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Your Take
Where do you get U.S. election news online?
What sites do you follow for US Election coverage?I want to know which sites you trust for news on the US election: blogs, news sites, newspaper sites, aggregators, video sites? Share your thoughts and check out responses at www.pbs.org/mediashift With the U.S. election season hitting its final stages, political junkies are inundated with information online. But where do you go...
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How are you experiencing the Olympics -- TV, streaming video, mobile?
This is my first time using Seesmic to ask a Your Take question on MediaShift. You can answer either via Seesmic videos or via text in the comments below. NBC announced that its Olympics coverage would be a big laboratory for multi-platform media, giving people thousands of hours of the Games on various TV channels, streaming video online, and...
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What's the future of wire services in the digital age?
With all the fuss lately around the Associated Press and its legal tussle with Drudge Retort over lifted quotes, there's been a renewed focus on the future of the AP and its role as a newspaper cooperative. The Wall Street Journal noted that newspapers were becoming disgruntled by the high cost of being an AP member and that the AP wasn't providing enough return for that cost. One problem is that AP is putting more efforts into courting digital business and isn't giving enough back to the papers who back it. So more generally, do you think the AP will have role to play in the digital age?
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What kind of video advertisements would you welcome?
Researchers have predicted that video ads would explode just as online video audiences have expanded -- but it hasn't happened yet. Longer form video ads that play before videos (a.k.a. pre-roll ads) don't seem appropriate when the video is brief. And marketers are wary about advertising around user-generated videos that have edgy content. YouTube has experimented with overlay videos and...
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Can newspapers rejuvenate or reinvent classified ads?
American newspapers are hurting for a number of reasons -- loss of readership, the rise of cable TV and online media, and a business model in transition. Many people point to newspapers' weakness in classified ads as a fatal problem, with revenues lost that used to help support reporting. Now journalist/entrepreneur Steve Outing is helping launch a new site called...
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How do you decide on friend requests?
If you belong to social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn Twitter, Flickr, et al, you probably face this question each day: Should I add this person as a friend? Most services will send you an email alert that someone has requested that you become their friend. Now it's up to you to decide to accept or ignore it....
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How will investigative journalism survive in the digital age?
With the daily drumbeat of cutbacks at newspaper companies, there is less room for investigative reporters who can take weeks or months to do one in-depth report. If their future isn't secure at mainstream media outlets, then where will investigative reports come from? TV news? Non-profits like the Center for Public Integrity or ProPublica? Online-only outfits like TalkingPointsMemo or The...
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Where do you draw the line between private and public discourse?
In the age of the Internet, with so many cameraphones and videophones, no one can feel like they are having a private conversation anymore. There is always a blogger or someone nearby seemingly recording every moment, whether it's a celebrity trying to take a vacation or Sen. Barack Obama having a "private fundraiser" in San Francisco. In the latter case,...
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Should journalists reveal their votes and political leaning?
With more reporters having blogs, we get to know more about their personal lives and feelings. But in the push for online transparency, should we also know how they cast their vote in elections and whether they are a Democrat, Republican or Independent? Time magazine's James Poniewozik argues that the time is right for full disclosure by reporters, even if...
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How important is local news to you?
My local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, has lately been pushing local news onto the home page more than ever before. Today's front page is filled with local and regional news with nary a national story. Is it time for local newspapers -- even large metro papers like the Chronicle -- to focus much more on local news and less...
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Are Google and online advertising vulnerable to a recession?
As the U.S. moves into a possible economic slowdown, partially caused by the subprime mortgage meltdown, the question is whether the pain will spread to online advertising. Online ads have been booming since the dot-com bust ended around 2003, with 20%+ growth every year. When recession questions arose recently, many analysts believed online advertising would remain "recession-proof" because it's relatively...
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How do you protect your privacy online?
Lately, online privacy has been a hot topic for Internet users. The Federal Trade Commission held hearings about online privacy in relation to behavioral, targeted advertising, and Facebook took a lot of heat for its Beacon platform that broadcast people's off-site purchases to friends without their permission. But many surveys show that people don't care as much about their privacy as the experts do. So I'm wondering: Is online privacy a big issue for you, and if so, how do you keep your information more private online? Do you clear your cookies, the identifying information that gives a trail of your web surfing? Do you use fake user names and personal information when you register at a site? How do you protect your privacy online, and how much do you care about it? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll run the best ones in a future Your Take Roundup.
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What might entice you to use e-books or e-readers like Kindle?
It seems like every few years a new e-book device comes out that promises to revolutionize our reading experience, hoping we'll throw out our book collection and read everything electronically. Recently, the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle have been the contenders in e-books, but many people complain that they are not open enough for different types of books and that...
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The social networking site Facebook started its life as a closed network for college and high school students. One of its big advantages was that people felt safe networking with their friends. But once the site opened up to everyone, things have changed. There have been phishing scams, a rise in "friend spam" (people ask to be your friend but...
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How important is digital media in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign?
As the U.S. presidential primary season quickly approaches, the question remains just how important the Internet and new media have been in the election race. While political tracking sites such as TechPresident can show how many Facebook friends the candidates have, or how many video views they've had on YouTube, there isn't a direct correlation between online popularity and actual...
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Should the FTC set up a 'Do Not Track' database for online marketing?
With the rise of behavorial marketing online -- where marketers serve ads based on where you've gone online -- there's also a rising concern about how much privacy we are giving up. Do we realize that marketers are tracking the sites we visit online and that we would need to erase our computer cookies in order to keep that info...
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What's the role of unions in the digital age?
Unions have had a long history representing media workers at traditional media organizations. But now they are being tested, as those very same traditional media outlets are creating more and more non-union digital jobs while eliminating union jobs. Unions have always had a role in helping workers vs. the media companies, but now they must figure out how to...
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Should bloggers and newspapers make peace?
Everywhere you turn, newspaper websites are getting the blog religion. They're either adding new blogs from reporters or community members, or setting up an alliance to share advertising, or just buying up big-name bloggers, as the New York Times has done with Freakonomics and by hiring TVNewser's Brian Stelter. Alana Semuels counts all the ways newspapers and bloggers are working...
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How do you think bands should make money?
With digital distribution and file sharing online, bands have been able to get their music in front of more fans than ever before. But because of file sharing and cheaper downloads, bands also might feel like they can't make as much money by selling music and will often give away some MP3 tracks. In fact, Radiohead recently decided to let...
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What content would you pay for (if any) on a newspaper site?
Newspapers online have always struggled with a consistent business model. There have been registration walls, paid content behind walls (including columnists and archives), and various ad schemes from paid search ads to classifieds to interstitial ads that bar entry. Many of the paid content ideas have fallen aside lately, with the boom in online advertising. NYTimes.com dropped its not-so-popular TimesSelect...
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What blogs would you nominate as the best in the world?
It's that time of year again. No, not just the new fall TV season. It's also blog nomination season, when big international groups (and smaller national groups) ask people to submit nominees for the best blogs. In November, I'll again be a judge for the Best of the Blogs (The BOBs) awards, run by the German's international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle....
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How would you update the presidential debates for the Internet Age?
The New York Times Op-Ed page recently asked a few experts to answer this question: If the CNN/YouTube presidential debates still had too much scripting and canned answers, how can we create a real new-media debate? Various folks answered, with Kevin Kelly saying candidates should have webcams attached to their heads 24/7, and Tom Brokaw joked that candidates should answer...
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What do you think about comments on Google News stories?
Google News announced it would start experimenting with a new feature that allows the sources in articles it aggregates to write comments, extending the smallish quotes that usually run with stories with more context and details. On the face, it sounds like a good idea, as anything that will provide more depth to journalism should be applauded. However, there's been...
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What services do you trust for measuring web traffic to your site?
I've been engrossed in the topic of web measurement the past couple weeks, with a two-part series here at MediaShift. In the first part, I wondered why the web, which is supposed to be the most measurable medium ever (putting TV and radio audience measurement to shame), is still so inconsistent with so few standards in place. If you write...
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What's your favorite way of getting hyper-local or neighborhood news?
Lately there have been a lot of happenings in the world of hyper-local citizen journalism projects. The venture-funded Backfence series of sites crashed and burned, Pegasus News was sold to Fisher Communications, and the Washington Post launched its first hyper-local effort, LoudonExtra. The idea behind many of these sites is to capture the smaller stories that newspapers, TV and radio...
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Is getting news on your mobile phone a satisfying or frustrating experience?
So many people have cell phones with web access that media companies are falling over each other to deliver content to cell phones. A recent article in the New York Times noted that CBS, News Corp. and ESPN are all putting big resources into mobile content, news and video delivered to cell phones, but the article also pointed out that...
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Is the cup half full or half empty for journalism?
As we as a society change our media habits and spend more time online and with new media, the old media are starting to see less of an audience -- and less revenues. There have been repeated attacks by the old line in the journalism world against upstarts such as Google and Craigslist, and even a call for reparations for...
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What's the right age for kids to start visiting virtual worlds?
Forget about Second Life. The big buyout talk in virtual worlds lately has been around sites such as Club Penguin, a squeaky-clean world catering to kids aged 8 to 14, and Webkinz, a kids site with games and virtual pets. A recent BusinessWeek article noted that Big Media companies such as Sony and News Corp. were interested in paying upwards...
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"Twitter is like an RSS feed to every boring aspect of your friend's lives. And your friends are boring. How could they not be?" So writes Helen A.S. Popkin on MSNBC in one of many scathing reviews of the micro-blogging tool Twitter. Twitter lets you update other friends in your social network about your whereabouts on a micro-level from your...
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Should online video of presidential debates be free for public use and remix?
Just who owns the video of presidential debates? Up until this point, the TV networks that broadcast the events held the copyright to that footage and could post it online, monetize it in whatever way they wanted, and restrict usage by other folks. But Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, a proponent of Creative Commons "copyleft" systems, started an online petition...
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Would you stop using YouTube if they inserted ads in videos?
YouTube has been an Internet phenomenon because the site provides an easy, friction-less way to share your videos with the world. The site has also resisted the siren song of video advertising, a format that is poised to explode in revenues in the coming years. Many video ads are called "pre-roll" and play before you get to see the video...
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Should NBC release the full video content from Va. Tech killer?
One of the harsh realities of the democratization of media is that everyone can get that global distribution online, whether they are hate groups or terrorists. So what is a news organization to do? NBC received a videotape from Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people on campus on Monday in a bloody rampage. Blogging pioneer Dave Winer...
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How should the military respond to citizen journalism in the field of combat?
Ever since the advent of U.S. military personnel blogging about their experiences in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military brass has been in a conundrum. Do they allow these eye-opening first-person accounts from the front lines, or do they try to rein them in to keep control over the storylines of the Iraq War? Not only are milblogs providing...
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How would you rewrite copyright law for the digital age?
The music industry is still suing college students over file-sharing. Viacom is suing Google and YouTube for $1 billion for copyright violations. NBC and News Corp. are teaming up with their own video-sharing concept, dubbed NewCo (or "ClownCo" by Google), to help protect their copyrighted material. The increasing length of copyrights in the U.S., and the quick obsolescence of the...
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What hidden info-nugget did you find in the State of the News Media report?
When the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) released its annual report on The State of the News Media, the response was quick from the blogosphere: "We'll get back to you on what it all means after we have time to read the 160,000-word report." I lost count on the number of media watchers who made the same statement. How...
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How much audience participation is right for a news site?
Because the established powers in the media industry have a history of setting the news agenda, it has taken a lot of urging and cajoling for them to start giving more power and control to their audience. And now we're starting to see the flowering of experimentation on many big news sites, from the FirstPerson citizen media effort at MSNBC.com...
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Are newspaper photojournalists an endangered species?
We are living in a time of transition for the old-line media and journalism, with new technologies and Internet distribution making old jobs obsolete. Recently, ex-newspaper guy Alan Mutter wrote that, "With almost everyone packing pixels nowadays, spot-news photographers are the most endangered species at our newspapers." He noted that when he saw the Queen Mary 2 go under the...
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What would motivate you to contribute to a citizen media site?
Let's say you were a witness to something tragic or exciting, something newsworthy like a terrorist bombing or a record-breaking track race. You were on the scene and captured important photos or video, and wrote a story about the experience. Now there are many citizen journalism sites that want you to submit your material, from NowPublic to Yahoo's You Witness News to CNN Exchange. And there's also hyper-local sites around the country and world that want you to contribute every little happening or event in your local neighborhood. My question is where would you take that newsworthy information that you have, and why? Would you go to the highest bidder, see who would pay you the most? Would you want your work to have the biggest impact? Or would you just be doing it to help the wider community? What would motivate you to submit material to one of these sites? If you run one of these sites, tell us how you get people to contribute. Use the comments to share your thoughts, and I'll run the best ones in the next Your Take Roundup.
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Does anyone pay attention anymore?
The TV is on. You're surfing the web. Chatting with someone on instant messaging. Your cell phone rings. The stereo is playing in the background. Our world is increasingly cluttered with media, and the Internet and technology have played key roles in making us more scattered than ever. Some people call it multi-tasking; others call it a severe case of attention deficit disorder (ADD). There's an entire school of thought devoted to the Attention Economy, the idea that marketers will have to nail and claw to get our attention. So I ask you: Does anyone pay attention anymore, or is our world becoming dangerously ADD? Do you feel like we are naturally evolving and this is just part of technology becoming more enmeshed in our lives, or that we're heading for an emotional meltdown? Share your thoughts in the comments below and I'll share the best ones in the next Your Take Roundup.
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Has the promise of converged devices been fulfilled, and do you want that?
For so many years, we've heard about the promise of convergence, the idea that various technological platforms and features will be built into multi-functional devices. So you'd have the cell phone and personal digital assistant in one handheld device. You'd have Internet surfing on your TV or you could watch TV on your computer. And while we've had the first and maybe even second generations of such converged devices as WebTV and the Treo, the third generation was in full display at the recent CES and MacWorld expos. Dan Fost of the San Francisco Chronicle boldly stated that "the long-awaited promise of digital convergence was fulfilled" at those shows. Do you agree that digital convergence is finally here? Do you think these devices are helping us to do more with less? And do you even want convergence to happen or do you prefer to have more devices that do one thing really well? Share your thoughts in the comments below and I'll include the best responses in the next Your Take Roundup.
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What do you think about advertising on your cell phone?
There are so many ways to avoid advertising now, from pop-up blockers to DVRs, where you can skip through TV commercials. But advertisers are a clever bunch, and they are considering ways to deliver commercial messages to your cell phone. Some ideas include text messages with coupons, or ads that are based on your geo-location. "Hey, you're near our video store, stop by for a discount!" the ad might chirp. If the ad is not too intrusive, it's relevant, and it's useful (and maybe you'd get a discount on your cell service), maybe you would want it. That goes the thinking, but a recent Forrester survey found that 79% of people were annoyed just by the idea of ads on cell phones. What would you do if an ad popped onto your cell phone? Would you change services, or figure out a way to block them? Or would you welcome them if they were more discreet and relevant? Share your thoughts in the comments below and I'll include the best ones in the next Your Take Roundup.
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What is your most audacious prediction for the media in 2007?
As the new year dawns the time is nigh for year-end roundups, looks back and overall journalistic holiday laziness. One of the great traditions in journalism is a list of predictions for what will come in the year ahead -- and never following up to find out which predictions actually came true. Rather than make my own predictions, and because Time magazine has deemed "you" as the Person of the Year, I've decided to turn this prognostication duty over to you, dear MediaShift readers. So what's your most audacious prediction for the year in media ahead of us? Will GoogTube figure out how to make money? Will Rocketboom launch a lawsuit against Amanda Congdon at ABC? Will Nick Denton tie his pay to Valleywag traffic numbers? Will TechCrunch's Michael Arrington be humble? Share your craziest predictions for 2007 in the comments, explain why it will happen, and I'll list the best ones in the next Your Take Roundup in the new year.
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What's the attitude in traditional newsrooms toward new media?
We hear a lot of rhetoric from old-line media company moguls such as News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch that new media and the Internet are of utmost importance. And Murdoch has certainly put his money where his mouth is, buying up MySpace, IGN and other Internet properties. But what about in the newspaper, magazine and TV newsrooms and editorial meetings? Is there action in those ground-level environments to make good on the pronouncements from the top? How do veteran and newbie reporters, editors, producers and TV anchors feel about the Internet disrupting the media environment? Are they excited about it, scared about it, or both? Is there a generational gap between incoming journalism grads and the old-schoolers? If you work in a newsroom, or have interacted with editorial departments in TV, radio, newspapers or magazines, please share your thoughts in the comments below. You can also send private, anonymous emails to me via the Feedback Form, if you prefer. I'll run the most insightful comments in the next Your Take Roundup.
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How can online media give a less consumerist view of the holidays?
I rarely cover economic issues, but there's one tiring trend in media that seems unstoppable: The breathless coverage of Black Friday and CyberMonday, the shop-till-you-drop days for Christmas shopping that blanket the business pages and TV news schedules. It is easy for mainstream news sources to err on the side of saturation because these very retailers are the last bastion of solid advertising for the newspaper business. Note this comparison: Google News shows nearly 10,000 stories in a search for Black Friday, while there are only 146 stories covering Buy Nothing Day the anti-consumerist holiday that coincides with Black Friday. So how can online media such as blogs, podcasts and citizen journalists counter the largely corporate coverage of the holiday shopping season? Or should they cover it at all? Share some of your favorite online sources for shopping news -- consumerist or anti-consumerist -- and I'll post the best responses in the next Your Take Roundup.
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Should bloggers avoid conflicts of interest as journalists do?
With so many journalists now blogging -- thanks to so many mainstream media websites adding journalist blogs -- the question is whether this new wave of bloggers will bring a different ethos to blogging. Say what you will about mainstream media's various foibles and biases, but professional journalists often keep the interest of their readers -- instead of their own self-interests -- paramount. The journalist's code of ethics requires that a reporter should "avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived." But in the blogosphere, the rules are a bit fuzzier.
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Do you think we should vote in elections by mail or online?
As the mid-term U.S. elections are today, I thought it would be a good idea to consider the intersection of technology and politics once again. So far, the mix has been pretty toxic, with so many electronic voting machines coming under fire for a lack of paper trail or being susceptible to hacks. Oregon has gone around precinct voting problems entirely with a vote-by-mail system where people have a few weeks to mail in ballots or drop them off at their convenience, which raises the participation level. Jeremy Wright, who helped push through the system in Oregon, explains how it works on the Daily Kos blog. What do you think? Should other states switch to mail-in ballots? Or should we create a safe way to vote online as well? What would the problems be with online voting besides security concerns? What other ideas do you have to eliminate the problems of long lines, voting machine irregularities, and intimidation at polling places? Share your thoughts in the comments below and I'll run the best ones in the next Your Take Roundup.
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In what social situations should you NOT use a cell phone?
If another friend of mine pulls out their cell phone while we're hanging out together, I think I might scream. Isn't the point of spending time with your friends and family that you spend quality time with them and not on your phone? Plus, now that cell phones have morphed into mini-computers with video, cameras, web access, texting, etc., they're...
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Wal-Mart 'Flogs' Par for the PR Course
All blogs are not created equal, and many of them are not transparent in their athenticity either. Sometimes we are hoodwinked, we want to believe, but we are deceived by what have become known as "flogs" or fake blogs, bought and paid for by someone else. In the case of our hot topic of the week, it's Edelman PR creating multiple flogs to tout Wal-Mart, including Wal-Marting Across America wherein our two heroes traipse around the country in a RV in praise of Wal-Mart. Surprise, surprise, their trip was funded by Edelman on behalf of Wal-Mart.
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What do you think about the fake Wal-Mart blogs by Edelman PR?
Right now, the most searched-for term on blog search engine Technorati is "Edelman." Why? Usually even negative media mentions are good PR, but in this case, the Edelman PR firm has been under attack from the blogosphere for helping to run three pro-Wal-Mart blogs without being transparent about their involvement. One of those blogs, Wal-Marting Across America, turned out to be a paid gig for the "average couple" that was taking an RV tour of the U.S. and staying in Wal-Mart parking lots. Worse, the photographer half of the couple was Jim Thresher, whose day job was at the Washington Post. He was outed by the Wal-Mart Watch blog and was forced by his employer to take down his photos and return payment from the Working Families for Wal-Mart (a group set up by Edelman).
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What sources do you check for political news on the U.S. mid-term elections?
Now that the mid-term elections are less than a month away, we can ignore them no longer. With the Mark Foley page-enticement scandal smoking in the Beltway, the various nationwide races are heating up as the Democrats try yet again to take control of one or both chambers of Congress. There are plenty of news sources online to follow the races, from mainstream media sites such as CNN's Inside Politics to the conservative-blog aggregator, Pajamas Media's PoliticsCentral to liberal power-houses such as Talking Points Memo with its Election Central clearinghouse of polls. So where do you go online to follow the election races and results? Who do you trust for good information, and where do you feel you can have a say in a political community online? Or tell us if you prefer TV and newspapers for political coverage. I'll run the best comments in the next Your Take Roundup.
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Has Facebook jumped the shark?
The popular college and high school social networking site Facebook has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The site introduced a controversial "news feeds" feature that allowed people to see what their friends had been doing lately online, leading to thousands of users signing a petition saying they opposed the feature. Facebook relented and allowed people to opt out of the feature. But then the service decided to change from being a closed community of college and high school communities, and become a more open service where anyone could sign up for geographic-oriented communities. Has the service lost its way and "jumped the shark" (meaning it's passed its prime)? If you are a longtime user, are you going to stay with Facebook or try another service? What do you like about it, and what turns you off about it? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll run the best responses in the next Your Take Roundup.
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How do you protect your privacy online?
Identity theft. Digital stalking. Credit card fraud. Spam overload. These are some of the dangers of living your life in the open online. But perhaps you take some precautions when you give out information online. Do you have a special email address where you sign up for email newsletters so you don't get too much spam? Perhaps you use a pseudonym or give out fake information when you register for news sites. Or maybe you don't share photos on your MySpace site. Tell me some of your favorite tips for protecting your privacy online -- and explain why you do it -- and I'll share the best ones in next week's Your Take Roundup. I'll also try to get some tips from privacy experts as well. Or if you have a cautionary story to share about someone invading your privacy online, I'd like to hear that too.
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What weblog or podcast would you nominate for Best of the Blogs?
Is there a particular weblog or podcast that you love more than anything? Do you think it deserves some international attention? Now's your chance to nominate that blog -- whether it's yours or someone else's -- for the Best of the Blogs (The BOBs) awards, put on for the third year by German public media company Deutsche Welle. There are awards given for blogs in 10 different languages, and now they have categories for audio and video podcasts. Plus, award categories include Best Corporate Blog, Blogwurst Award (for wacky subjects) and Reporters Without Borders award for a blog supporting freedom of speech. You can nominate a blog for The BOBs here. But also explain your nomination(s) in the comments below, and I'll review some of the better ones in next week's Your Take Roundup. (Full disclosure: I will be judging the English-language blogs.) Nominations close on Sept. 30.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What's your favorite site for finding and sharing photos?
Digital technology has changed forever the way we take photos, share them, and print them out. Before, we had to buy 35mm film and pay to get the film developed. Now we can use powerful digital cameras that have no film and allow us to print only the best photos with our own photo printers. Plus, we can post photos online at sites such as Flickr and Shutterfly to share with friends or the world. So tell us which photo sites you like to visit either to see great photography, or to share your own photos. Why do you like the site, and what features set it apart? As a bonus, tell us what features you would like that don't exist yet. Share your thoughts in the comments, and I'll run the best ones in the next Your Take Roundup.
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What are your favorite humor or work-break websites or blogs?
Many "knowledge workers" are practically chained to their computers all day for their jobs. So besides getting out of the office, how can all these folks take a break, get a quick laugh and get back to work? A cottage industry of websites have sprouted up to fill the need, from Break.com to CollegeHumor to Office Pirates. And let's not forget about the classics like The Onion. So which sites and blogs do you visit regularly for a dose of humor during the day or night? Even if you don't check the sites at work, share your favorites in the comments below, and tell us why you like them. I'll tally them up, and quote from your best comments and suggestions in the next Your Take Roundup.
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Which online sources are helping you follow news from the Middle East?
With the rapidly deteriorating situation in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon, many people rely on various online sources to get news directly from the region -- whether it's from Israeli or Arab newspaper sites, local bloggers or video journalists. I'm curious which sources you trust to give you unbiased news, or perhaps how you compare and contrast sources to get both sides. Using your suggestions, I'll try to piece together a picture of what's happening in the Middle East, quoting from the most interesting viewpoints and eyewitness reports. So tell us -- which online sources do you trust, and why do you trust them? Feel free to name American news outlets, broadcast sites, and any other good sources. And if you've had a bad experience, you can expound on that as well. I'll tally up your votes and use the best comments in the next Your Take Roundup.
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Who should replace Amanda Congdon at Rocketboom (if that's possible)?
I tried hard not to watch the car crash that was Amanda Congdon splitting from the most popular video blog in history, Rocketboom. But rubbernecking is a tough habit to break. Congdon left the show or was fired by producer Andrew Baron, depending on who's telling the story. If you're just joining the soap opera that's been splashed all over the blogosphere, gossip site Valleywag has the blow-by-blow blog posts. I'll have my own thoughts on the high-profile split, along with quotes from various observers, on Monday, but now it's your turn to weigh in. Who should be the next face of Rocketboom? Who has the humor, the charisma, the smarts to follow in Congdon's footsteps? Or do you think no one can follow her and Rocketboom will flounder? Share your thoughts in the comments and I'll run the best ideas in the next Your Take Roundup.
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Which RSS news reader do you use and why?
We all have different ways of keeping up with the news, whether it's international events, local sports or tidbits related to our professions. Many people use RSS feed readers regularly to quickly scan the headlines from all their favorite news sites and blogs before setting off to the specific sites to read more. I'm curious which news reader (or readers)...
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What type of service would motivate you to download movies?
Now that downloading music through services such as iTunes has become a common approach to buying music, I wonder what it would take to convince a skeptical public to download movies in the same manner. Most people watch home movies from DVD rental services or from on-demand cable or satellite services. But the promise of downloading movies is that you...
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When do you listen to podcasts?
The idea behind podcasts is that you can set up your portable MP3 player to automatically get new podcasts so you can listen to them on the go. But not everyone listens to podcasts the same way. One podcast service provider, Podtrac, found that 56% of podcast listeners (and viewers of video podcasts) actually enjoy their podcasts on their computers...
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Would you pay to watch sports video on your cell phone?
As the World Cup kicks off in Germany today, there are many mobile services in Europe that are promising to let people watch soccer matches or highlights as they happen. One research firm, Informa, predicted that these mobile broadcasts would bring in $300 million in revenues, particularly in soccer-mad Germany and Italy. So my question to you is whether you'd...
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Do you like blogs on newspaper sites?
Newspapers are in a tough spot. Their main income comes from a printed paper, which is losing readership and relevance among a younger audience. But newspaper websites are doing quite well in readership and in revenues. So the innovation for newspapers is happening on their websites, which are becoming more than just a place for repurposed print stories. Now major...
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With the Memorial Day weekend upon us in the States, and summer around the corner, this is a time when we typically take vacations and unplug from the work world when possible. But with always-on technology around nearly every bend, are we always getting away from technology when we take vacations? Maybe it's time for us to really unplug and...
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Should books be reinvented in a digital format?
Books are the oldest of the old media. So for a number of years, people have been dreaming of ways to update books for the Digital Age, from special portable displays to e-ink. But there's something simple about books that's hard to top -- the words printed on paper, the small form factor, the ease of borrowing and reselling them....
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What do you think about YouTube and other video sharing sites?
Viral video sites seem to be multiplying like rabbits these days. The idea is that you can upload your digital video to show the world, then people can watch them, comment on them, email them to friends, and spoof them. The most popular of these sites is YouTube, with the motto "Broadcast Yourself." YouTube says it serves up 40 million...
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How do you find out about good music?
It used to be that we relied on commercial radio to hear new music by artists we like. But with stale formats and ever-more advertisements, FM radio is losing its allure. Now we can subscribe to and download podcasts or listen to millions of Internet radio stations or pay for satellite radio. Amazon and other online stores suggest artists based...
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Are print newspapers going to die?
It's the question that's been on the minds of every newspaper journalist in the past few years, and with each passing month, less people read newspapers in print, and more people read newspaper journalism online. Consultant Vin Crosbie recently predicted that the newspaper industry has five to ten years to undergo radical change or face the chopping block. "What radical...
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Should bloggers and online journalists be able to protect anonymous sources?
A court of appeals in San Jose, Calif., is listening to arguments in a case relating to Apple gossip sites revealing what Apple terms as "trade secrets" about its products before their release. Earlier a judge ruled that Apple could subpoena the sites' inside, anonymous sources on these stories in order to punish people inside Apple who were leaking the...
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How much do you trust Wikipedia?
My editor recently questioned whether I should source my blog posts with links to Wikipedia, the community-built online encyclopedia. It's a good question, a fair question, and one that many newsrooms are grappling with to some extent. Wikipedia is an amazing resource, with more than 1 million entries in English on an array of topics -- with versions in dozens...
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What kind of advertisement would you actually like to see?
There are a lot of ways to get around advertising. You can change the channel or use TiVo or a VCR to skip commercials on TV. You can change the channel on a radio, or listen to podcasts, where you might fast-forward through commercials. You can use a pop-up blocker online. You can ignore outdoor billboards, and airplanes trailing signs...
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Should the government regulate Net neutrality?
More and more people are using broadband connections, and with those broadband connections come more video, more audio -- more, more, MORE of everything that can potentially slow up the pipes. The broadband providers are saying their capacity can't handle the booming traffic, and that they need to start finding a way to finance infrastructure improvements. One idea floated by...
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What motivates you to do work for no pay?
This has been a nagging question for me. I know that America Online in its early days was helped immensely by the volunteer work done by hundreds of chat room moderators. Many online services such as Amazon and eBay and Craigslist depend on the work done by so many of its customers, who help monitor what goes on there, and...
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How will you use the Net to follow the 2006 U.S. elections?
With each election cycle in the United States, more and more people use the Internet to do research on candidates, give money to candidates, and discuss issues that are important to them. In 2004, Howard Dean used a group blog to help organize grassroots support, and political bloggers received press passes to the big national conventions. So I'm wondering how...
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When should a young child first use a computer?
It seems like kids are getting soaked by media at earlier ages with each passing generation. Is that a good thing? When my son Julian was 18 months old, one mother of a teenager warned me: "Avoid screens for as long as possible -- TV, videogames, and computers -- because once kids get used to them, you can't get them...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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How much oversight do online forums, blog comments need?
The online journalism world has been atwitter about comments on blogs, following on the Washington Post website's decision to stop accepting comments to its Post.Blog. That happened after the Post's ombudswoman Deborah Howell didn't come clean on her comment about indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff giving money to Democrats as well as Republicans. Washingtonpost.com even convened an online panel to discuss...
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