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Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper::Reporters Without Borders Backs Online Freedom Act
While the Republican-majority U.S. Congress has favored less regulation of big business, one GOP lawmaker, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, has shown a willingness to regulate technology and Internet businesses in their dealings with China. Smith held prominent hearings on Capitol Hill on Feb. 15, compelling representatives from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco to answer criticism of their...
more »Your Take
What content do you want on your cell phone?
Cell phones are not just for talking while driving anymore. The cell phone carriers grew tired of just charging for anytime minutes, and added camera and videocamera functions, along with web access and texting. Entire cottage industries have sprung up to sell us ringtones, cell games, music and video. The most recent entrants in this field are Big Media companies...
more »Weblogs
Far From a Twilight::Blog Hype Over -- Business Has Just Begun
Journalists can be very predictable. They love a story about something exciting and new that is changing our culture, changing our politics, transforming our very lives! And they equally love a story debunking that thing that was supposed to transform our lives as really being a crock, just something that was overhyped and is truly finished before it ever...
more »Weblogs
Your Take Roundup::Giving Props to Last-Place Finishers at Olympics
As we are knee-deep in the Winter Olympics games, I wondered how you were experiencing the Olympics online, and asked you to tell me about some quirky sites you liked. The Games so far have been a bit quirky, from the marshmallow-headed mascots Neve and Gliz (pictured here) to the many ice-dancing falls to the Austrian doping raids. But...
more »Your Take
There's one problem with being trendy: Trends only last so long. In the trendy world of social networking, Friendster has already come and gone, and MySpace is showing signs of jumping the shark. Both of these sites allow people to create their own personal sites, link to friends, upload photos and other media, and generally create a virtual home for...
more »Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper::How Does iTunes Pick Featured Podcasts?
While working on last's week's guide to podcast directories, I stumbled onto one of the great mysteries of the podcasting world: Just how exactly does Apple choose the featured podcasts in its popular podcast directory? And the more I looked at other directories, the more I had similar questions about what was chosen and why. So I methodically contacted...
more »Media Usage
Thumb-Twiddlers Unite::Are You Dilly-Dallying on the Internet?
What are you doing here, on the web, reading this blog? Is this part of your work, or are you just hanging out, bopping around the web casually letting the URLs fall where they may? According to a recent survey by Pew Internet, more Americans than ever are going online "for no particular reason, just for fun or to...
more »NewspaperShift
Citizen Power?::CBS, Wisconsin Newspaper Let Audience Vote
Two recent announcements made me wonder if the mainstream media was really starting to "get" citizen journalism, and starting to allow the former audience into the news process. The Wisconsin State Journal newspaper, run out of the state capital of Madison, decided to let its web visitors vote on one of five articles that would run on the front...
more »Your Take Roundup
Your Take Roundup::Congress Takes Action on China Collusion
Various technology companies in the West have helped the Chinese government in its longtime efforts to censor the Internet and do cyber-surveillance. Over the years, these companies have excused their behavior with a variation on the same theme: We have to follow local laws when we do business in China, and we can't ignore China as it has become...
more »Your Take
How have you followed the Olympics online?
The Winter Olympics are in full swing, and you can't watch them on TV at all times. So when you're at work or at school, how are you getting your Olympics fix? Sure, we know about the official Olympics site, as well as the official site from NBC. But while there's a lot of good features and video at the...
more »Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper::Your Guide to Podcast Directories
Even though podcasts didn't exist until mid-2004, there are now so many of them that it's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number. Yahoo recently listed more than 23,000 podcasts in its News category of podcasts. So what's a listener to do? Luckily there are a few excellent online directories that list and rank podcasts to help you find...
more »AdvertisingShift
Video Blog Sellout::Rocketboom Nets $80,000 After eBay Auction
When Andrew Baron decided to use eBay to sell the first ads on his popular video blog Rocketboom, he was worried that no one would bite. But bite they did. After Rocketboom's 10-day auction, the winning bidder had the screen name of StarFinder5, and paid $40,000 for five ads to be produced by Rocketboom. Rocketboom also retains creative control...
more »Online Forums
World Wide Flame War::Topix.net Forums Give Window on Cartoon Flap
Pre-Internet days, a newspaper in Denmark that printed cartoons could be assured that they wouldn't be seen in other parts of the world. Those days are over. With protests and riots still burning bright in the Middle East over cartoons depicting Mohammed, we cannot ignore our global neighbors even if they live on the other side of the world....
more »TVShift
Super Skip::DVRs Are MVPs for Super Bowl Watchers
Everything is big about the Super Bowl. Advertisements cost $2.6 million for 30 seconds. The average audience was estimated at 90.7 million viewers. And a few bad calls by the referees were magnified to epic proportions. While network executives are clinging to the idea that they are still in charge of what you watch and when you watch it,...
more »MusicShift
Your Take Roundup::Long Live CDs! But Not Too Long...
The question put to you was "What is the shelf-life for CDs and packaged music?" Because there are so many new ways to get music -- downloaded on peer-to-peer networks or through services such as iTunes or streamed online -- I wondered how long people would gravitate to CDs or any type of physical package with prerecorded music. Adding...
more »Your Take
What do you think of Internet companies colluding with the Chinese government?
The United States is the land of the free. But American companies such as Cisco, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are taking a dual -- some would say two-faced -- approach to freedom: They believe in global human rights, but are helping the Chinese government filter and censor the Internet. Google recently got in hot water for its new Google.cn search...
more »Digging Deeper
Digging Deeper::CBC Offers Moderated Forum for Every Precinct
The hodge-podge of political discussion boards online can give you a headache. Usually it's a matter of who can scream the loudest and attack the fiercest. And if the subject is economics, someone will spout off on abortion. Plus, how can you find the right forum for the issues that concern you or your locale? The Canadian Broadcasting Corp....
more »MagazineShift
Your Blog Here::SportingNews.com Gives Readers Super Platform
If you're nutty about sports, and live in the U.S., you probably spend a good amount of time on the leading American sports website, ESPN.com. It's flashy, it has attitude, it's filled with good info, and it's awash in video highlights. And for fan involvement, there's ESPN SportsNation with its polls and forums. But the sports leader online could...
more »Futurama
Futurama::San Francisco Earthquake Coverage, Circa 2016
The year is 2016. President Jeb Bush is running for a third term as U.S. president. There has been major upheaval in the entertainment world, and the Long Tail has come to pass, with each of us gaining global access to all the music, movies and news and information we could ever want. After a January morning spent swimming...
more »Open Source Reporting
Open Source Reporting::The Search for a Fighter Jet and a Groundhog
A little over a week ago, I told you about my frustration in trying to find video of the 2004 Summer Olympics using all the hot video search engines. In the spirit of "open source reporting," I asked some of you to share your own experiences of trying to find video using popular video search engines such as Google...
more »Your Take Roundup
How Much Should You Moderate Comments? It Depends
After the Washington Post's website decided to shut down comments on its Post.Blog, I asked our own budding MediaShift community how you thought blog comments should be moderated here and elsewhere. Should online forums and blogs put up technological roadblocks to spammers and people spewing vitriol? Should they employ humans to check every comment before publishing them? Your responses...
more »Your Take
What's the shelf life of CDs and packaged music?
For people who remember back when vinyl records, eight-track tapes and even reel-to-reel recordings were the best way to listen to music and audio, it's a strange new world we live in. In the '80s, compact discs replaced vinyl, and audio cassettes have become scarce. And now peer-to-peer file-sharing networks let people download music for free -- despite the best...
more »Tags
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