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It's no great mystery that newspapers are struggling with a near-apocalyptic business forecast. Most readers are settling for smaller papers, fewer reporters and less coverage. But Keith Hemstead is a newspaper reader who won't settle for less, and he's suing his paper to try and save it.
The satirical cover of The New Yorker magazine was chattering class fodder this week, with pundits and more pundits wondering aloud if 'other people' would understand the joke. Brooke wonders aloud why so many supposedly smart people assume the rest of us are so dumb.
Despite the internet’s runaway success, its future is anything but clear. So says Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet governance at Oxford University. He explains why the very devices and applications that have enabled internet ubiquity may now be limiting innovation.
Religion author Jeff Sharlet argues that if mega-churches and televangelists receive too much attention by the media, the influence of an elite group of evangelicals receives too little. Sharlet says that a group known simply as "The Family" has powerful sway among some of Washington's top lawmakers, and that their media strategy is simple: avoid it.
Consuming the same media as your peers is what social scientists call homophily, better known as ‘birds of a feather flock together’. Ethan Zuckerman, blogger and internet theorist, has been trying to fight this instinct online. He offers techniques for surprising and challenging readers with news that they didn't know they wanted.
When the Associated Press busted a little-known website for posting excerpts from AP stories, the blogosphere responded with indignation. After all, appropriating content with a link back to its source is common practice. Media scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan looks at the ongoing battle between blogs and the mainstream media.
Economic turmoil was the story this week, with oil and gas prices causing much of the anxiety. The rise in prices are often cited as a simple issue of supply-and-demand but Howell Raines, media columnist for Portfolio Magazine, says journalists haven't pushed back hard enough against oil companies' explanations for the high prices.
