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MusicShift
SpiralFrog Misses the Point of Digital Music
First, let's congratulate the traditional music-on-wax industry for trying something new in digital music -- outside of suing its customers. The largest of the music companies, Universal Music Group, announced it would offer free music downloads through a startup called SpiralFrog supported by advertising. The other big music companies are negotiating with SpiralFrog, too. Clap, clap, clap.
more »Digging Deeper
News21 Produces Investigative Reports, But Can Universities Think Different?
In May 2005, you could almost hear the flourish of trumpets when the Carnegie Corporation and the Knight Foundation joined with five prominent journalism graduate schools in pledging $6 million over three years to create the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.
more »Your Take Roundup
Watching Shows on Computers Supplements Your TV Viewing
Let's be clear about one thing. Watching TV shows and movies on computer screens -- as they exist today -- will not replace watching TV and movies on much bigger screens, in much more comfortable environs. Of course there are computers that can function as TV sets, and TV sets that can do some computer functions, but we haven't found nirvana yet, at least on a mass-quantity affordable basis.
more »Your Take
What investigative report would you like to see done?
There are a few movements afoot in the academic world to remake investigative journalism. The worry is that as Big Media companies cut back on reporting resources, less investigative work is being done and the Internet should be a place for a new style of in-depth journalism, perhaps combining professionals and amateurs. One such project is NewAssignment.net, led by NYU's Jay Rosen and funded in part by Craig Newmark of Craigslist. Another project is the sprawling News21 initiative by five journalism schools and the Carnegie and Knight foundations. (Much more on that later at MediaShift...) But Rosen has put out the call -- what ideas do you have for investigative reports? What do you think journalists should cover more in-depth? The oil industry? The government? Rising university tuitions? Share your ideas in the comments below, and I'll send them along to Rosen and others to consider -- plus, you'll get showcased in next week's Your Take Roundup.
more »Philosophy
Your Own Views of the Media Shift
A couple weeks ago, I was trying to come up with a way to sum up some of the many concepts I've been illustrating on this blog. How could I do that in a simple, catchy way? The result was the Oldthink vs. Newthink post, where I simply listed the old ways of doing things in media and the new ways that were being explored.
more »Legal Drama
Hate Site Horrendous, But Blocking Through ISPs Faulty
A case unfolding in Canada and the U.S. exemplifies all that is terrible and difficult about free speech on the Internet. Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman and the Canadian Jewish Congress have asked the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) -- similar to the FCC -- to direct Internet service providers in Canada to block two hate sites based in the U.S. Warman says the sites, run by white supremacist Bill White of Roanoke, Va., contain "an actual call to murder myself and all Canadian Jews," according to an article by the Canadian Press.
more »Digging Deeper
Mark Cuban's Sharesleuth Takes Business Reporting to Ethical Edge
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has one of the best named weblogs, Blog Maverick, because he is nothing if not a maverick in the technology, sports and online worlds. He shepherded his Broadcast.com streaming multimedia company through a successful initial public offering in 1998 and sold it to Yahoo in 1999 for more than $5 billion. Cuban used the proceeds to start high-definition TV networks, HDNet, buy Landmark Movie theaters and buy the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. He's probably the only major team owner who asks fans to email him feedback.
more »Your Take
What TV shows would you watch on your computer?
The worlds of TV and the Internet are colliding once more, but unlike in the late '90s, now they have a chance for a peanut butter/chocolate sweet match. Back then, WebTV was a failed experiment at getting people to web surf on their TV sets, while online TV or movies looked horrible on computers with slow Internet connections. But now with broadband becoming more widespread, TV networks have been pushing more content to the Net. ABC started selling episodes of hit shows on iTunes, and streaming shows on its own site. CBS recently announced it would stream shows online in the fall, and would stream the new "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" simultaneously online while it plays on TV. But is this something you really want? Do you watch TV shows on your computer -- when and why? And which shows do you watch on the computer? Would you rather pay for these shows or watch commercials? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll post the best ones in next week's Your Take Roundup.
more »Your Take Roundup
AmigoFish, VlogMap Point to Podcast Goodness
For people new to the world of podcasting, there are a few hurdles to jump before feeling comfortable with the medium. First, you have to consider where you'll listen or watch podcasts -- on your computer or on your portable MP3 player. Then you have to subscribe to podcasts you want to hear, and learn how to do that. For the techno-savvy, it's a relatively painless process, but for others it could be simpler.
more »Open Source Reporting
Bloggers Gauge Web 2.0 Features for Newspaper Sites Around World
So this is how open source reporting works. On August 1, The Bivings Group released a research report of how the Top 100 U.S. newspaper websites were implementing features such as blogs, podcasts and social bookmarking. (I summarized the findings here.) By August 10, three bloggers located outside the U.S. took it upon themselves to do a similar study of their own country's top newspaper sites to see how they stacked up to their American counterparts. And one German blogger set up a wiki to track results for German newspaper sites.
more »Digging Deeper
'War Tapes' Film Lets Soldiers Tell Their Stories from Iraq
So many times on the Internet, I've watched a video clip of combat in Iraq that looks like it was shot by a soldier. I hear some talking, the sound of shooting, screams and yelps in the background. But just as often I don't have the context of who was filming, why they are filming and what's going on inside their head. Where are they? What's the situation? Did they succeed or fail?
more »Your Take
How do you find out about good podcasts?
A couple years ago, you could find all the podcasts in existence just by checking the iPodder Directory to see the eclectic mix of homegrown and technology-related audio shows. Now the number of podcasts has exploded as many mainstream news and entertainment companies jump on the bandwagon, and Jupiter Research estimates that 9 million Americans downloaded a podcast in the month of June. I've done a Guide to Podcast Directories but I'm wondering how you find out about good podcasts. Do you find them on news websites or other media sites? Do you check the iTunes podcast directory? Do you hear about them from friends and family? Share your thoughts on how you find good podcasts in the comments below and I'll run the best ones in next week's Your Take Roundup.
more »Your Take
Skepticism Rampant Over War 'Fauxtography'
Most people trust that the photos they see of war in their daily newspaper shot by a professional photographer are accurate. The photographer risked his or her life to get the shot, snapped the picture, sent it to a photo editor, who then vetted it for publication.
more »Philosophy
The media world is going through a time of wrenching change brought on by new technology, the rise of the Internet and folks getting fed up with the corporate mass media losing touch with their reality. How can a mega-chain of newspapers, a TV broadcast conglomerate, or a cookie-cutter radio system interpret what's going on in your neighborhood? And in the world of entertainment, the big companies are more concerned with prosecuting file-traders than helping create easy digital avenues for customers to get what they want when they want it.
more »Digging Deeper
Church 2.0: Does a Congregation Know More Than the Pastor?
Sunday morning was bright and warm, as we walked toward the auditorium in South San Jose, Calif. Before we reached the door, we were handed a Polaroid camera and told to photograph ourselves and pass on the camera to the next person coming in. We took the photo, and went inside the building, where there was coffee, bagels and donuts.
more »Your Take
Do you trust photographs from war zones?
Lately, there has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about a Reuters photographer who used Photoshop to double the amount of smoke in a photo of Beirut. The photo was scrutinized by conservative bloggers, starting with Little Green Footballs, and eventually Reuters admitted to the fakery and fired the freelance photographer, Adnan Hajj. The British press has been defending its photos against attack from conservative blog EU Referendum as well. It's very easy for photographers to add Photoshop touches to make a shot more dramatic or to stage photos by asking people to pose in them. However, most media organizations have strict rules against these types of manipulation. As a news watcher and reader, what do you think about the professional photos you have seen from war zones such as Lebanon, Israel and Iraq? Do you trust them or have questions? Do you feel like the photographer has a political bias? Would you rather see photos taken by amateurs at the scene? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll run the best ones in the next Your Take Roundup.
more »Your Take Roundup
Flickr Rules as Photo-Sharing Community
With the rise of cameraphones and cheap digital cameras, we as a society are taking more photos than ever before. But what do we do with all these snapshots? There have been websites devoted to personal photo pages for years, but which ones make photo-sharing and organizing easy?
more »Philosophy
Balancing Work and Play on Summer Vacation
I promised myself (and you, dear readers) that I would take a real summer vacation this year, and try my best to unplug from technology, from work, from my usual mode of media overload.
more »NewspaperShift
Newspaper Sites Hot to Blog, Cool to Podcasts
Newspaper companies are feeling the shift hard, as people go from reading print newspapers to getting their news and classified ads on the Internet. But if there's one thing the Newspaper Association of America can hang their hat on, it's that newspaper websites continue to grow their audiences and advertising revenues. So if people are not reading papers in print, at least they might be getting their news online from the same news source.
more »Digging Deeper
Your Guide to Soldier Videos from Iraq
If the first Gulf War put cable news and CNN on the map, the second Gulf War in Iraq has put video shot by soldiers in the spotlight. I first wrote about these videos in January, focusing on the ones that proliferated at the video-sharing site YouTube. But now, the phenomenon has exploded into the mainstream, with an MTV documentary, Iraq Uploaded and a full-length film, The War Tapes ("the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves").
more »Tags
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