Media Curmudgeon: FEMA and WEMA

Media Curmudgeon: FEMA and WEMA

I just commented, when reviewing Esther Thorson's recent paper, that the NYT decision will kill its brand.

Wikipedia attacked by Nazis

Wikipedia attacked by Nazis

Similar to Google-bombing, Simon Wiesenthal has been Wiki-bombed.

Best Blogs - Forbes.com

Best Blogs - Forbes.com

A breakdown of best of blogs by category, as compiled by Forbes

Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits

Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits

Google offers the ability to search blogs. This is separate from their general and news searchhes, which do not search many blogs.

Are blogs fundamentally undemocratic?

Idea: Conduct a cross-population study of blogs to assess their effectiveness in aiding
critical thinking. Test for affirmations of party line (operant def) or
objections to opposing party's actions. -->Do blogs lead readers to
critically analyze news, or do they reaffirm the beliefs of their readers?

Ebay swallows Skype for at least $2.6 billion

Ebay swallows Skype for at least $2.6 billion

Playboy interviews Gates

Bill Gates reflects on the impact of technology on Democracy

Gates shares some of my concerns about educated leaders and how Democracy should work. Later in the article, he talks about the importance of education.

...

GATES: Say the President is making a speech. Everybody in the nation gets to push little buttons to say yea or nay, and gathering all that information so it can be displayed within a second or two is tricky. But it's all within the state of the art. You don't have to be a dreamer to know that the technology will not limit the construction of the information highway.
PLAYBOY: How will being able to respond directly to the president alter our system of government?
GATES: The idea of representative democracy will change. Today, we claim we don't use direct democracy because it would be impractical to poll everybody on every issue. The truth is that we use representative democracy because we want to get an above-average group to think through problems and make choices that, in the short term, might not be obvious, even if they are to everybody's benefit over the long term.
PLAYBOY: Do you agree?
GATES: Yes. When making choices, or setting policies about the economy, education or medicine, society is best served by electing people who are particularly hardworking, intelligent and interested in long-term thinking.
PLAYBOY: You're giving our current elected officials a lot of credit.
GATES: What we have may be less than ideal, but it's still better than direct democracy. Anyway, we'll no longer be able to hide behind the excuse that we don't have the technology to gather the opinions.

The Journalist Behind the Curtain: Participatory Functions on the Internet and their Impact on Perceptions of the Work of Journalism

The Journalist Behind the Curtain: Participatory Functions on the Internet and their Impact on Perceptions of the Work of Journalism


Through a framework from the sociology of occupations, this study examines the consequences of increasing audience participation in journalism processes. This framework suggests that increased transparency between readers and journalists may weaken the occupation's authority. A weakening of exclusive authority in the eyes of the public may leave the jurisdictional area of journalism vulnerable to rival occupations, such as bloggers. The challenge from this budding activity suggests news audiences have continued to broaden their perceptions of what constitutes news, as findings from this study predict.

Blogs: Two Main Types

Two types of blogs

5 types of blogs

5 types of blogs

NOLA Rescue weblog

NOLA View weblog

A blog of people needing rescue. A good idea, a touching thing to create, and a discomforting thing to read.