Microblogging Mania
Twitter Helps with Reporting, Filtering the News
Last May on MediaShift, we wrote a series of articles about a new microblogging tool called Twitter, which was just beginning to gain visibility among the digerati. At that time, many bloggers were still on the fence as to how useful the service really was. Many thought it was...continued...
Arkansas State Talk
The New Rules of Media
Last week, I had the honor of giving a speech at Arkansas State University, as part of their Lecture & Concert series — at least, once I made it through the mechanical mayhem of American Airlines cancelling dozens of flights the same day I flew out. I also got...continued...
MobileShift
The Blessing and Curse of the iPod Touch
Here at MediaShift, we have had some less than perfect experiences with mobile devices and the Internet. Earlier this year, Mark wrote a manifesto about what would make for a smarter smartphone. And last summer I grumbled about the bad time I was having with my new smartphone. The...continued...
Littler Big Box
Can Electronics Stores Evolve in the Digital Age?
There’s something almost laughable about shopping for digital cameras or television sets at typical big-box stores such as Target, Circuit City or Best Buy. You are usually greeted by row after row of devices, with very little explanation of how they are different — perhaps with a few bullet...continued...
iLampshade
When Did Computers Become the Life of the Party?
There was a time not so long ago when home computers sat on desks away from the main action in households. People used them for basic productivity tasks such as word processing and spreadsheets. Now, things have changed to the point where our home computers have become a center...continued...
The Case for Ink
5 Reasons I Won’t Give Up Books
Last month at the highly anticipated MacWorld conference here in San Francisco, Apple honcho Steve Jobs said some words that left many agape. Those words weren’t “Macbook Air” but “people don’t read anymore.” He was predicting a doomed future for Amazon’s new Kindle e-reader. Shocked, I’ve been going over...continued...
What About the People?
The Pros, Cons and Weirdness of Microsoft-Yahoo
After years of rumors, it finally happened. On Friday, Microsoft made its buyout offer for Yahoo. But while that was expected to happen, as both companies have had trouble catching online advertising juggernaut Google, what wasn’t so expected was that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer would go all Murdoch on...continued...
Your Take Roundup
Facebook Has a Problem with Trust
In the not-too-distant past, I remember fondly getting an email notification from Facebook that one of my friends had sent me a message or “poked” me virtually. I happily clicked over to Facebook to see what someone had said or done, and responded in kind. Now, my reaction to...continued...
Not Being There
The Efficiency (and Shame) of Long-Distance Reporting
My writer friend Marlene once had a dot-com job that seemed odd. She wrote for a travel site about various countries but never traveled to those countries. She simply aggregated information from other websites and did extensive online research before writing about them and putting together guides. But strange...continued...
TiVo Nation
The New Etiquette for Our Time-Shifted Culture
Do you remember the old days back when we sat around and watched a sports event or TV show with people in real time with commercials? You might have even called up a friend far away to share your thoughts on what was happening in the game or who...continued...
MobileShift
How to Make Smartphones Smarter
The cell phone industry in the United States is at a crossroads. Verizon announced it would open up its networks to other devices, AT&T opened its already-open network and Google has been pushing the carriers to adopt its more open Android platform. Whether any of this makes any sense...continued...
The List
California Wildfire Coverage by Local Media, Blogs, Twitter, Maps and More
The last few days have shown that online resources, social media, and collaboration on the Net can make a huge difference in a natural disaster. As the wildfires have spread in Southern California, the evacuees and local residents have utilized the Internet not only to connect and get updated...continued...
Our Gadget Haze
How Cell Phones Are Killing Face-to-Face Interactions
Whether you are dating someone, interviewing someone, or just meeting someone for the first time, there is a special quality about face-to-face interactions. You can catch the subtle tone in their voice, see their expression as it changes from sad to outraged, and you can look them in the...continued...
Online Rubbernecking
Our Internet Obsessions with Missing People Goes Too Far
Reading online news is a great way to stay constantly updated on what’s going on in the world without having to rely on television. And in times of great tragedy the Internet has shown itself to be incomparable in its ability to make information move quickly for the good...continued...
TVShift
Is the Future of Television Online? Not Yet
Late last month the BBC announced that it would be offering up a large part of its television content free of charge on its website. And back in May, ABC announced it would stream some of its primetime shows in HD online for free. As networks begin to put...continued...
Extending McLuhan
Converged Devices Doesn’t Mean Fewer Devices
Mark Glaser is on vacation for the beginning of this week. We’re pleased to have Robert K. Logan from the University of Toronto as our guest blogger here at MediaShift. “The crossing or hybridization of the media release great new forces and energy by fission and fusion… The hybrid...continued...
Extending McLuhan
The 14 Messages of New Media
Mark Glaser is on vacation for the beginning of this week. We’re pleased to have Robert K. Logan from the University of Toronto as our guest blogger here at MediaShift. New media have certainly changed the landscape of communications and education in an even more dramatic manner than electronic...continued...
Digging Deeper
The Problem with Web Measurement, Part 2
This is the second part of MediaShift’s special series on web measurement. In the first part, I looked at the problem of inconsistent traffic numbers from panel-based measurement firms such as comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings, and the push by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to standardize measurements. This week, I...continued...
Digging Deeper
The Problem with Web Measurement, Part 1
On April 19, 2007, the new CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Randall Rothenberg, sent a scathing open letter to the heads of the major web measurement firms, comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings, complaining that they better get their act together: Imagine my surprise when I came to the IAB...continued...
EducationShift
’Open Universities’ Try to Bring College to Masses
A college education in the United States can be one of the most costly in the world. For many young people, college isn’t an option because of the economic strain it represents for their families. And many older people who would like to attend classes must forego studies to...continued...
Ypulse Mashup 2007
Marketers Grapple with Giving Teens More Control Online
SAN FRANCISCO — A curious thing happened at the Hotel Nikko in downtown San Francisco today during the Ypulse Mashup 2007 conference about those wired teens. Yes, a lot of older folks dressed business-casual tried to look hip and decipher what the kids were doing online in social networks,...continued...
Your Take Roundup
Virtual Worlds for Kids Entwined with Real World
While the media has been abuzz about Second Life and adult virtual worlds, a bevy of virtual worlds for kids have been even more popular than their adult counterparts. Tween world Club Penguin has more than 4 million visitors per month, according to a New York Times article on...continued...
Digging Deeper
New Media Literacy as Important for Educators as Students
For so long, the focus of media literacy education has been on helping students understand the media they consume. What are the biases? Who owns what outlet? How are news reports produced? But with the rise of new media, perhaps the focus of media literacy education should shift to...continued...
Fear Factor
Dangers Overblown for Teens Using Social Media
I remember the first time I watched Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator, a TV series where they snared sexual predators using online venues. It was a train wreck — the kind you can’t keep your eyes off of. These predators were so creepy and so dumb. Some of...continued...
What Are You Doing?
Doing More Than Just Twittering Our Lives Away
When I first signed up for micro-blogging service Twitter last September, I remember reading that day that Evan Willliams, one of Twitter’s founders, was in a horse drawn carriage winding through the streets of Marrakech. I found that fascinating. That day, I wrote one update (“I’m blogging…”) and didn’t...continued...
Our Voyeuristic World
Are We Sharing Too Much Information via Social Media?
Social media — the online tools we use to keep in constant contact with friends and to spy on strangers — is something many of us believe makes the Internet a more fun, more personal place to be. It makes it easier to keep in touch with people we...continued...
Your Take Roundup
Loosen Copyright Restrictions for the Internet Age
Slowly but surely, the entertainment industry is realizing that it can’t use copyright law as a blunt force in the digital age. Take the case of music giant EMI. Not long ago, EMI was fighting music-sharing service Napster and threatening DJ Danger Mouse over the mash-up, The Grey Album....continued...
Your Take Roundup
Picking Apart the State of the News Media Report
The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s massive State of the News Media 2007 is like a Rorschach test for media watchers. Some people wallowed in the negative findings or attacked the criteria for the study, while others were wowed by the depth of data and the interactive elements. While...continued...
State of the News Media 2007
Project for Excellence in Journalism Dissects 38 Sites; Blogger Index Coming
Each year since 2004 the Project for Excellence in Journalism has dropped the bomb of knowledge on the media world in the form of the State of the News Media report. The report is breathtaking in scope, with quantitative research on newspapers, online, TV, magazines, radio and ethnic media....continued...
Digging Deeper
Pew Internet Finds Good (and Bad) of Web’s Social Impact
For those of us who spend much of our lives online, we get hunches about the way things are. It might seem like everyone is writing a blog, listening to a podcast, or watching home-made video clips. Or we might assume that everyone now uses the Internet to help...continued...
Your Take Roundup
Call It a Syndrome or Disorder — We Just Don’t Pay Attention
I know you’re in a hurry, you’ve got somewhere to go, someone to call, someone to email, someone to IM, something to say on your own blog. So I’ll keep it short and sweet and to the point: Thanks to the new communication technologies and media delivery, our attention...continued...
Digital Disruption
Music Industry Losing Control Over Album Sales
Why is the retail price of a new music CD $15.98? Where does this price come from and how is it set? Is it fair? For a long time, I’ve wondered about the high price of music, especially when bought in physical form as a compact disc. As longtime...continued...
Your Take Roundup
Marketers Get Weak Signal from Users on Cell-Phone Ads
There is an interesting disconnect between the way marketers view advertising on cell phones and what average folks who use cell phones think about those same ads. Marketers, ad agencies, research firms, cell phone makers and carriers are salivating over the prospect of delivering marketing messages to people via...continued...
Survey Says
Podcast Audience Small But Growing…Enough?
You could call it the Headline Conundrum. Or maybe Sound-Bite Logic. Whatever the term, there’s a regular problem with journalism related to the brevity of space to explain a complex issue or finding. A recent survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 12% of Internet users...continued...
Survey Says
MediaShift Readers Want More MSM, Business Coverage
There’s nothing like an anonymous website survey to learn what people really think about your work. That’s why I did an online survey to help give me an idea of what direction to take PBS MediaShift in the coming year. Have I done a good job? Have I covered...continued...
Your Take Roundup
The Definitive Guide to Cell Phone No-No’s
I went to New York City last weekend, and noticed all the people on cell phones while waiting for their planes in the airport. OK, there’s not much to do in these waiting lounges so why not call people up? But it got worse when we were loading onto...continued...
Virtual Journalism
Wired, CNET, Reuters Agog Over Second Life
A friend of mine who works in PR in San Francisco came up to me at a party last week, and was wide-eyed at what’s been going on lately at the virtual world Second Life. “Now that Reuters has a correspondent actually reporting on stories from Second Life regularly,...continued...
Survey Says
Help Improve MediaShift with Your Feedback
This is the post where I plead with you, offer you crazy schwag, and hope you will take 5 minutes out of your very busy lives to please fill out first ever MediaShift Reader Survey. I know, every other site on the planet is asking you for feedback too...continued...
The Global Language
English Today, Mandarin by 2020?
Because the Internet and computers were home-grown in America, it’s no surprise that the Internet naming convention (.com, .net, .org) and computer keyboards and software interfaces are based on the English language. That has helped to push English into the dominant second language worldwide for people doing business across...continued...
Trying to Unplug
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. So last month I ventured back to St. Louis for five days to visit my...continued...
Digging Deeper
Should Community-Edited News Sites Pay Top Editors?
If there is one push-and-pull balancing act that defines news in the age of Web 2.0, it’s the question of how much power to give the audience, the masses, the collective mind, and how much control remains centralized. That balancing act has played a crucial role in the development...continued...
Survey Says
Big Media Last to Know Bloggers Not in Pajamas
Today was going to be a day of triumphalism in the new media world, a day where I would celebrate the growing ranks of blog creators (a.k.a. bloggers) and blog readers in the U.S., while also noting the growing number of people downloading podcasts. I would combine the happy...continued...
Guest Blog
’Never Let Schooling Get in the Way of Your Education’
Mark Glaser is on vacation this week, and will resume blogging next Monday. We’re happy to have Henry Jenkins as guest blogger in his place. Jenkins is the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. He is the author and/or editor...continued...
Guest Blog
Learning By Remixing
Mark Glaser is on vacation this week, and will resume blogging next Monday. We’re happy to have Henry Jenkins as guest blogger in his place. Jenkins is the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. He is the author and/or editor...continued...
Your Take Roundup
Sports Video on Cell Phones Works in Right Situations
It’s easy to ridicule the idea of watching a World Cup soccer match or baseball game on a tiny mobile phone screen. Where’s the ball, who’s on first, how’d they score that goal? But for the rabid displaced fans of any sport, having the tiniest video highlights in town...continued...
Your Take Roundup
We Need to Learn How to Unplug
Our lives are wired to the hilt, especially us urbanites. We have cell phones, laptops, handheld PDAs, broadband access at work and at home, and the availability of news updates at our every whim. But maybe there are times — especially now as the weather warms up — when...continued...
Bridging the Divide
Kudos to Telcos for Bringing DSL to Masses
A few years back, I angrily canceled my DSL and local telephone service with SBC after their horrible customer service and slamming technique drove me away. I likely muttered something like this under my breath: “Hell will freeze over before I’ll say something positive about telephone companies.” Consider it...continued...
Screen Babies
What Do Kids Lose, Gain from Screen Time?
It’s easy to get angry and self-righteous when hearing the results of a study like the recent one from the Kaiser Family Foundation about young kids’ media usage. The facts come spewing off your tongue as if you’re a preacher in a room full of sinners: 61% of babies...continued...
Open Source Reporting
Living Your Life Online Has Benefits
Back in late March, I detailed some of the ways that computers and the Internet had changed my life. I use Google News to check breaking news. I use online services such as Evite to organize face-to-face activities. I communicate with more people through email than by phone or...continued...
Live from London
Which Media Do You Trust?
LONDON — I am your on-the-scene correspondent this week from London, where I am currently in a BBC TV studio listening to various people discuss citizen journalism at the We Media Forum. The conference bills itself thusly: “No ordinary conference, We Media is about how we create a better-informed...continued...
Digging Deeper
TV-B-Gone Device Shuts Public TVs Down
The last time I was in an aiport, I was held hostage by the ubiquitous CNN Airport Network monitors that wouldn’t shut up. I ranted about the experience, and then I heard from a former CNN guy, William Jeakle, who explained that these TVs made too much money for...continued...
Open Source Reporting
Living Your Life Online
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about life before the Internet, and life before computers. How was life different? Was it worse? Was it better? How? Of course, there is a generation of people and children whose entire lives have been lived on computers and online — they know...continued...
Your Take Roundup
Parental Involvement Key to Kids’ Computer Time
My 3-year-old son Julian is obsessed with typing and sending emails to his grandparents. Whenever he sees me working on my laptop, he cries out to visit the Sesame Street site online and its various games. But so far, we have tried to limit his computer time to 20...continued...
Your Turn Roundup
Your Cell Phone’s Made for Talkin’
The makers of cell phones would like you to know that you can do a lot more with your cell phone than just talk to people. You can text. You can go online and check your email. You can snap photos or take video. You can listen to music...continued...
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...continued...
Your Take Roundup
What to Watch on the Small Screen? It’s Situational
I was sitting on a panel recently in Pasadena for the TV critics press tour, and someone in the audience asked about what people would really watch on the small screen of a cell phone or video iPod. I mentioned what Chris McQueen said on this very weblog, that...continued...
