working at a university journalism program (University of Colorado Boulder), I’ve come to the conclusion that the next generation of journalists will be better capitalists than older journalists. Because what I’m seeing on this campus, and I’m sure it’s similar at other university journalism programs, is a… -
Carnivals and holiday trees, for journalists and technologists
9 Dec 2011 | 7:07 pmI missed the last couple Carnivals of Journalism, but it’s time for me to get back into the groove. This month there is a question each for journalists and for technologists. My question is: If you are a journalist, what would be the best present from programmers and developers that Santa Claus could leave under your Christmas tree? I’ll overlook the pro-Christian slant (hey, what about under the FSM tree?!) and play the game. What I’d like to receive is a written contract from some developers and technologist friends committing to spending a year of their time working on…
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Strange Attractor
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News start-ups can’t survive on ads alone
2 May 2012 | 10:14 amStrange Attractor has now permanently moved to charman-anderson.com. Please pop over there to to read and comment on the full version of this post. Thank you! Reuters Institute fellow Rasmus Kleis Nielsen has a great post on the blogs at Reuters warning European journalism start-ups to avoid surviving on advertising alone. He backs up his warning with some stark examples of start-ups who have failed due to meagre revenue they were able to earn on ads: Advertising-supported online news production did not work for Netzeitung in Germany (which in 2009 shut down its newsroom after nine years of… -
News start-ups can’t survive on ads alone
2 May 2012 | 10:13 amReuters Institute fellow Rasmus Kleis Nielsen has a great post on the blogs at Reuters warning European journalism start-ups to avoid surviving on advertising alone. He backs up his warning with some stark examples of start-ups who have failed due to meagre revenue they were able to earn on ads: Advertising-supported online news production did not work for Netzeitung in Germany (which in 2009 shut down its newsroom after nine years of consecutive losses), did not work for Rue89 in France (impressive and innovative as it was, the site never broke even and was bought by the weekly… -
Thank you! The Oscar speech as I start my new job
12 Apr 2012 | 12:14 pmStrange Attractor has now permanently moved to charman-anderson.com. Please pop over there to to read and comment on the full version of this post. Thank you! As I start my new job, I feel a deep sense of gratitude. I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks for their support over the last two years. As I go back to full-time work, I first want to thank the managing director of Y Ffynhonnell, Suw, for being such a great boss. Seriously, Suw helped me navigate this leap into independence, which was truly terrifying for someone who had always held a full-time job. She has also been really… -
HIRED: Knowledge Bridge and the Media Development Loan Fund
12 Apr 2012 | 12:04 pmStrange Attractor has now permanently moved to charman-anderson.com. Please pop over there to to read and comment on the full version of this post. Thank you! After two years of very successful and satisfying professional independence working alongside Suw, I’ve decided to accept an exciting new, full-time position with Media Development Loan Fund. Who will I be working for? Who dat, you ask? The Media Development Loan Fund is a mission-driven investment fund for independent news outlets in countries with a history of media oppression. Last summer, I was invited to an MDLF board… -
Queen of the May Kickstater project launched – please help spread the word
12 Mar 2012 | 3:56 pmStrange Attractor has now permanently moved to charman-anderson.com. Please pop over there to to read and comment on the full version of this post. Thank you! Crossposted from Chocolate and Vodka. At last, Queen of the May is up on Kickstarter and ready your support! We have 28 days to raise $10,000, and already have $1905 pledged. Even if you choose the lowest support level, which is $3, please do consider taking part as every little helps! You can also help immensely by telling your friends about it. No matter how focused your own personal network, every mention of the project helps. Here…
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Teaching Online Journalism
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Programming and journalism students: A conversation
20 Apr 2012 | 1:26 amI think it’s pretty cool to use Storify to sort out the threads of a bunch of simultaneous conversations on Twitter: [View the story "Programming and journalism students: A conversation" on Storify] Please join in — on Twitter, on Facebook, or here. -
The courses a student wishes he had taken
19 Apr 2012 | 11:33 pmAs he prepares to graduate, University of Oregon public relations student Sam Drake reflects on the courses he did not take: Computer science: “To be able to code in Java, HTML, C++ or Python is one skill that is going to be extremely important in the coming years.” Marketing classes: “If I could have taken a few marketing classes then I would have a better grasp of how the business world works.” Language classes: “The last language class that I took was a Spanish class during my sophomore year of high school. After that, I never really used my Spanish speaking… -
The liberal arts portion of a journalism education
11 Apr 2012 | 11:00 pmModel Curricula for Journalism Education is a 150-page document produced by UNESCO and published in 2007. Its contents are based on work done in 2005 by an international group of journalism educators. While many details in the document (particularly the recommended books) are now quite out of date, the general principles and recommendations are still solid and useful. Although my main concern usually centers on digital skills (visual, audio, code) for reporting and storytelling, I was intrigued by these two lists in the UNESCO document (pages 33–34): Journalism and Society A knowledge of… -
Two online tools I use and recommend
10 Apr 2012 | 3:16 amJust a quick post to pimp two products/tools/sites I use every day — neither of which is nearly as famous as some companies that announced a billion-dollar deal yesterday. Pinboard. This is NOT the famous Pinterest that everyone is talking about. It has a few minor similarities (a “pin” metaphor, for one), but it’s not competing in the same arena. Pinboard has replaced Delicious for me. I used to save bookmarks to Delicious. It made finding those bookmarks again very easy and fast. It let me tag my bookmarks and write descriptions for them. I could make bookmarks… -
When plagiarism comes out, stand your ground
8 Apr 2012 | 11:02 pmThe recent case of the president of Hungary does not involve any transgression of journalism ethics. Yet plagiarism is a plague in our high schools and universities — in every country around the world, so far as I can tell. As a journalist and an educator, I consider this an ethical issue for everyone. We all know plagiarism is wrong. The students who do it know — full well — that it’s wrong. But when they are caught, they claim they didn’t do it, or they didn’t know. They always beg to be let off, free from consequences. As a university professor for more…
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The Evolving Newsroom
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-05-12
12 May 2012 | 2:30 amGizmon Clip-On Lenses for Apple iPad & iPhone | Hi Consumption http://t.co/2qPkmsxk # Nikki Usher: “Who Needs Newspapers?” It’s fewer people than publishers seem to believe http://t.co/IpOX9Xma # +1 RT @globalmoxie: Hey airlines: I love in-air wifi, I do. But if it's a choice, I'd prefer in-seat power. # Now employing 27 full-time staff, with plans to grow to 40 by autumn, Storyful is a news agency based on social media. http://t.co/pZaOQfI4 # Once you start pricing [news], you can start learning, and adjust. We can pick out at least nine emerging data points:… -
Links for 2012-05-06 [del.icio.us]
7 May 2012 | 2:00 amThe newsonomics of Pricing 101 » Nieman Journalism Lab MediaPost Publications Google Test Shows Paid-Search Ads, Email Marketing Integration 04/27/2012 Nielsen’s new annual report shows increase in multi-media-tasking, ad expenditure and price conscious Kiwis :: StopPress :: Breaking news from New Zealand Marketing magazine Online subscriptions push circulation up - Technology - NZ Herald News MediaPost Publications Tablets Gaining In Video Viewing Race 04/18/2012 State-funded media gets a fillip as Nielsen report puts Radio New Zealand National on top :: StopPress :: Breaking… -
Links for 2012-05-05 [del.icio.us]
6 May 2012 | 2:00 amRadio New Zealand About Us : Audience Research -
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-05-05
5 May 2012 | 2:30 amIndependent overtakes Mirror Group Digital | http://t.co/9TVcFAK6 http://t.co/guKwWjsB # -
Links for 2012-05-04 [del.icio.us]
5 May 2012 | 2:00 amWeldon swaps shares for grapes - Business - NZ Herald News Just 34 years old at the time Weldon says he felt a combination of excitement and terror at being appointed to the top job. "After a week it was less excitement and even more terror."
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Local Onliner
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Bookshelf: Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman’s ‘Engagement Marketing’
14 May 2012 | 12:00 pmExplaining the basics of local and social marketing to clients and prospects is a tough task for companies, who might come off as patronizing. Why not give them a book? A couple of years ago, Yodle CEO Court Cunningham wrote Local Online Advertising for Dummies, which did a great job explaining local advertiser options. Now, Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman has done the same for social media. Goodman calls it: “Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World.” As industry analysts, we look to Goodman for all kinds of insights into SMBs at every level. -
Groupon Rewards Rolls Out Nationally
11 May 2012 | 7:19 pmGroupon Rewards — “the easiest rewards program in the world” — rolled out nationally this week after tests in 36 markets that began in October. The product is Groupon’s answer to the emerging “transaction marketing” space that many believe will be the natural successor to the daily deals business. BIA/Kelsey Marketplaces has counted more than 24 vendors vying in this segment, with solutions ranging from Cartera to Swipely. In Groupon’s model, consumers register a credit or debit card with Groupon. Every time they shop at a participating… -
A Preview of Street Fight Summit West (June 5, San Francisco)
8 May 2012 | 6:27 pmThe local event calendars are filling up. A new event we’ll be attending is The Street Fight Summit West, which in June 5 at Bently Reserve in San Francisco, a classy location. Street Fight head Laura Rich tells us that the event will be more tech-oriented than the company’s two day East Coast event, which takes place in late October, and is inevitably more media oriented. Both events ultimately aim to reflect the latest in hyperlocal developments. Among the 30 speakers set to present are a number of our friends, including Topix CEO Chris Tolles, AOL Local SVP Mark Josephson,… -
Sounding off on Facebook’s IPO: The BIA/Kelsey Webinar
4 May 2012 | 4:17 pmvia CNN If anybody wonders whether the considerable “legs” of Facebook justifies a valuation now set for $83 Billion, have a listen to a terrific BIA/Kelsey Webinar on Facebook’s IPO, featuring Trada CEO Niel Robertson Wildfire CEO Victoria Ransom, and Plink Co-Founder Peter Vogel (and BIA/Kelsey analysts Jed Williams, Matt Booth and Jeanne Dattilo). People have to understand that “Facebook is more than advertising,” said Trada’s Robertson. “It is a platform that takes people through the digital marketing funnel. It lets you acquire prospects and move them through the different… -
Discussion with New FindnSave CEO Ben Smith
30 Apr 2012 | 5:56 pmLast November, major players in the newspaper industry bought Travidia as the cornerstone of a new shopping strategy. Travidia had been mostly known for its print to digital circular business, but it had recently repositioned itself with FindnSave, a new shopping platform that included digital circulars, along with inventory search via eBay’s Milo.com, and slots for deals, offers and coupons. Investing newspapers represented local titles reaching 80 percent of the U.S. population. They included Advance Digital, A. H. Belo Corporation, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., Cox Media Group,…
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VideoJournalism
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Before…
10 May 2012 | 9:25 amBefore the Internet…before TV…and pretty darn near alongside silent movies and radio way back in the early decades of the 20th century there was a breed of men who braved all manner of dangers from dancing beauty queens to crashing zeppelins to bring the news to theaters around the world. And now Amanda Emily has rounded up their tall tales into a tome of her own – From Behind the Lens: Short Stories of the News Photographers From the Pre-War Newsreel Era. A must read for all who love history, news, both. Newsreelers were the very first VJs…but this time let’s… -
First Amendment on a Sunday stroll…
6 May 2012 | 6:41 pmSo I turned up at the Lodi Library for an event that was postponed (unbeknownst to me). Instead parking was at a premium because the twice annual Lodi Street Faire had taken over downtown. Well, dangit, now that I had the camera AND a parking place it seemed to make sense to take a stroll through downtown and get some shots for my book-in-the-works. Hmmm…what to shoot. Did a bit of Rule of Thirds with horizon high, middle and low. Then set up to shoot wide, medium, close-up, extreme close-up. Oops. Too close apparently. The artist running the booth I chose at random walked out and told… -
Game changer…
5 May 2012 | 11:45 amEvery now and then something comes along and the reaction is, “COOL! Why didn’t I think of that?” (or…”I thought of that years ago and it’s FINALLY come out.) Back in the early 2000s JVC had something called the GY-DV300u aka the Streamcorder. That little gem was way ahead of its time. I grabbed one because after some pretty heavy duty research I found it had all the gizmos I wanted and needed to have a life after a multi-decade career as a broadcast news cameraman. But it had that little extra “umph” in the background that intrigued me… -
Do. It. Yourself.
12 Apr 2012 | 2:19 amWe all have those little tricks up our sleeves…the tricks we use to fix it, shortcut it, or make it easy for ourselves. Some years back I posted a quick little emergency “fixit” for those days when your last miniscule lav windscreen disappears. At the time I was experimenting with using my computer with a camcorder plugged in to see if I could record “live” into iMovie. It worked. The way I shot the video I mean. And the trick works pretty well too. All you’re doing is creating a dead zone above the mike head that keeps wind from hitting the head. Fast… -
Epiphany…
8 Apr 2012 | 9:38 amA sudden awareness of something wonderful! And it all came about because a former reporter asked where the reporters were in the photograph of newsreel cameramen that graces my facebook page. I responded that there were no reporters…just cameramen until the late 20s when soundmen appeared with all of their apparatus. Epiphany. No reporters for a visual storytelling media. Wow. Well, of course – just ask Amanda Emily of newsphotog.com – there were writers back at the main headquarters, who took in the reels shot by the field cameramen and with the help of editors turned them…
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Ackerman Gruber Images | Minneapolis Photographers » Blog
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Jenn Ackerman named to PDN 30
14 May 2012 | 6:13 pmI was recently named to PDN 30 a honor that puts me in great company. It’s an accomplishment I don’t take lightly and can’t thank all those who have had a role in shaping my short progression as a photographer to the person and photographer I am today. An honor like this has allowed me to step back and look how far I have come as a photographer and appreciate all of the people and experiences that have brought me this far. It is motivating and humbling at the same. Aside from the amazing editors that I have had the opportunity to work with, it has been the people that I have… -
The Sports Show Minnesota at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
15 Apr 2012 | 5:07 pmIt’s always a great feeling when an image from a personal project can find a home somewhere beyond your own wall or even worse just sitting in box as an unscanned negative. So I was beyond pleased when my Hockey Eye image from the US Pond Hockey Championship that just happens blocks from our house at Lake Nokomis found a home at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for their sports show. It’s such an incredible honor to have my work hanging in a place that has provided countless inspiration for me over the years. The show runs til September and the MIA is free so there’s no… -
American Photography 28
6 Apr 2012 | 3:04 pmOne of our photos from our Miss project was recently selected for the American Photography 28 book. Not a small feat as the pages of the book are a tough one to crack. From over 8,100 pictures entered by over 1,200 photographers, magazines, agencies, publishers and schools, the jury selected by a majority vote or better only 324 images to appear in the book and represent the best pictures from 2011. The selected photo – Related posts: Photography is Easy, Photography is Difficult Stephen King: On Writing (or in our case photography) A Few Things about your Photography Portfolio -
Voter Photo ID for AARP Bulletin
21 Mar 2012 | 3:25 pmRecently we photographed Carol Rudy for the AARP Bulletin for a story about requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls, a hot issue right now in Minnesota. Carol’s mother, Isabel, faced the daunting task of trying to get photo identification and was a conscientious voter throughout her 94 years, including serving for many years as an election judge. But obtaining a state photo ID proved so daunting she eventually gave up. Read the rest of the story on AARP’s site. Related posts: Julie Hartje For AARP Bulletin New York Photo Awards 2009 Nominations May 09 Email Photo… -
Off the Road in North Dakota
5 Mar 2012 | 10:38 amThanks to a BusinessWeek assignment late last year that took us to North Dakota we had a little time to start a new personal project on a state that’s going through some interesting changes. Since December, we have been back a couple of times to explore the project. This week, we’re heading back to North Dakota for an assignment which will continue that project. It’s always great when things work out that way. After a few more return visits we’ll have some work to share from the project, but in the meantime here are some images from our drive out there from…
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Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) - Understanding News in the Information Age
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Press Associations Open Their Doors To News Sites
15 May 2012 | 7:44 am -
China Daily to Publish African Edition as Beijing Strengthens Voice Abroad
15 May 2012 | 7:43 am -
Is CNN Trying to Poach Jake Tapper From ABC?
15 May 2012 | 7:37 am -
A Ray of Light for the New York Times
15 May 2012 | 7:35 am -
Friday Ratings: CNN Dips Below 100K From 5-9PM In Demo
15 May 2012 | 7:28 am
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Lost Remote
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Univision announces social video network UVideos
15 May 2012 | 10:23 pmAs the upfronts roar on, Univision (they reach 97% of Hispanic households in the US) is the latest TV brand to make major digital and social announcements. The network announced today at their upfront the launch of UVideo Digital Network and a brand new social experience with Facebook. We interviewed Kevin Conroy, president of Univision Interactive Media and Enterprise Development about the big announcements. According to their announcement, “Univision will kick-off live chats with its personalities and celebrities through Facebook Platform.” As part of the launch of the UVideos… -
Local Tweetup results in ratings boost, says KOMO TV
15 May 2012 | 2:44 pmKOMO-TV’s tweetup to promote last night’s premiere of The Bachelorette came out smelling like roses. We told you about their plans yesterday, and today the Seattle-based Fisher television station is reporting a significant increase in the ratings over the 2011 premiere. The ABC affiliate is using the hashtag #liveonkomo to generate discussion among their viewers about ABC’s entire primetime lineup. They kicked-off the campaign last night with a tweetup at the Seattle Four Seasons to promote the premier of The Bachelorette. KOMO on-air talent attended the event along with some of… -
Twitter breaks into TV dollars with ESPN deal
15 May 2012 | 10:21 amAt ESPN’s upfront presentation today, the sports network announced a strategic relationship with Twitter to co-produce unique social experiences around larger sports events. Advertisers will be able to buy into both ESPN’s properties and the Twitter components in a single integrated buy: the first time Twitter has cut such a deal with a network around major events. The first event gets underway shortly with the NBA Finals: fans will be encouraged — via ESPN and ABC promotion — to tweet photos of their best “game face” with the #gameface hashtag. At the end… -
Briefs: Dish DVR, Geofeedia, Google TV, Groupon TV
15 May 2012 | 9:52 amA few TV industry headlines from around the web to share… - Dish DVR draws fire – Customers may be impressed by Dish Network’s commercial-skipping feature on the Hopper DVR, but at least two networks aren’t so happy. - But can they stop it? – How the TV industry blew its best chance to kill Dish’s ad-skipping technology. (Hint: Remember ReplayTV?) - Social news discovery service – New geolocation service Geofeedia helps journalists locate real-time photos, tweets where news breaks. - Live TV viewing down – Not like this is surprising, but live… -
Peter Rice on social TV at the Fox upfront
15 May 2012 | 9:49 amWe’re in the midst of upfront week, and more than ever before social TV is at the focus of the rhetoric being carved out for TV advertisers. Fox President of Digital David Wertheimer told us that there wouldn’t be any big product announcements about social TV at their upfront. Instead, confidence in leadership as the number one TV network was explained through the importance of social TV. Here’s how Peter Rice, Fox Broadcasting’s Chairman of Entertainment described how Fox is now longer just about TV. Before some of the big announcements of the afternoon, including…
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National Press Photographers Association
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Robert Capa And Gerda Taro: Love In A Time of War
16 May 2012 | 5:41 amCapa and Taro lived, loved, and died on the frontline, becoming the most famous war photographers of their time. As a new novel about them is published, Sean O'Hagan of The Guardian explores their real relationship. -
Barnstorming For 25 Years: The Eddie Adams Workshop
16 May 2012 | 5:25 amIn 1988, Eddie Adams gathered some of the best photographers in the business – along with 99 aspiring ones – at his upstate New York farm to "see what would happen." The result was a four-day workshop that's been going now for more than two decades. And this October the Eddie Adams Barnstorm Workshop will celebrate its 25th anniversary, Jim Estrin reports in LENS in The New York Times. -
Reporters Committee Launches Hotline For Media Covering Chicago NATO Summit
15 May 2012 | 12:39 pmThe Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has established a local hotline for journalists covering the upcoming NATO summit who may be arrested or otherwise obstructed from covering protests and other public events. The hotline will be staffed by volunteer attorneys around the clock. -
NPPA Submits Objections To Copyright Fee Increase
15 May 2012 | 5:23 amIn response to a proposed copyright registration fee increase, NPPA has submitted written comments asking that the idea be reconsidered as well as a suggestion that they streamline the registration process. -
Charges Against Bradley Allen Are Dismissed
14 May 2012 | 1:12 pmCharges of trespass, vandalism, and conspiracy against NPPA member Bradley Allen have been dropped NPPA and media organizations filed a joint letter brief seeking dismissal. Allen was charged after he covered an Occupy Wall Street protest in Santa Cruz, CA, last year.
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Online Journalism Blog
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German social TV project “Rundshow”: merging internet and television
16 May 2012 | 3:49 amIn a guest post for OJB, cross-posted from her blog, Franzi Baehrle reviews a new German TV show which operates across broadcast, web and mobile. There’s a big experiment going on in German television. And I have to admit that I was slightly surprised that the rather conservative “Bayerischer Rundfunk” (BR, a public service broadcaster in Bavaria), would be the one to start it. Blogger and journalist Richard Gutjahr was approached by BR to develop a format merging internet and TV. On Monday night the “Rundshow” was aired for the first time at 11pm German time,… -
Dispatches’ Watching the Detectives: why journalists should be worried about the Communications Data Bill
14 May 2012 | 2:48 pmConsider these two unrelated events: A bill is proposed to record every contact (and possibly search) made by every UK citizen, to be available to law enforcement agencies and stored by communication service providers An inquiry into press standards and a leaked Home Office report both uncover the ease with which private investigators can access personal records through law enforcement and other agencies I’m worried about 1. because of 2. And tonight’s Dispatches: Watching the Detectives does a particularly good job of illustrating why. It is “the ease and extent to which… -
FAQ: Blogging inspirations, tools and trends
12 May 2012 | 6:39 amAs part of the ongoing series of questions answered in public, here are another bunch: 1) What inspired you to become a blogger? Have you ever found it difficult to keep up regular posts/ stay dedicated to the same topic area? As someone teaching online journalism, I felt I should be exploring the medium myself. What inspired me to continue, however, was the community I found along the way. Yes, I sometimes find it difficult to post, but the great thing about blogging is that you have no deadlines to hit or boss to please, so if I can’t post for a while, I don’t – but as long as I have… -
‘Chunking’ online content? Don’t assume we start at the same point
8 May 2012 | 10:11 amOnline multimedia production has for a few years now come with the guidance to ‘chunk’ content: instead of producing linear content, as you would for a space in a linear broadcast schedule, you split your content into specific chunks of material that each tackles a different aspect of the issue or story being covered. Interfaces like these show the idea in practice best: The concept is particularly well explained by Mindy McAdams (on text), and Andy Dickinson (on video, below): “[T]ake an existing package and break it in to its key parts. Write a description of each chunk… -
Create a council ward map with Scraperwiki
2 May 2012 | 5:19 amWith local elections looming this is a great 20-30 minute project for any journalist wanting to create an interactive Google map of council ward boundaries. For this you will need: A Google account with Docs A Scraperwiki account Access to webspace to host an html file Firstly we want to scrape the council ward geometry data held by MaPit by mysociety.org and spit it out into a CSV file format that is compatible with Google’s mapping tools. Getting the ID for the council ward Go to the MaPit homepage and use the postcode search for a point in the town/city you want the ward data for.
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Common Sense Journalism
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Gingras retrospective
15 May 2012 | 10:16 pmGiven the recent remarks by Richard Gingras, head of Google News, on the future of newspapers, it's also worth listening to this 90-minute recording of his 2009 appearance at the annual Convergence and Society conference co-sponsored by the Univ. of SC and Univ. of Nevada.(At this point, let me also make a pitch for you to get your free subscription (email link) to the Convergence Newsletter, which showcases papers from this annual conference and others as well as tales from the field to bridge academic research and professional practice. We'd love it if you'd contribute articles too.) Video… -
Nouns as adjectives NPR style
20 Apr 2012 | 5:12 pmCaught this on NPR the other day, a story by Julie McCarthy on how troops from India and Pakistan are facing off - and dying - on a remote glacier in the Himalayas.And right at the end came that tin-ear construction of using a noun in place of an adjective. What made this one ring tinny was that she combined both forms:"Pakistan-Indian relations."You won't find it on the transcript - NPR has cleaned it up to "Pakistan-India" (though I'd argue Pakistani-Indian would be better). So much for accuracy in transcripts, eh?But you can hear it right at the end of the audio:As I've argued before, I… -
Corey Hutchins on journalism
20 Apr 2012 | 4:37 pmNice video interview with Corey Hutchins, political writer for the Free Times in Columbia and S.C. Press Association weekly journalist of the year.Done by the University of S.C. SPJ Chapter.The volume's a little low at the beginning. It gets a bit louder later. (If you are easily offended, close your eyes briefly at 17:17) -
Beware of merchants using Squareup
18 Mar 2012 | 5:27 pmI hate to post this because I think it is wonderful new technology for small merchants to be able to swipe credit cards and handle the transactions through their cellphones.But if you are a business traveler, beware. As these little white square attachments start sprouting from cellphones, etc., you'd better check with your accounting department on whether it will accept the receipts you are emailed or texted.Many remain skittish about email receipts (possibility they can be easily forged). But the one I got today from a merchant using Squareup is likely to pose a special problem. While it is… -
You think Food Network would get this Web thing
14 Mar 2012 | 9:18 pmFood Network has one of the more sophisticated Web operations, but it's also an example of how even the good can go bad.Case in point, "Restaurant Impossible." Yeah, I admit I tune in every week. I spent a few years over a hot stove in the restaurant biz, so I identify.Usually at the end of an episode, they tell you how a restaurant is doing a few months down the road. But tonight, at the end of one on the Valley View restaurant, the message was to to go http://foodnetwork.com/ri to find out how the restaurant did.OK, I'm game and have the laptop open, so I head online to the Valley View…
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CyberJournalist.net
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Must Reads for May 14th
15 May 2012 | 9:57 amHere are today’s must-read digital news stories from around the web: Twitter Will Email You Top Stories From Your Feed MediaShift . Infographic: Moms Hold Big Influence Online | PBS EXCLUSIVE: A Q&A With An Airtime Tester – Business Insider NBA Is World’s First Sports League to 5 Million Twitter Followers New York Times Circ Gains Could Top Ad Losses by 2014, Says Analyst – Peter Kafka – Media – AllThingsD Jesse Angelo says things at his iPad news app, The Daily, are ‘going great’ – :: Future of Journalism Internet Week Highlights: Old… -
Think Web Video Can Challenge Upfronts and TV? Fuhgeddaboudit!
14 May 2012 | 10:12 am“Google, Microsoft and AOL are hoping that their web video offerings and NewFront presentations will help them extract a healthy slice of the TV industry’s upfront money this year. Not happening.” Simulmedia founder Dave Morgan expains why. -
Must Reads for May 14th
14 May 2012 | 9:57 amHere are today’s must-read digital news stories from around the web: Apple TV rumor mill makes millions as iTV ‘confirmed’ Original Content: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Nielsen: Mom center of online, offline life for families YouTube’s Video Views Are Falling — By Design AmEx Tests New Ways to Transact in Social Media As Video Goes Mainstream, TV, Digital Agency Execs Fight Over Who Owns It More startups added to social TV company directory My personal take: 3 reasons I don’t like newspaper paywalls Publisher LegalZoom files to go public OMG, is Amazon going to… -
Video: The future of technology, as seen in 1961
14 May 2012 | 9:22 amThis is a very cool look at how the future of technology was viewed in 1961, from a film AT&T commissioned shortly after AT&T had just announced its first modem. “This film not only serves as almost the birth of the information age, it also projects that technology far into the future.” The commercial products that would allow this connected, computer-communicating network? They’re basic, but at the time seemed radical: * The wireless Bellboy Pager, which was introduced commercially in 1962 * The Data-phone, which was supposed to revolutionize business… -
Must Reads
12 May 2012 | 2:51 pmHere are today’s must-read digital news stories from around the web: Want to reinvent TV? Don’t forget the TV – :: Future of Journalism Is Web TV’s Free Ride Over? How Old Media Are Striking Back
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The Newspaper Guild
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Peoria Update: Outsourcing Still a Key Issue
15 May 2012 | 3:00 pmMay 15, 2012PeoriaWatchdog.com/United Media GuildUpdating bargaining at the Peoria Journal Star, union leaders say Gatehouse has made some movement, including backing off a demand for salary concessions. The company "remains steadfast in its insistence on outsourcing circulation," although it has slightly improved its severance offer. -
Scofflaws at American Airlines
15 May 2012 | 2:19 pmEdward WytkindMay 15, 2012AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Dept.Blasting American Airlines for its "blatant refusal to proceed with a (CWA) union election among its 9,600 passenger service agents," as ordered by the National Mediation Board, AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Ed Wytkind says it's time to start calling company officials what they are: lawbreakers. "There are no legal grounds for AMR's position, and the airline knows it," he writes, in a column also published on the Huffington Post. Photo: Passenger service agents took their case directly to NMB headquarters this… -
Journalism Grad Wishes She'd Majored in Funeral Studies
15 May 2012 | 11:22 amElizabeth IrelandMay 15, 2012New America MediaSoon to graduate with a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University, Liz Ireland says she should have gone with her first career choice: mortician. "Think about it, the job only requires an associate’s degree, and as long as people die, I would have had a set career," she writes. "Another perk is that the funeral industry is a job sector experiencing growth. That’s right, even in this economy, the job is expecting an 18 percent growth rate. Although I could have had all this, the career, the job, the growth rate, I followed my… -
What's that Editor's Name Again?
15 May 2012 | 9:59 amCraig SilvermanMay 15, 2012Poynter.orgIn an amusing post, Poynter links to a Daily Beast piece on correspondence from former Washington Post executive editor Bill -- oops, Ben -- Bradlee. -
NY Guild: Consumer Reports Needs to Respect Its Union
15 May 2012 | 9:21 amAnna Pierdiluca, Unit ChairMay 15, 2012Newspaper Guild of New YorkCancellation of a traditional meeting between the Consumer Reports' board chair and the Guild unit chair is the latest sign of disrespect from management toward the union, Pierdiluca writes. Photos: Scenes from CR members' demonstration at the company's 75th anniversary meeting last fall.
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Media news, UK and world media comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
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Jack Straw gives evidence
16 May 2012 | 6:41 am• Straw believes Murdoch 'enjoyed playing with political leaders'• Straw 'gossiped' with Brooks during commute to London• Brooks was 'fairly persistent' in lobbying on 'Sarah's law'• Straw 'furious' after leaking Lawrence inquiry report in 1999• Parliament should introduce a privacy tort12.41pm: Straw says there will be a "concerted effort" by some newspapers to oppose any more coherent form of press regulation.He urges them to recognise "that the landscape has shifted completely" and says he hopes there will be a continuing momentum for change.12.37pm: Straw believes there should… -
I can no longer work for a system that puts profit over access to research | Winston Hide
16 May 2012 | 6:34 amAssociate editor of Genomics says its publisher Elsevier effectively denies developing countries access to research findingsToday I resigned from the editorial board of a well respected journal in my field — Genomics. No longer can I work for a system that provides solid profits for the publisher while effectively denying colleagues in developing countries access to research findings.It has not been an easy decision to make. Some may feel that I'm grandstanding or making a futile gesture. And it may be a toxic career move. Scientists are expected to contribute to the… -
Politician's payments to Mexican radio journalists were 'sponsorship'
16 May 2012 | 6:29 amI reported a couple of days ago about a Mexican presidential candidate having paid journalists for mentions on radio outlets.The radio station named as receiving money, Grupo Fórmula, has since explained that these payments - made by Enrique Peña Nieto - involved sponsorship and/or adverts.The station was supported by the National Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry, which represents the owners of Mexico's radio and television companies.It sent a letter to the director of the Reforma newspaper, which broke the story of the payments, saying the sponsorship ads were clearly… -
Bafta TV special: Ant and Dec, Anna Maxwell Martin, Kayvan Novak, Andrew Scott
16 May 2012 | 6:27 amStars of the small screen reveal their TV secretsThe entertainers: Ant and DecThis feels like real life," says Declan Donnelly, settling back into the sofa next to Anthony McPartlin. "We've done this before." You would have thought that after all those hours on telly performing – often live – for millions, Ant and Dec would want to do anything but watch it when they got home. "It's my number-one way to relax," says Dec. "We watch everything and anything and we constantly text each other to check what we're watching." Dec's last text to Ant was about the best ham sandwich in the world, as… -
Cineworld hopes films such as Prometheus will give summer boost
16 May 2012 | 6:13 amCinema chain looks to compete against Euro 2012 and Olympics as box office take rises 8.6% in first four months of the yearCineworld is banking on films including Ridley Scott's Prometheus to help maintain revenues against competing TV attractions including Euro 2012 football, after reporting an 8.6% increase in box office take in the first four months of the year.The UK's second-largest cinema chain behind Guy Hands's Odeon/UCI, Cineworld said in an interim management statement on Wednesday that total revenues increased 6.3% year on year in the 19 weeks to 10 May.Cineworld said box office…
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OUPblog » Media
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How to make a transmedia documentary: three takeaways
11 May 2012 | 2:30 amThe Very Short Introductions (VSI) series combines a small format with authoritative analysis and big ideas for hundreds of topic areas. Written by our expert authors, these books can change the way you think about the things that interest you and are the perfect introduction to subjects you previously knew nothing about. In this week’s VSI column, we give you Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction. Grow your knowledge with OUPblog and the VSI series! Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction By Patricia Aufderheide What happens to documentary when media goes interactive? It’s… -
‘The Unholy Mrs Knight’ and the BBC
10 May 2012 | 2:30 amBy Callum Brown In 1955 Margaret Knight became the most hated woman in Britain. She was vilified and demonised in virtually every British newspaper, and thousands of letters attacking her were sent by ordinary Britons to the BBC, to the papers and to her personally. Parents wrote fearing for the safety of their children, bishops and priests criticised her impudence, whilst well-known authors like Dorothy L Sayers castigated her ignorance. Hounded by journalists and pursued by photographers, the smiling image of Mrs Knight in her ‘Sunday-best hat’ and coat appeared in most newspapers. She… -
Why is there a ban on advertising activity in and around the Olympic Games?
9 Apr 2012 | 2:30 amBy Phillip Johnson This summer The Olympics is coming to town. It will be a sporting spectacular — the best sportsmen and women on Earth competing for the ultimate sporting accolade. Yet the Olympics is no longer simply a festival of sport. National governments and brand owners alike have long wanted to be associated with excellence and sporting excellence in particular. The Olympic Games represents the pinnacle of that excellence and so makes it the most desirable sporting “property” in the World. It is also the most expensive sports event to stage. The present estimate for the… -
Dangerous ignorance: The hysteria of Kony 2012
20 Mar 2012 | 7:30 amBy Adam Branch From Kampala, the Kony 2012 hysteria was easy to miss. I’m not on Facebook or Twitter. I don’t watch YouTube and the Ugandan papers didn’t pick up the story for several days. But what I could not avoid were the hundreds of emails from friends, colleagues, and students in the US about the video by Invisible Children and the massive online response to it. I have not watched the video. As someone who has worked in northern Uganda and researched the war there for more than a decade, much of it with a local human rights organisation based in Gulu, the Invisible… -
From Murdoch to Trollope: a familiar intrigue
10 Nov 2011 | 1:30 amBy John Bowen James Murdoch will today be hauled over the coals once more, by a House of Commons select committee determined to find out exactly what lay at the bottom of the phone-hacking affair. It has all the best ingredients of a modern political story – a too close relationship of politicians and press; a secret world of networking and influence now dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light; secret payments, cover-ups, and public outrage; and a strong whiff, not to say stench, of corruption in the air. The story of the ex-policeman, now a private investigator, detailed to…
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Media: Greenslade | guardian.co.uk
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Politician's payments to Mexican radio journalists were 'sponsorship'
16 May 2012 | 6:29 amI reported a couple of days ago about a Mexican presidential candidate having paid journalists for mentions on radio outlets.The radio station named as receiving money, Grupo Fórmula, has since explained that these payments - made by Enrique Peña Nieto - involved sponsorship and/or adverts.The station was supported by the National Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry, which represents the owners of Mexico's radio and television companies.It sent a letter to the director of the Reforma newspaper, which broke the story of the payments, saying the sponsorship ads were clearly… -
Help at hand for journalists stranded by college closure
16 May 2012 | 5:32 amWhen I wrote about the closure of the noSWeat journalism training college two weeks ago, there was an overwhelmingly angry response.Most commenters who had studied at the college (such as deskslave, alexnapierholland, redforever, Highfield and AJ1988) were highly critical of the facilities. Only one (RockyTheHack) appeared relatively happy with the experience.Perhaps the most telling comment of all came from a former tutor, hackster51, who was also critical of the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) for keeping accreditation in place for as long as it did.But the chair of… -
How Rebekah Brooks wrote the headlines in today's newspapers
16 May 2012 | 5:02 amIf Rebekah Brooks was angry when speaking to the press yesterday, then her mood may have been improved somewhat by today's newspaper coverage. Her decision to speak out set the news agenda, with most front page headlines reflecting her response to being charged with perverting the course of justice.The Daily Telegraph, over a picture of Brooks alongside her husband, Charlie, said: "'It's a witch-hunt': Rebekah Brooks comes out fighting."The Financial Times ran with "Brooks attacks hacking conspiracy charge", and The Times splashed on "Brooks pledges to fight 'unjust' hacking charges."The… -
Rebekah Brooks charges take the phone-hacking scandal to a new level
15 May 2012 | 5:46 pmThe decision to charge Rebekah Brooks with perverting the course of justice is a landmark moment in a scandal with a seemingly endless catalogue of landmark moments - and a further pointer to the unprecedented nature of an affair stretching back almost six years.Some commentators have argued that the public had become bored with the often arcane nature of the phone hacking articles in recent months.The evidence presented to the Leveson inquiry, so riveting for journalists, has also often appeared opaque to the outsider. It all somehow seemed so distant from the shocking discovery in July last… -
Flipper cleared! Dolphins are not gay or bisexual rapists after all
15 May 2012 | 8:20 amDolphins have been defamed. Six weeks ago, the Daily Mail informed us about The dark side of Flipper: He's a sexual predator who resorts to rape to get his way.And the Daily Telegraph also told a similar tale: "according to scientists", dolphins resort to "rape" to assert authority.Other news outlets around the world carried similar reports. Examples: bisexual and exclusively gay dolphins (MSN); male dolphins are bisexual, US scientists claim (Australia's News Ltd); and male bottlenose dolphins engage in extensive bisexuality (ZeeNews, India). These reports appear to be follow-ups to an…
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blog maverick
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The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon
13 May 2012 | 7:34 pmThis is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today: Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn’t it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn’t afford the money they were borrowing. That money was then spent on homes with the expectation that the price of the home would go up and it could easily be flipped or refinanced at a profit. Who cares if you couldn’t afford the loan. As long as prices kept on going up, everyone was happy. And prices kept on going up. And as long… -
Some Olympic Thoughts
22 Apr 2012 | 6:43 pmMy position on NBA players and the Olympics has not changed since I first wrote about it nearly 8 years ago. It was stupid then. It has not gotten any smarter. The following is an article put together by Brett Morris that provides an additional perspective and some more details that to me, re-enforce my position. ### When the Miami Heat’s Dwayne Wade said he thought “guys should be compensated” for participating in this Summer’s Olympics, he received a great deal of public backlash for being “un-American,” and “selfish,” from all walks of life… -
The Greatest Business Risk You Don’t Know About – Your Business Will Be Sued Over Patents
18 Apr 2012 | 1:53 pmYour business is at risk. For a lot of money. No matter what type of business you are in, you are susceptible to a patent infringement lawsuit. The worst part about this risk is that there is nothing you can do to protect yourself. You are a victim in a business world horror movie. Unfortunately , there is no one to scream “no don’t do it. Don’t open that door” and protect you. All the doors are open and the trolls are all attacking. Why wouldn’t they ? Put yourself in the position of a patent troll. If the laws changed in your industry so that if you… -
Dont Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort
18 Mar 2012 | 2:47 pmI hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion”. Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion”. What a bunch of BS. ”Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get. Why ? Because everyone is passionate about something. Usually more than 1 thing. We are born with it. There are always going to be things we love to do. That we dream about doing. That we really really want to do with our lives. Those passions aren’t… -
I Hope Yahoo Crushes Facebook in its Patent Suit
13 Mar 2012 | 3:10 pmAnyone who reads this blog knows how much I hate patent laws. I think 99pct of the time they are anti-competitive, corruptive, impede creativity and innovation and can kill small businesses. I think the ratio of patent law doing a good job protecting company IP vs it being used purely to negatively impact competitors or to troll for un-earned revenue is probably 1000 to 1, or worse. When I read that Yahoo was suing Facebook my immediate reaction was disdain. As I thought more about it, I came to realize that this case could be the water shed moment that causes enough people to recognize…
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News from Journalism.co.uk
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Jack Straw: 'Breach of privacy' should be in Human Rights Act
16 May 2012 | 6:15 amFormer justice secretary and home secretary says law should be amended - with parliament taking responsibility for an area previously left to the judiciary -
Rebekah Brooks says charges are 'expensive sideshow'
16 May 2012 | 6:00 amFormer News International chief executive's husband, who was also charged, says he is being used as a scapegoat -
BBC savings given green light as local radio cuts halved
16 May 2012 | 5:27 amThe BBC Trust asked the broadcaster to scale back proposed cuts to local radio, but has approved others, including a 'new all-England programme' for stations on weekday evenings -
Reporting from analytics: Why journalists should look at search queries
16 May 2012 | 5:00 amHow one news site scooped a murder by checking Google Analytics, and how Fox News switched focus from gunman to victim after checking what its audience was searching for using Chartbeat -
Rebekah Brooks: Phone hacking charges are 'expensive sideshow'
16 May 2012 | 3:35 amFormer News International chief executive's husband, who was also charged, says he is being used as a scapegoat
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One Man & His Blog
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How corporate structure can accidentally stifle innovation
15 May 2012 | 2:18 pmAh, Flickr. In 2004 I loved that site. But today is not a day for nostalgia. Today is a day for looking at the mistakes corporates make, and how you learn from them. And the Flickr/Yahoo relationship is a compelling example of just that:"The money goes to the cash cows, not the cash calf," explains one former Flickr team member. If Flickr couldn't make bucks, it wouldn't get bucks (or talent, or resources).Because Flickr wasn't as profitable as some of the other bigger properties, like Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Sports, it wasn't given the resources that were dedicated to other products. That meant… -
Has your CEO lost touch with your industry?
15 May 2012 | 9:29 amAs a recent evictee from the big corporate world, who spends some of his time working for big corporates, I'm still fascinated by the problems these huge companies face in adapting to times of massive change. I noted this post by Seth Godin a few weeks back: This is a sure sign of systemic failure as well as a CEO who is not doing the job she should be. When smart people who care get frustrated, something is wrong. I recognised that feeling - that of caring about the company, and of seeing solutions which I just couldn't get implemented, because the people around me weren't in touch… -
Journalists: the problem isn't better, it's different
15 May 2012 | 6:39 amJohn L. Robinson spots a great observation about journalism by Stijn Debrouwere: Because the entire point is that journalism is not being disrupted by better journalism but by things that are hardly recognizable as journalism at all. Stepping up your game is always a good idea, but it won't save you. It's a spot on observation. The trick is going to be ways of finding the core values and skills of what we call journalism, and finding whole new ways of expressing them in a totally different medium. You up to that? -
New view for a new life
14 May 2012 | 1:14 pmThis year has been difficult. Sure, some great things have happened, but getting our life back on track after the shock that ended last year has been tough, has required some difficult choices, and has lead to some emotional battering along the way. But those choices have lead us, finally, into a new home. And I'm in the process of getting my office set up:Let's just take a closer look at that view...So, yes, it's been a tough year. But some great things are coming from it... :-) -
Don't mess with the NEXT Blog Squad
9 May 2012 | 8:35 amPhotos of the NEXT official bloggers from the talented lens of Luca Sartoni
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The American Prospect
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Marriage, Already Redefined
15 May 2012 | 3:50 pmAs the debate over same-sex marriage has proceeded, one of the arguments you hear most often from those opposed to marriage equality is that there is this thing called "traditional marriage" that has been exactly the same for thousands of years, and if we "change the definition of marriage" to include gay people, well then things are really going to get crazy. There'll be no more rationale for keeping siblings from marrying, or keeping a guy from marrying his dog, or keeping a fish from marrying a toaster. What I don't often hear liberals say in response is: Yes, we are changing the… -
A Mayor for the Occupy Set
15 May 2012 | 2:26 pmIn the early 2000s, Jefferson Smith grew a reputation in progressive grassroots political circles as the hulking 6’ 3” strawberry-blond force of nature behind Oregon’s The Bus Project, a non-profit merry band of allies named for a 1978 touring coach bought on eBay, which busied itself , training scores of young people in the mechanics of democracy, signing up tens of thousands of new voters, and selling t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Vote, F*cker.” In 2008, Smith won election to the Oregon House of Representatives, where he memorably convinced colleagues on both sides of the… -
George Clooney Cares About It
15 May 2012 | 2:10 pmYesterday I wrote about the new global campaign to end rape in conflict, and why it's a winnable goal. Today, it's time to bring home the reasons why we need to put in the required effort. We’ve all got our lives to live and our own pet issues to look after, and it’s easy for those of us in the U.S. to think of “rape in conflict” as a conceptual "Terrible Thing" that happens to those Other (Poor, Brown) People Far Away. But when we tie it in a tidy little “Over There Issue” bow, we totally erase the ways it’s a "Right Here Issue," both in that we’re complicit in it, and,… -
Bush Endorses Romney
15 May 2012 | 1:44 pmMitt Romney clearly coveted the endorsement of George H.W. Bush. He first met with Bush the Elder in December at the former president's Texas home in an appearance everyone assumed equaled a full endorsement. However Romney staged a second event in March for the official endorsement as another photo-op with Bush 41. Meanwhile the other Bush who once occupied the oval office was nowhere to be seen, never rolled out as a public endorser even though Romney clearly wrapped up the nomination weeks ago. George W. Bush finally entered the fray Tuesday to let the country know whom he plans to vote… -
Hate It or Love It, the Stimulus Worked
15 May 2012 | 12:59 pmMitt Romney is scheduled to give a speech this afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa, where he’ll focus “on the unprecedented growth of government, spending and debt under President Obama.” The American Spectator has excerpts from the address, and they are–for anyone who cares about truthfulness–rage inducing: President Obama started his days in office with the trillion-dollar stimulus package – the biggest, most careless one-time expenditure by the federal government in history. And remember this: the stimulus wasn’t just wasted – it was borrowed and wasted. We still owe the money,…
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College Media Matters
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Central Connecticut State Suspends Soccer Coach, Drops $100,000 Fine on Athletic Dept. for Student Paper Theft
16 May 2012 | 6:30 amIn response to a student newspaper theft earlier this month, Central Connecticut State University has levied fairly substantial punishments against the soccer coaches responsible for it and the school’s athletic department. – As I previously posted, Shaun Green, head coach of the CCSU men’s soccer team, recently stole and trashed roughly 150 copies of The Recorder in response to an article he didn’t like. He subsequently apologized to campus security, but not to Recorder staff. According to the paper, Green’s motivation for the theft was an article appearing in the… -
Elon’s Edge Magazine Shares Student Traumarama Stories
15 May 2012 | 4:27 pmOne word, four syllables, lots of blushing: Traumarama. In the latest issue of The Edge, the magazine supplement of The Pendulum at Elon University, there is a laugh-out-loud-hide-your-eyes feature on student traumarama. – The term, first coined by Seventeen magazine, involves life happenings so embarrassing they “make even the most dignified college student’s skin crawl.” – The Edge feature, by Kyra Gemberling, is headlined “Elon’s Own Traumarama.” It shares first-person accounts from students about their especially cringe-inducing accidental… -
Keys to Writing a Student Newspaper Farewell Column: An Awesome Infographic (@easel_ly)
15 May 2012 | 5:37 amIn recent weeks, as spring semester rocketed to a close, the forever-adored-nay-clichéd editor’s farewell column once again appeared ad nauseum within student newspapers nationwide. – The column is a time-honored part of the college media experience, like skipping classes to work on a story, random awards from state press associations, and InDesign freezing up just before you save the most beautiful page you’ve ever laid out and will never be able to replicate. (Sorry, it’s been years, but I’m still bitter.) – Below is a slightly-snarky-nay-awesome… -
Graduation Memes: Guest Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Wikipedia, Adderall, a Cat & Pam from ‘The Office’
14 May 2012 | 12:29 pmWith commencement weekend now wrapped at many colleges and universities nationwide, it is the perfect time for a glimpse at cap-and-gown meme madness. Top related meme themes: the academic shortcuts students take to get to diploma-ville, post-graduation uncertainties, and economic hard truths. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Related College Memes, Final Exams Edition: Guest Starring Effie Trinket, The Rock, Polar… -
Student News Story of the Moment: Meningitis Deaths
14 May 2012 | 5:10 amDuring my student news searching this morning, I came across a word I don’t typically see pop up repeatedly: meningitis. Apparently, three students at three separate schools have died from different complications of it within three days. Pure circumstance? A quietly emerging outbreak? A regular occurrence? Here are the sad news screenshots. – – – – – – – –
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Reportr.net
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Video: Curation as a way to separate signal from noise
11 May 2012 | 9:30 amSteve Rosenbaum, author of Curation Nation, on the need to separate signal from noise. Speaking at the BBC spring briefing in London on May 4, Rosenbaum talked about the importance of sharing content that is interesting, valid thoughtful and useful. -
How the newspaper was made in 1942
4 May 2012 | 3:33 pmThe British Council has posted a wonderful video on the production of an issue of The Times during the Blitz in the 1940s. The film, called Morning Paper, follows the different stages of the process, from the daily editorial conference to the printing presses. “Britons are inveterate newspaper readers,” says the presenter. “The morning survey of events at home and aboard is for them almost a ritual.” Thanks to Richard Sambrook -
10 best practices for Twitter for journalists
2 May 2012 | 2:58 pmSocial media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have become part of a reporter’s toolkit. Yet research shows that media outlets and journalists tend to approach these Web 2.0 services with a 1.0 mindset. In an attempt to help newsrooms, journalism professors Susana Herrera and José Luis Requejo have put together a list of 10 best practice guidelines for using Twitter. The article is published in the March 2012 issue of the Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies (subscription required). For the guidelines, the scholars looked at the academic research on Twitter and… -
Slides from ISOJ talk on Andy Carvin sourcing of the Arab Spring
23 Apr 2012 | 10:36 amHere is the presentation I gave at the International Symposium on Online Journalism at UT Austin of our paper, Sourcing the Arab Spring: A case study of Andy Carvin’s sources during the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. The abstract is available on the papers site of the International Symposium on Online Journalism. Sourcing the Arab Spring: A Case Study of Andy Carvin’s Sources During the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions View more presentations from Alfred Hermida -
Rethinking journalism, tackling data, Twitter reporting and more from #ISOJ12
21 Apr 2012 | 5:15 pmHere are the posts covering some of the highlights of the International Online Journalism Symposium for 2012 at UT Austin: Japan tsunami photos highlight human cost, study finds In the final research panel at ISOJ, Rosellen Downey, Erika Johnson, and Bailey Brewer, University of Missouri, looked at the coverage in photos of the Japanese tsunami. WSJ Raju Narisetti on the need to create great news experiences The last keynote at ISOJ was Raju Narisetti, managing editor, Wall Street Journal Digital Network Narisetti said the big challenge faces journalism is turning great content into great…
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Metaprinter
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7 Reasons Why Hospital Blogs Are Awesome Content Marketing Platforms
26 Apr 2012 | 8:19 pmI recently read a very simple article Why Hospital Blogs Fail. My biggest takeaway from the article was, wha???? Reality Check: Blogs of any kind are only as good as the effort put into them. Look at this blog for instance. I almost never write to it any more, commenting has been disabled to minimize spam and virus attacks, and the focus has shifted over the years. As a result, traffic has fallen off a cliff. BTW if you like fishing head on over to the greatest fishing blog ever, my other pet project where I now devote much of my time. As a result? That blog gets 11k pageviews a month and… -
Ask a non-expert: Kindle Fire review
23 Nov 2011 | 10:09 pmOrdered a Kindle Fire out of shear curiosity and it arrived yesterday. Here’s my take so far. PROS: 1. It’s smaller than an iPad making it a pleasure to hold with one hand while navigating with the other. 2. The screen size is just big enough to watch movies on without your eyeballs melting. 3. $199 for a new toy isn’t bad. 4. $75 annual amazon prime membership gives me access to 10k videos (movies, tv shows) and a book library where i can borrow a book a month. (I took out The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins) 5. The controls are mostly intuitive; tap, double tap, spread,… -
Day 10 – 31 Days to an Even Better Blog
23 Jul 2011 | 9:40 pmEDIT – This test has been abandoned because the source material is obsolete, don’t waste your money. Before we get into Day 10 – A quick recap. I continue on my quest to grow RoundValleyFishing.com to 100,000+ monthly pageviews with the goal of becoming the best fishing blog on the internet. I started a meetup.com group – Round Valley Fishing Meetup Group and have scheduled the first event for August 6th. I’m excited about the offline opportunity here and even seen a little bump in traffic from the promo. (I’ve been tweeting the group and upcoming event on… -
Day 9 – 31 Days to an Even Better Blog
17 Jul 2011 | 11:50 pmDay 9 is about joining a forum related to your niche and participating over a long period of time with goal being 1.adding value to your readers 2. piquing the interest of the forum readers enough to drive them back to your blog (by learning more about you in your forum profile.) Directly joining a fishing forum and attempting to drive traffic away from it to your own blog seems a little shady. I know I would not want it done to me. (I did join a few newspaper sites and link back to roundvalleyfishing.com though) Instead I have google alerts set up for every possible scenario concerning my… -
Day 8 – 31 Days to an Even Better Blog
17 Jul 2011 | 10:51 pmDay 8 is all about interlinking your blog posts to boost pageviews and provide more value to your readers. I’m already running the YARPP plugin which auto-suggests related articles at the end of a post, but interlinking puts the actual links back into the body of your posts. It is a manual, time-consuming process. For the biggest bang for my buck, I looked through my Google Analytics account to see which posts are most popular and decided to ad interlinks to the top ten.
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Twitter / themediaisdying
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themediaisdying: RT @Mediabistro: LA Times Magazine is shutting down: http://t.co/jygYovuc (vis @FishbowlLA)
15 May 2012 | 4:30 pmthemediaisdying: RT @Mediabistro: LA Times Magazine is shutting down: http://t.co/jygYovuc (vis @FishbowlLA) -
themediaisdying: Google's head of news: Newspapers are the new Yahoo : http://t.co/LNV4Dk9c
14 May 2012 | 3:01 amthemediaisdying: Google's head of news: Newspapers are the new Yahoo : http://t.co/LNV4Dk9c -
themediaisdying: SCRAPBOOKS ETC will cease print with the August issue (via @woodenhorsepub)
13 May 2012 | 1:18 pmthemediaisdying: SCRAPBOOKS ETC will cease print with the August issue (via @woodenhorsepub) -
themediaisdying: The redesigned Harper's Bazaar drew in 6% less people compared to numbers last year. #ouch
13 May 2012 | 12:49 pmthemediaisdying: The redesigned Harper's Bazaar drew in 6% less people compared to numbers last year. #ouch -
themediaisdying: Bleak month in March for magazines ABC's .. ELLE down 25%, MARIE CLAIRE down 23%, ALLURE down 28%, Vogue down 2.5% yoy... #understatement
13 May 2012 | 12:48 pmthemediaisdying: Bleak month in March for magazines ABC's .. ELLE down 25%, MARIE CLAIRE down 23%, ALLURE down 28%, Vogue down 2.5% yoy... #understatement
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Kirk LaPointe's themediamanager.com: on journalism standards, ethics and the public - Curation/Blog
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Columbia Journalism Review on the success of Scandinavian press councils
30 Apr 2012 | 12:34 amAs England wrestles with the direction of press regulation and Canada studies the state of its press councils, the Columbia Journalism Review finds a success story in Scandinavia. There, complaints about the press seem to be handled with aplomb and applause.The story focuses on the example of the mass murder last year in Norway and how the council dealt with complaints --- which in its case must be filed by a principal in the story, not a member of the public. But there are similar councils in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.What it finds is that a strong council comprising journalists, editors… -
David Carr on the uncorrected Trayvon Martin mistake by NBC's Today Show
23 Apr 2012 | 5:43 pmThe New York Times' David Carr chronicles the extensive effort by NBC's The Today Show to make right on an audio editing mistake that created an error. The clip left the impression that George Zimmerman, charged with second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin, uttered racist statements. The Today Show fired or disciplined several employees and issued a statement apologizing.What it didn't do, Carr noted, was tell its audience it had erred. Carr examines the case as an example of American television culture about correcting the record."Give NBC credit for dealing with a big error that… -
Pew releases annual State of the Media report
19 Mar 2012 | 1:48 pmArguably the most comprehensive examination of news media arrives in the form of the annual State of the Media report from the Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. It looks at each platform, trends in creation and consumption, some of the economic conditions and ambitions, and summarizes the environment in which journalism (primarily North American journalism) operates.This year's report is out, and not surprisingly its focus is on the technological thrust of content delivery. Its findings note a rapid growth in mobile consumption. that social media are not yet large drivers of… -
This Week In Questions: An American Life, New Hampshire Compass, The Oregonian
17 Mar 2012 | 1:21 pmIt has been an interesting few days to view the combination of retraction, accusation and misinformation over stories in three American media outlets.The most prominent involved This American Life and its January episode on the Foxconn plant in China that manufactures Apple products. The episode was based on a one-man theatrical production, but the program has lately discovered that elements of the show were more theatre than journalism.There was a front-page column this week in the New Hampshire Eagle Times asserting that its rival, the Compass, had essentially plagiarized a sports column… -
Australian media inquiry recommends new watchdog
6 Mar 2012 | 6:16 pmAn inquiry into Australian media has concluded that a new press regulatory body is required to deal with public complaints. The inquiry, called in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal and headed by retired judge Ray Finkelstein, offers several recommendations to deal with public trust in the press.The inquiry concluded that existing measures are insufficient and underfinanced to deal with public concerns. Only a limited number of news media participate in such initiatives. Finkelstein recommends a binding authority that would compel apologies and corrections across all platforms. It would be…
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State of the Fourth Estate
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The Share Wall: Coming Soon to a Mag Near You
15 May 2012 | 10:16 amIt’s official, the Pay Wall folks aren’t running things anymore or at least are having a nice long lunch. Perhaps we have something much more cynical and self-serving that at least *relates* to this generation’s content economy. Spotted over on AdWeek by Scott Kidder, it’s a (first of its kind?) Share Wall. I liked The Awls’s comment when they reblogged Kidder’s finding: I want to talk to the evil stupid-genius that invented this. UPDATE, 1:50 pm, 5/15: Nieman Journalism Lab is now saying that it was an accidental bug, not a planned feature. -
How An Idea Becomes A Book [CHART]
15 May 2012 | 9:47 amAw, print. Created by Weldon Owen found via here. -
NYT Subscribers Almost Back to Loss-Leaders by 2014
14 May 2012 | 2:19 pmWhen you are comparing subscribers to circulation, the only way I can think about it is loss leading. Just a thing. I just wish there were other ways to measure the value of someone looking at each piece of content… -
Technology, Adoption and Speed: Fun with Charts
9 May 2012 | 4:23 pmI love technology adoption curves: Spotted over at Geekosystem. -
[CARTOON] I am the Very Model of a Modern Communications Major
8 May 2012 | 4:24 pmI love you XKCD, please never change. I highly encourage you to enjoy the whole cartoon-musical ode to Penzance and “Every Major’s Terrible”, but here at Sot4th, I have to point out the specific knock on Communications majors:
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Nieman Journalism Lab
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Google: Adweek’s “share wall” is a bug, not a feature
15 May 2012 | 12:27 pmScott Kidder, director of editorial operations at Gawker Media, tweeted his indignation this morning when he found himself forced to share an Adweek article via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ if he wanted to read beyond the opening few paragraphs. (The rest of the story was blocked by grey boxes, as you see above.) He posted a screen shot of the offending prompt and the Tumblr community had its say: “god, this reeks of desperation,” opined jenawithonen. “if you can’t get people to read your articles, write better articles.” The outrage! Combined with the recent… -
PubliCola, 2009-2012: How a Seattle news startup built an audience but not a business
15 May 2012 | 10:22 amThe last time we checked in with Seattle news startup PubliCola, in 2009, it seemed to be thriving despite an awful economy. Just five months after its launch, the local political news site had a growing audience, two investors, ad revenue (at least to pay its then only reporter’s salary), and plans to expand its coverage. The site’s serious reporting on city hall and the state house was drawing attention, gaining credibility, and taking advantage of a boost in momentum for American politics. The site was launched one day before President Obama’s inauguration, and as… -
They’ll do it live: Inside Boston Sports Live, The Boston Globe’s new noon sports show
14 May 2012 | 12:34 pm“Where’s Gasper? We might need him.” There’s an empty chair where Christopher Gasper should be. It’s at a news desk set against a green screen in the studio where Boston Sports Live will go on the air at noon in about 15 minutes. This studio is inside The Boston Globe — just off the newsroom, to be exact, and Gasper, a sportswriter, is probably somewhere between his other desk and this one. It’s a Monday, the second week the Globe has been producing the live online sports show, which aims to capitalize on the city’s deep and intense relationship… -
How to peek through Dan Schultz’s Truth Goggles, the B.S. detection software, right now
14 May 2012 | 9:03 amLast November I wrote about Dan Schultz and his Truth Goggles, a piece of software he’s developing in partnership with PolitiFact that highlights suspicious claims in news articles. It’s as simple as spellcheck. Now, as Schultz finalizes his graduate thesis at the MIT Media Lab, he’s conducting a user study to understand how people (anonymously) respond to a prototype of the tool. It’s our first look at the software in action, and he wants you to give it a try. Here’s how it works. First you’re asked to evaluate the veracity of several statements. -
This Week in Review: Facebook social apps’ dropoff, and AOL’s Huffington Post dilemma
11 May 2012 | 9:00 amSlideshows, Facebook apps, and annoyed readers: After a few weeks revolving around News Corp., the media-watching world seemed to fixate on The Washington Post this week, focusing specifically on two developments: First, Adweek’s Lucia Moses reported that several top Post editors and reporters met with the newspaper’s president, Steve Hills, and that among other things, he urged them to produce more pageview-grabbing slideshows. The Atlantic Wire’s Alexander Abad-Santos called it “one of the more disturbing things you’ll hear from someone in charge of one…
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Failure Magazine's Feature Articles
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Proverbial Wisdom (Defined)
14 May 2012 | 12:08 amPublished compilations of proverbs have failed to keep up with the expanding repertory. Enter “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs.” -
The Woman Who Wasn’t There
30 Apr 2012 | 11:59 amThere’s a good reason Tania Head’s 9/11 survival story was frequently characterized as almost unbelievable. None of it was true. -
Glock
28 Apr 2012 | 8:15 pmHow Glock became synonymous with the semiautomatic pistol, in the same way that “Google” is shorthand for Internet search. -
Don’t Put Me In, Coach
15 Apr 2012 | 7:59 pm“I didn’t dream about this,” says Mark Titus about the popular and critical acclaim for ‘Don’t Put Me In, Coach.’ “I didn’t know it was possible for a bench-warmer to write a successful book.” -
Saving Ships from Extreme Waves
11 Apr 2012 | 12:33 amIn the winter of 2000, the RRS Discovery recorded the highest waves ever measured in the open ocean, resulting in a surge of interest in extreme waves, and renewed emphasis on protecting ships and offshore structures from their destructive power.
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Bonnier News
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New CEO for MTV Media
11 May 2012 | 4:34 amHeikki Rotko to succeed Pekka Karhuvaara at the helm of MTV Media. MTV Media in Finland announced today that Heikki Rotko will assume the position of CEO for MTV Media in July. Rotko succeeds Pekka Karhuvaara, who has served as CEO for more than ten years and will take the position of Vice Chairman of the Board for the MTV Media Group. Rotko, 50, has been working in the media industry for over 25 years. He began his career in commercial radio as CEO for Radiobooking Oy. In 1992, he was part of the start-up of TV channel MTV3 and later served as national sales director for MTV Oy until 1997. -
The Outdoor Life Look
10 May 2012 | 6:35 amIn a new deal with Sears, Outdoor Life expands the brand to a line of clothing. Earlier this week, Outdoor Life magazine and U.S. department store retailer Sears announced a new cooperation to launch a range of Outdoor Life-branded clothes for men. The line will be sold at some 800 Sears throughout the U.S. starting in Sept. 2012. "This opportunity offers a perfect extension for the Outdoor Life brand," says Eric Zinczenko, Vice President and Group Publisher of the Bonnier Outdoor Group. The Outdoor Life line will be featured in stores nationwide in a heavily branded in-store retail space… -
Global Prize
9 May 2012 | 12:34 pmSwedish dailies Dagens Nyheter and Expressen win top prizes from international media organization INMA. During the annual global congress of the INMA, two of Bonnier's daily newspapers took home first prizes in the organization's annual awards. Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter took first place in the category "Print and Digital Subscription Sales." The paper won for its launch of the new DN, with the judges calling DN "a great project with brilliant excecution that led to great results." "This is absolutely one of the most important prizes," said Johan Othelius,… -
Introducing DiY
8 May 2012 | 9:13 amBusiness news magazine for students premieres from Dagens industri today: DiY. Today, Dagens industri introduces the newest member of the family: DiY, Sweden's business news magazine for students. The Y stands for Generation Y - tomorrow's decision makers. The news magazine, which will come out twice monthly, will be offered free for any students who sign up for subscriptions. The first issue was sent to 35,000 students from across Sweden. "We've gathered together the best material for students that we've published in our other Dagens industri papers," says Johan Östberg, project manager for… -
An Abundance of Awards
7 May 2012 | 10:06 amSaveur magazine boasts a bevy of recently won prizes. Saveur is being showered with awards for its articles, columns and videos, in print as well as on the web. Last week was particularly big for the popular U.S. food title, with wins from both the American Society of Magazine Editors and the James Beard Foundation. The magazine earlier won awards as well from magazine industry stalwart Min and IACP, the International Association of Culinary Professionals. For James Oseland, editor-in-chief, winning the awards is real validation that what the magazine does is worthwhile. "We're composed…
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Life At Bonnier
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Barbie and Bonnier in Britain
10 May 2012 | 7:06 amChildren's book publisher Bonnier Publishing just received licensing rights for Barbie in the U.K. We talked about what's in store with Perminder Mann, managing director for Autumn Publishing and Smellessence. What does Bonnier's new Barbie licensing agreement involve? The licence is for master publishing rights in the U.K. - this means all book formats excluding annuals and we have included formats exclusive to our Smellessence brand as well. It is for 3 years and expires at the end of 2014. How did Bonnier Publishing win the license? We acquired the licence on the strength of our… -
For the Senses
10 May 2012 | 6:40 amFood lovers mingle with celebrity chefs and editors at Allt om Mat's taste event. What happens when you mix together a pinch of TV chefs, a healthy portion of cook book authors, a couple of food companies and then throw in 300 food enthusiasts of all kinds? You get Sinnen och Smak (Sense and Taste), Allt om Mat's recent event for its readers. "Sinnen och Smak is a way for our readers to feel a part of the magazine," says Anna Gidgård, editor at Allt om Mat, Sweden's largest and most popular food magazine. The event, which is organized by the magazine in cooperation with some of its… -
Film and Social Media
30 Apr 2012 | 7:44 amFilm distribution company Svensk Filmindustri tackles the social media question across the Nordic region. Nikki Sørensen explains. Nikki Sørensen The growth of social media has occurred at a phenomenal rate and the use of marketing in social media channels has also experienced exponential growth. At film and DVD distribution company Svensk Filmindustri, each of the subsidiary companies in the Nordic region has made use of social media at its own discretion, at whatever level internal and economic resources allow. So it seemed like a natural step to organize a social media conference in… -
Finance Kids
26 Apr 2012 | 5:08 amWith school and child care teachers on strike, Finance helps parents make it through the day. When teachers went on strike in Ljubljana, Slovenia recently, business daily Finance didn't let it make things difficult for its working parents: the paper set up its own child care on the premises for the day. And it wasn't your usual child care. Finance took over two of the gyms of the Fit & Fun sports center located in the same building, and with the help of six people hired for the day, kept 26 children busy during the morning. And while the kids may not have missed their parents very much,… -
Meet Leena Salo
25 Apr 2012 | 7:05 amA love of literature has taken GROW participant Leena Salo from Finland to the U.K. When Leena Salo from Finland moved to Dorking and started at Templar, she had to get used to a whole new language - and it wasn't English. "I daily hear - and now use - words like pop-ups, glue spots, embossing, foiling, varnish and spacer," Salo says. "Which probably sound like a foreign language to people who don't work in publishing, even if they are native English speakers." Salo has traded a job as online producer for Finland's MTV3.fi, the website of TV channel MTV3, for a three-month stint in R&D…
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R&D Blog
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Datatainment – an emerging digital media category
26 Apr 2012 | 9:05 amLooking at data from a consumer perspective, not just as a tech trend, opens up for new digital media opportunities Data is a hot topic with huge ambitions. From what we hear from tech evangelists, "Big Data" might just disrupt and transform everything from how we understand our cities and education, to healthcare and finance. There's no stopping data now. A search in this year's SXSW schedule generated 150 results of interesting talks and panels where data was a key theme. Among them: Maps of Time: Data As Narrative, Data Is the New Oil: Wealth and Wars on the Web, Big Data:… -
Subscription is the New Black
24 Apr 2012 | 7:26 amWithin the past several years, a number of new subscription services have emerged catering to consumers who are both hungry for uniquely packaged digital media services and willing to pay for them. The business model traditionally applied to newspapers, magazines, cable bills and gyms, has become appropriated by digital music players like Spotify and Pandora, video-on-demand (VOD) services such as Netflix, Lovefilm and Hulu, and – lately – by pure e-commerce players. Indeed, in our internet-enabled world, many products not traditionally sold via subscription are increasingly… -
A Billion Dollars: The Price of Intimacy?
11 Apr 2012 | 4:06 pmInstagram photo by Megan Miller On Monday, the world learned that Facebook will spend one of its billions of dollars to acquire Instagram, a two-year-old, zero-revenue, mobile photo-sharing application. It’s an astounding amount of money, and the air in Silicon Valley has tasted a little different in the wake of the announcement. There’s a touch of reverence, a bit of jealousy, concern about the bubbly nature of the market (soon to pop?), but also a hefty measure of hope. As a young startup founder I met last night said, “We should all be happy about Instagram’s success. A rising tide… -
Creating a European Tech Capital
3 Apr 2012 | 2:30 pmBonnier R&D in London and Berlin At every European tech conference these days, the discussion of which European city owns the title “the Silicon Valley of Europe” invariably comes up. Is it Berlin, home to flourishing startups like SoundCloud and Wooga, as well as Europe’s largest market of 80 million consumers? Or is it London, base of Moshi Monsters and another huge market that has long served as the entry point for European businesses targeting the English-speaking world? As the battle for Eurozone-bragging-rights continues, we at Bonnier R&D are asking not just which… -
Broadcast TV is (Not) Dead. Long live Broadband TV!
23 Mar 2012 | 2:40 pmReflections on the future of television from OTTcon The third annual Over-the-Top (OTT) TV Conference in Santa Clara last week covered hot topics for the TV industry, like whether cord-cutting is truly happening, whether traditional broadcast television is on its way out, and what the current ecosystem looks like—from set-top-boxes like Roku and AppleTV to streaming services, connected TVs and television-viewing on tablets and smartphones.The OTT industry is still in its infancy but has matured significantly in the three years since the conference was started. Many speakers reported…
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Common Sense Journalism
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Gingras retrospective
15 May 2012 | 10:16 pmGiven the recent remarks by Richard Gingras, head of Google News, on the future of newspapers, it's also worth listening to this 90-minute recording of his 2009 appearance at the annual Convergence and Society conference co-sponsored by the Univ. of SC and Univ. of Nevada.(At this point, let me also make a pitch for you to get your free subscription (email link) to the Convergence Newsletter, which showcases papers from this annual conference and others as well as tales from the field to bridge academic research and professional practice. We'd love it if you'd contribute articles too.) Video… -
Nouns as adjectives NPR style
20 Apr 2012 | 5:12 pmCaught this on NPR the other day, a story by Julie McCarthy on how troops from India and Pakistan are facing off - and dying - on a remote glacier in the Himalayas.And right at the end came that tin-ear construction of using a noun in place of an adjective. What made this one ring tinny was that she combined both forms:"Pakistan-Indian relations."You won't find it on the transcript - NPR has cleaned it up to "Pakistan-India" (though I'd argue Pakistani-Indian would be better). So much for accuracy in transcripts, eh?But you can hear it right at the end of the audio:As I've argued before, I… -
Corey Hutchins on journalism
20 Apr 2012 | 4:37 pmNice video interview with Corey Hutchins, political writer for the Free Times in Columbia and S.C. Press Association weekly journalist of the year.Done by the University of S.C. SPJ Chapter.The volume's a little low at the beginning. It gets a bit louder later. (If you are easily offended, close your eyes briefly at 17:17) -
Beware of merchants using Squareup
18 Mar 2012 | 5:27 pmI hate to post this because I think it is wonderful new technology for small merchants to be able to swipe credit cards and handle the transactions through their cellphones.But if you are a business traveler, beware. As these little white square attachments start sprouting from cellphones, etc., you'd better check with your accounting department on whether it will accept the receipts you are emailed or texted.Many remain skittish about email receipts (possibility they can be easily forged). But the one I got today from a merchant using Squareup is likely to pose a special problem. While it is… -
You think Food Network would get this Web thing
14 Mar 2012 | 9:18 pmFood Network has one of the more sophisticated Web operations, but it's also an example of how even the good can go bad.Case in point, "Restaurant Impossible." Yeah, I admit I tune in every week. I spent a few years over a hot stove in the restaurant biz, so I identify.Usually at the end of an episode, they tell you how a restaurant is doing a few months down the road. But tonight, at the end of one on the Valley View restaurant, the message was to to go http://foodnetwork.com/ri to find out how the restaurant did.OK, I'm game and have the laptop open, so I head online to the Valley View…
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Miller-McCune. Smart Journalism. Real Solutions.
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Chasing the Wrong Guys? Blame Your Hormones
15 May 2012 | 4:17 pmMany ovulating women are deluded into thinking a merely desirable man is actually a good potential mate.Chasing the Wrong Guys? Blame Your Hormones On Pacific Standard - -
Texas, Tom and Jerry, and a Thirsty Planet
15 May 2012 | 7:00 amHow scientists at Austin’s Center for Space Research are measuring the loss of water around the world with a pair of aging satellites. Texas, Tom and Jerry, and a Thirsty Planet On Pacific Standard - -
Kidding Yourself Is No Laughing Matter
14 May 2012 | 3:51 pmNew research finds people who deny their darker impulses laugh less frequently.Kidding Yourself Is No Laughing Matter On Pacific Standard - -
To Stay Thin, Eat Like the Cultural Elite
14 May 2012 | 7:00 amNew research finds an association between lower body weight and participation in cultural and intellectual activities, including reading. To Stay Thin, Eat Like the Cultural Elite On Pacific Standard - -
Bad Economy = More Domestic Violence … But Less Crime?
11 May 2012 | 1:33 pmBad Economy = More Domestic Violence … But Less Crime? On Pacific Standard -
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ProPublica: Articles and Investigations
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Air Force Pilots Balk at Flying the World’s Most Expensive Fighter Jet
15 May 2012 | 6:43 pmby Cora Currier Update, 4/15: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta set new limits on F-22 flights, ordering that they stay within safe distance of a landing strips due to ongoing concerns about oxygen deficiency. Last week, CBS’ 60 Minutes aired an interview with two of the pilots who are refusing to fly the jets. They will receive whistleblower protection, and not be reprimanded for speaking out. The pricey F-22 Raptor jet has just gotten back up in the air, but the safety problem that grounded it doesn’t seem to be resolved. Last year, the F-22 was grounded for four months because… -
Patient Died at New York VA Hospital After Alarm Was Ignored
15 May 2012 | 3:06 pmby Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber Registered nurses at a Manhattan Veterans Affairs hospital failed to notice a patient had become disconnected from a cardiac monitor until after his heart had stopped and he could not be revived, according to a report Monday from the VA inspector general. The incident from last June was the second such death at the hospital involving a patient connected to a monitor in a six-month period. The first, along with two earlier deaths at a Denver VA hospital, raised questions about nursing competency in the VA system, ProPublica reported last month. The deaths… -
Pardon Attorney Torpedoes Plea for Presidential Mercy
13 May 2012 | 8:00 pmby Dafna Linzer A version of this story was co-published with The Washington Post. Clarence Aaron seemed to be especially deserving of a federal commutation, an immediate release from prison granted by the president of the United States. At 24, he was sentenced to three life terms for his role in a cocaine deal, even though it was his first criminal offense and he was not the buyer, seller or supplier of the drugs. Of all those convicted in the case, Aaron received the stiffest sentence. For those reasons, his case for early release was championed by lawmakers and civil rights activists, and… -
N.Y. Congressman Will Reimburse Costs for $22,000 Taiwan trip
11 May 2012 | 3:32 pmby Justin Elliott Rep. Bill Owens, D-N.Y., said today that he will personally reimburse a Taiwan university for the $22,132 trip he took to the island with his wife in December. The announcement comes after ProPublica co-published a story Thursday evening with Politico detailing how lobbyists for Taiwan from the New York firm Park Strategies invited Owens and organized the four-day trip. House rules passed after the Jack Abramoff scandal prohibit members from taking trips arranged by lobbyists. “In an abundance of caution, and to avoid any question about the purpose of the travel, which… -
Top MuckReads: Toxic Chemicals, Sexual Abuse and ‘Hiroshima’ War Tactics
11 May 2012 | 2:18 pmby Blair Hickman Here are this week's top must-read stories from #MuckReads, ProPublica's ongoing collection of the best watchdog journalism. Anyone can contribute by tweeting a link to a story and including the hashtag #MuckReads, or by sending an email to MuckReads@ProPublica.org. The best submissions are selected by ProPublica's editors and reporters and then featured on our site and @ProPublica. U.S. Military Taught Officers: Use ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics for ‘Total War’ on Islam, Wired Before the U.S. military suspended a course on Islam for senior officers,…
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ProPublica: Podcast
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Podcast: AT&T Neglects Low-Price Requirement to Help Poor Students
3 May 2012 | 2:14 pm -
The Militarization of American Police Forces
12 Apr 2012 | 10:34 amProPublica’s Justin Elliott spoke to the Center for Investigative Reporting’s G.W. Schulz about his reporting on the militarization of local police forces in the U.S. Andrew Becker and Schulz have been the chief reporters on the series, “America’s War Within,” which has shown how federal grants have led local law enforcement agencies to stockpile high-tech combat gear without much oversight. -
Piecing Together the French Terror Attacks
23 Mar 2012 | 10:22 amOn the latest podcast, ProPublica senior reporter Sebastian Rotella talks to us about Mohammed Merah, the accused French terrorist who was killed after a standoff with French authorities. -
MuckReads Podcast 1: AP’s Matt Apuzzo on NYPD Surveillance of Muslims
20 Mar 2012 | 1:50 pmFor our first MuckReads podcast, ProPublica managing editor Stephen Engelberg sits down with the AP’s Matt Apuzzo to discuss his Goldsmith-winning investigation on NYPD surveillance of Muslims. -
Podcast: Fannie and Freddie’s Conflicted Role in the Housing Market
8 Feb 2012 | 2:03 pmProPublica’s Cora Currier joins the podcast this week to talk about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and how both government-sponsored enterprises seem to be acting against the interests of homeowners.
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Reporting on Health
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Finding My Way Through the Fitness Deserts
15 May 2012 | 7:01 pmWhat I've learned writing my fitness deserts series for The Washington Post Express. read more -
A Renewed Focus on Alzheimer's Dementia
15 May 2012 | 10:08 amPills prices, agricultural antibiotics, Medicare politics, fracking and more from our Daily Briefing. read more -
How We Do Harm: Otis Brawley's new book skewers 'gluttony' of over-diagnosis, medical treatment
15 May 2012 | 7:00 amIn his eye-opening new book, Dr. Otis Brawley takes aim at doctors who prescribe too much, drug companies who promise too much, and the system that rewards them both with hefty incomes and sales. read more -
Diabetic mother delivers healthy 9-pound, 12-ounce girl
14 May 2012 | 8:12 pmCandida King Bird, 38, the diabetic pregnant mother featured in The Oregonian earlier this month, delivered a healthy 9-pound, 12-ounce girl on Thursday. read more -
The "Health Insurance Tax": How an anti-tax HIT squad employs the press
14 May 2012 | 6:54 pmA small business lobbyist explains how her group's campaign to kill a new "health insurance tax" relies on journalists: "We’re pitching things and hope people run it. We’re not paying for ads." read more
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MilitaryReporter.net
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Requiem for a Vietnam War reporter
10 May 2012 | 1:49 pmThe Vietnam War lasted 15 years and George Esper covered it for 10. From 1965 through the fall of Saigon in 1975, writing daily for the Associated Press, he wrote more words on the war than any other journalist. In his 42 years with the AP, Esper covered conflicts around the globe, but for him [...] -
War reporter directs new film, ‘Horse Soldiers of 9/11′
28 Apr 2012 | 9:28 amIt was the news the world breathlessly waited for immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks: a report of the first American troops on the ground in Afghanistan. All at once, the world’s attention focused on an iconic photo of those Special Operations Forces doing something no American military had done in nearly a century: They [...] -
Journalist trains for combat
14 Apr 2012 | 10:14 pmIn my book “Military Reporters and Editors Stylebook” I devote a chapter on what a journalist should do to gear up before going to cover a conflict. I cover what to pack, getting your documents together, and include several training companies that offer realistic training for journalists. Washington Post reporter, Ed O’Keefe, went to one [...] -
Media needs to do better job covering Bales’ case, Iraq veterans says
22 Mar 2012 | 2:49 pmOn March 19, 2012, Dr. Drew did us all a big favor. He covered the Kandahar shooting incident on his HLN cable show in such a sensationalized way, that it should serve as a powerful example for how the media should NOT cover an issue – particularly one as devastating as this. On late night [...] -
Marine Corps Times needs a copy editor
2 Mar 2012 | 10:12 pmThe Marine Corps Times reported earlier today new forensic evidence may sway the Pentagon to look into the valor case of Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta who was killed in the Battle of Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. He was awarded the Navy Cross, one level lower than the Medal of Honor which many of the eyewitnesses [...]
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SixEstate
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Content Curation Becoming a Marketing Must
16 May 2012 | 6:00 amIf content is currency, what does that make content curation? We’ve all heard the buzzword thrown around, but let’s take a quick look at what it is and why we need to practice it. The “why” is simple. There’s just too much unfiltered real-time data floating around. In his article for Fast Company, “Content Curators Are The New Superheros Of The Web,” Steve Rosenbaum, CEO of Magnify.net and author of Curation Nation, praises those who take it upon themselves to become content curators and gives us some numbers to ponder: Yesterday, 250 million photos… -
The Facebook FTC-IPO Shuffle
14 May 2012 | 6:00 amIn four days, barring changes, Facebook will be going public. Its Initial Public Offering (IPO) has been the subject of much scuttlebutt in the news. I’m sure that many people are preparing for the feeding frenzy that will occur once the stocks become available. After all, Facebook is massive, and it continues to grow at an astounding rate. That’s where the bumps in the road manifest themselves. Part of that growth recently has been Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, the hugely popular, smartphone-based photosharing app. Zuckerberg and company paid a cool $300 million in… -
Content Is Currency
11 May 2012 | 6:00 amIn the emerging economy content is currency. Everyone knows about the radical shift: Producing and distributing content is no longer the dominion of large, well-funded players. Today anyone with Internet access can produce and distribute content. Two years ago I wrote about how content marketing is the exclusive tactic used to promote George Bowers Grocery, the specialty grocery/cafe/beer garden my husband and I own. Content is the key driver of our marketing initiative. The freedom to create this “new currency” is exhilarating to business owners. Not just for small business… -
The Visual Side of Content Marketing
9 May 2012 | 6:00 amA recent article in Business Insider was doling out tips on content marketing for Google +, noting how we as consumers love sharing images because, well, they’re easy to consume. “Content may reign supreme on the Web, but the formatting of that content comes in a very close second,” according to Business Insider. “After all, if a user can’t process your information because of display or readability problems, it doesn’t matter how great it is. They still can’t read it.” Indeed, as Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, demonstrates for… -
Wedding Bells: The Marriage of Google+ and Google News
7 May 2012 | 6:00 amGoogle News is sporting a polished new look and new capabilities under the hood. Larger thumbnail photos are only one part of the equation. It’s the new “See Realtime Coverage” button that’s most indicative of the changes. Anyone who uses Google News is aware of the frustration you can feel at the seemingly haphazard array of results. Realtime presents you the long sought-after chronological view of a topic’s coverage. Press the button, and you get a screen where all the coverage of that topic appears, with the most recent at the top. (Needless to say, you do…
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Joe Gullo
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Time Magazine Breast-Feeding Mom Cover Stirs Debate
10 May 2012 | 5:09 pmThe Time Magazine cover of a mother breast-feeding her 3-year-old son1 stirred debate on social media and the web Thursday. The debate is over this cover for the May 21, 2012 issue. The story behind the photo, is about attachment parenting and the anniversary of Dr. Barry Sears book. The debate was two-fold, one over the photo and one over the story. As a journalist, I’m wondering could I tell the story same story in a less sensationalist way? Would you run this photo as the cover for this story in Time or any other magazine? … -
Obama Says I Do, Do You?
9 May 2012 | 3:45 pmPresident Obama says he supports gay marriage, in an exclusive ABC interview. The news broke a little after 3 p.m. Wednesday. Watch to hear his remarks: Do you support gay marriage? -
Consumption of News Via Social Media
9 May 2012 | 3:38 pmLet me know how you consume news via social media. What makes you engage with a news organization’s content on their social media websites? -
Ethics: Posting Photos of Car Crashes
7 May 2012 | 6:57 pmDecisions about whether to post photos, videos, or sounds of horrific events is not easy. Today was one of those moments, where you realize that we’re all human and in an instant it could be all gone. As a human, you look at some of the images and you play the moments, blip-by-blip trying to understand how something like that could happen. Today, a car crash took the lives of 3 people. Social media played a role in sharing and telling the story about what we were seeing and learning from our photographers and reporters. The photos that came back were from a distance. You could see… -
President Obama Addresses Nation from Afghanistan
1 May 2012 | 6:30 pmWatch President Barack Obama address the Nation live from Afghanistan. Live Video streaming by Ustream
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Online Journalism
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Online portfolios and the splash page
4 May 2012 | 9:25 amEach year I encourage my students to visit sites that aggregate the latest web design trends in hopes that they will become inspired. This semester appears to be the semester of the splash page. A splash page is a page that is typically taken up by an image. Many students recruited someone to take professional portfolio pictures of them. As you browse these sites, you will see many sites feature an image of the student with a quote adjacent to their image. Feel free to comment on their sites or visit sites from previous semesters. Section 1 Kelly Andersen Tara Boyd Caitlin Cruz Harmony… -
A letter to my students
2 May 2012 | 10:22 amI have accepted an academic position at Michigan State University in the School of Journalism, and I am excited to engage with the professors and students intellectually. I am saying goodbye to the past five years at Arizona State University, but I most sad to say goodbye to my students. My students handed in their final projects last night. This is a note to them: As a teacher, I have several goals for you: increase your confidence, help you find your creative self and understand the importance of relationships. Most students do not believe at the beginning of my class that they can handle… -
Journalism and public relations student’ blogs
18 Jan 2012 | 11:32 amOnline Media 1:30 section Kelly Anderson Tara Boyd Caitlin Cruz Harmony Huskison Olivia Khiel Leila O’Hara Torunn Sinclair Preston Sotelo Cassie Strauss Online Media 4:30 section Erin O’Connor Charissa Heckard Charles J. Hall Mohamud Ali Vanja Veric Haley Madden Ali Lasch Haley Buntrock Hayden Packwood Osej Serratos Sonya Chavez Hannah Shive Devin McIntyre Samantha Koukoulas Michelle Rivas David Sydiongco Monique Zatcoff Daniel Escobedo Sebastian Zotoff -
Digital and social media class syllabi
21 Dec 2011 | 2:55 pmI try to identify and share recent syllabi that I believe would be of use for the academic community. I know many educators are working on their syllabi over winter break. If you have one you would like to share related to digital media topics, email me or post it below. I have also posted other syllabi in previous posts. Be sure to browse those posts as well. Tim Currie | University of King’s College | Audience and Content Strategies Marcus Messner | Virgina Commonwealth University | Reporting for Print and Web and Business of Media Susan Currie Sivek | Linfield College | Introduction… -
Focus on the homepage to grab attention
21 Dec 2011 | 12:24 pmI wanted to share with you my Online Media students’ portfolios. The group sought to capture attention by incorporating graphics, rollovers, and pictures on their homepages. You can also browse portfolios from past semesters. Mauro Whiteman Gabriela Rodiles Kayla Frost Connor Radnovich Aiyana Havir Alex Gregory Kelsey Roderique Josselyn Berry Kate Kunkel Brittany E. Morris Alex Lancial Pearce Bley Dani Schenone
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The Hungry and Foolish
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Pizza Shop Owner Claims He Has A Photo Of An Angel
15 May 2012 | 10:47 amA pizza shop owner in Bloomfield, PA claims he caught evidence of an angel from his security camera outside the store. Known only as Bob, the owner found the shot taken at 6 AM on Friday, which shows a distinctive image in the upper part of the photo. He tells the media that he believes it’s a sign from his Dad who helped him start up the pizza shop. “You can see a face up at the very top and you can see the hands and you can see the wings,” he said. Bob’s been thinking about closing down the shop lately, but hopes for a better tomorrow: “Maybe my dad coming… -
Fist Pumping Record To Be Set By Ohio Man
14 May 2012 | 12:09 pmVinny and Pauly D better get ready: there is a new fist-pumper in town, and he is going for it all. James Peterson from Ohio is planning to create his own world record for the ‘longest continuous fist-pumping motion around your body’ by thrusting his fist into the air for 16 consecutive hours. He began fist-pumping at 11 AM and plans to continue until 3 AM — barring that his arm doesn’t fall off. The unemployed electrician went as far as super-gluing his hand shut to prevent any mishaps. “I have set the qualifications for this record and every minute that I do this… -
Japan Will Have No Kids Under Age 15 By 3011
14 May 2012 | 8:04 amJapanese researchers from Tohoku University Graduate School of Economics believe that Japan will have no children under the age of 15 in 999 years if current trends continue. Researchers developed a ‘population clock’ that shows the child population count in Japan at any given moment based upon declining percentages recently released by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Assuming the trend doesn’t change, Japan’s child population clock will drop one every 100 seconds. Japan’s under-15 population fell to 16.6 million in 2012 from 16.9… -
Texting While Walking Banned In Small Town
13 May 2012 | 8:10 pmThe town of Fort Lee, New Jersey, have instated a controversial new rule – any pedestrians caught texting and walking will be fined $85. “It’s a big distraction. Pedestrians aren’t watching where they are going and they are not aware,” said Thomas Ripoli, chief of the Fort Lee Police Department. So far, Fort Lee has issued 117 tickets and counting. “We want to raise awareness that a real disruption occurs because of texting,” Eric Lamberg, co-author of the study, told Long Island Business News. “Texting disrupts your ability much more than does talking.” I imagine that… -
Stupid Thieves Don’t Know How To Log Off Facebook
13 May 2012 | 3:01 pmTwo men arrived to an Internet café in the neighborhood of Camila, Colombia, rented two computers, browsed the web for a bit and, as they pretended to be paying, pulled out guns and robbed the joint. Shortly afterwards, the café manager called the police, who came in and noticed one of the thieves had remained logged in on Facebook. Subsequently, the cops got his address, drove over to the criminal’s home and tossed him in jail. I think this is one of those cases when the thief could plead ‘mentally handicapped’ and get off scot-free.
