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Public MediaShift

KETC's Mortgage Crisis Project Brings Public into Public Media

Facing the Mortgage Crisis, a multi-platform community outreach project spearheaded by KETC/Channel 9 in St. Louis, has become a model for public broadcasting stations nationwide. Launched July 1, 2008, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the project connects financially struggling residents with appropriate resources. St. Louis was hit hard by the mortgage crisis, and this, along with KETC's... more »

From Idea Lab

'Climategate' and the Perils of the Media's Short Attention Span

Idea Lab is a group blog of Knight News Challenge grant winners.

Underwritten by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

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MediaShift tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.

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PoliticalShift

Can Posterous and Tumblr Boost Government Transparency?

If a present-day version of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg was looking for a way to easily release important confidential information, he might find himself drawn to Posterous or its micro-blogging/lifestreaming competitor, Tumblr. These services have the potential to offer a new level of simplicity for releasing government information, and help open up the closed doors of Congress. Beyond becoming tools for... more »

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4MR

4 Minute Roundup: The Death of E&P; AOL's Spin-Off

Here's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. In this week's edition, I look at the recent announcement that Nielsen will be shuttering Editor & Publisher magazine, which covered the newspaper business since 1884. E&P's Jennifer Saba says the loss of classified advertising was as much to blame as Romenesko. Plus, America Online was spun-off from Time Warner yesterday and...

more »

Legal Drama

Is It Legal for an Editor to Unmask an Anonymous Commenter?

On November 13, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's website, StLToday, asked readers to comment on a story titled, "What's the craziest thing you've ever eaten?" Soon, a commenter posted a reply that included a "vulgar, two-syllable word for a part of a woman's anatomy," according to an online account by Kurt Greenbaum, the paper's director of social media. Editors at the...

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Thought Leader Q&A

Stanford Program Breaks Down Walls Between Business, Tech Journalism

I am so used to hearing about innovation in journalism that when I first heard about the Innovation Journalism program at Stanford, I assumed that's what it focused on. Not exactly. The VINNOVA-Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism actually focused on helping journalists cover the field of innovation. David Nordfors, a Swedish punk rocker-turned-molecular-physicist-turned-journalist, found that journalists were stuck in...

more »

Weblogs

NYTPicker Covers New York Times Like a Wet Blanket

On Sunday, the New York Times published an Editors' Note detailing a conflict of interest: The "Place" feature about Miami in the T magazine travel issue on Nov. 22 included a reference to the 8 oz. Burger Bar. The writer has had a long personal relationship with a co-owner of the restaurant; had editors known of that connection, the restaurant...

more »

AdvertisingShift

5 Tools to Help Automate Local Advertising

Promises of whiter teeth, IQ quizzes, and digital dancing people clutter online ads these days. At the same time, experts at future-of-journalism conferences are declaring that news will never again be solely supported by advertising. Neither one tells the full story of the present and future of online advertising for hyper-local and other news websites. Experiments with new advertising technology...

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Weblogs

Can H1N1 Flu Bloggers Help Battle Pandemic Misinformation?

Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology at Columbia University Medical Center, remembers the last flu pandemic, which occurred in 1968. "It's a great contrast [with today], because back then you had to wait weeks for information, and the only way you got it was through newspapers and scientific journals, and now of course we have instant dissemination of everything," Racaniello...

more »

NewspaperShift

Why Young Journalists in Big Newsrooms Are Risk Averse

I'm going to tell you a secret about my newsroom. The 20-somethings there are indeed fast to pick up new technology such as social networking, RSS and the use of Flip cameras. They are also wonderful colleagues, as well as dedicated and intensely engaged journalists. Of course, that's not the secret. What is surprising is that our youngest colleagues are...

more »

4MR

4 Minute Roundup: Comcast-NBC Deal; AOL's Robot Army

Here's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift (the Stuffy Head Cold Edition). In this week's edition, I look at the $30 billion mega-merger between Comcast and NBC Universal. Critics already believe the deal could lead to higher cable rates and less free content on Hulu. Plus, AOL's Tim Armstrong said he would use computer algorithms to help in the...

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World View

Iran Cracks Down on Internet Expression, Bloggers, Journalists

Last week, the Iranian blogger Sasan Aghaei, who runs the site Azad Tribun, was arrested by intelligence ministry officials after they carried out a search of his Tehran home. It is not known where he was taken. Aghaei is also a reporter for the daily newspaper Farhikhteghan, and he's the third employee of the paper to be arrested since the...

more »

Legal Drama

Will Google Sidewiki Shift Control of Online Comments?

Journalists and news outlets are accustomed to offering comments and criticisms about others, but they're not as used to being the subject of public comment themselves. In the online world, where technology can and does upend established relationships, journalists and online news outlets are joining the ranks of the commented-upon. The shift has taken place due to the increased presence...

more »

Featured Comment

I'm 21, and it's not that I'm less interested in innovation than 30-somethings: I simply don't have the time to put all of my effort into innovation because I'm also expected to intern/work/blog, even though apparently those things won't even lead me to an entry-level paying job.

Jessica Roy
Why Young Journalists in Big Newsrooms Are Risk Adverse

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Upcoming Events

January10 - 22, 2010

2010 International Consumer Electronics Show

Location: Las Vegas

The International Consumer Electronics Show is where all of the latest and greatest in electronics are put on display. Everything from new computers and televisions to cameras and other gadgets are unveiled for the first time.

Twitter hashtag: #ces

> Conference website