Crowdsourcing at its best. Blog commenters help find hit-and-run suspects in fatal accident.
PBS- More conservative than liberal?
I read with surprise the article from FAIR about PBS’s supposed “balanced” reporting. When one thinks of neutral reporting, PBS is sort of first to come to mind. So the question I have is where is this liberal bias in the mainstream media that Fox News is always complaining about being the victim of? If even the most neutral of programs is still leaning right, where’s the bias?
This once again points out the importance of independent media. When even PBS was purporting Bush’s war without any opposition, going right along with the mainstream media, where can that opposition be heard? We can’t rely on what we thought were alternative sources of news, because contrary to what we think, they’re not alternative. Especially PBS, which receives government funding. We can’t trust them to be critical of the government when that’s where they get their livelihood.
We must search for our sources of alternative media in more remote areas because otherwise critical reporting in the mainstream media is impossible to find.
How the Internet blackout affected congressional support for PIPA/SOPA.
Net Neutrality is such an important issue for American citizens, and especially independent journalists. Without net neutrality, the American government would have the ability to censor and spy on anything the American public views online. What would that entail? The obvious things- illegally downloaded music and movies, but what about politically controversial material? What about independent outlets that speak out against the American government? The government could have the ability to shut down anything.
On January 18th 2012, several major internet entities participated in an “Internet Blackout” that blocked information or material on their webpages. The biggest loss was Wikipedia, which completely shut down and instead displayed information on the PIPA/SOPA acts. After the blackout, the tide in Congress started to change, however, as the negative feeling about the acts grew. It’s a testament to the power of the internet to engage people and change opinions. Or it’s a testament to how much people use Wikipedia. Either way, the blackout made Congressmen and Congresswomen think about their support of the acts.
Anatomy of a smear
While reading the articles about the supposed Clinton love child scandal I couldn’t believe the chances the media took (the corporate media) to try to smear Clinton when the only source they had was the child’s mother.
But I think what made the most angry was when it was found out to be completely false. The corporate media barely corrected themselves, and if they did, they printed it further back than the actual story so less people would see it. This is poor journalism. They’ve already done so much to smear Bill Clinton’s name, but they’re not doing anything to try to make up for it. You can’t undo that kind of slander.
You have no favours to grant, no friends to keep, no partner to find, absolutely nothing to lose except your own idea of yourself, your own relationship with your style, taste and ego. This has nothing to do with whatever PR has sent you the record, whatever ‘readership’ your publisher is aiming for or any ‘help’ you can give to a band or artist you deem worthy of your reverse-Midas messing. This is between you and the plastic and the mirror you have to look at yourself in and nothing else. There is no career ladder. Only a downward spiral from the first thrill of seeing your name in print.
—
To The New Editor Of NME, whomever it may be. - Neil Kulkarni
Great post about the position of the music journalist these days.
(via interstate808)
(via interstate808)
What Journalists Should Know About Instagram
It seems Instagram will never be a place for sharing article links and breaking news headlines. And that’s fine. Twitter or Facebook may be where you get the news; but Instagram is where you feel the news.
(Source: la-grande-vie)
The Impossible Shot: “It’s crazy — “Anchorman” is a movie that certainly fit the time when...
“It’s crazy — “Anchorman” is a movie that certainly fit the time when it came out and every year it gets more and more relevant. Part of what inspired the movie was just how ridiculous the news had become. It was all ratings driven. The people were getting better and better looking. The weather…
(Source: salon.com)
Textsfromhilary.tumblr.com (click on the picture to make them bigger)
Texts From Hilary is a hilarious meme started after a badass picture of Hilary Clinton texting on her phone with sunglasses was taken. The meme consists of a famous person texting Hilary and Hilary responding in a blase fashion.
The meme exploded, with tons of people submitting their own to the website. Secretary Clinton even responded and submitted her own to the website, thanking the creators.
Dealing with “stickittothamaniosis”
I recently wrote an article that got me some negative attention. This isn’t anything super new to me, I’ve gotten questions about articles I’ve written before, but nothing that garnered such an angry response, and definitely not from an educational administrator.
I’ve never been one to go looking for confrontation and I hate when people are mad at me, so this is a new feeling for me. Someone is definitely mad at me, but surprisingly, I’m not too crushed. I believe in what I wrote and that my opinion was justified. The hardest part is having someone who can have so much power over your life, education and future mad at something you wrote.
A lot of students at this school are friends with the administration. They’re “twitter buddies” with the Dean and are often exchanging 140 character quips with her, trying to get on her side and sway her opinion just in case she can help them get job or make a connection later. And that’s totally fine, I understand the power of networking, but what if we’re not happy with something? Can we still stay twitter buddies with our superiors then? Do we grin and bare it because speaking out would ruin that networking opportunity? Or do we say something and hope that speaking up will improve the school, even if it doesn’t improve our personal relationship with the administration?
I obviously chose the latter and now I’m seeing how I.F. Stone must’ve felt (though I don’t flatter myself to put our situations on the same level). Sometimes in journalism we have to make enemies to improve situations. We can’t all be the White House Press, golfing with the President. Some of us have to be Izzy, working alone but making journalism that matters.
This is only my first small taste of “stickin’ it to the man”, and it’s a little intimidating, but I know it’ll probably be the first of many similar run-ins in my career. I have to develop a thick skin and be able to defend and take responsibility for what I’ve written.
First Multi-Page Newspaper Published in America and Immediately Destroyed
Good riddance. We can’t stand reading!!!
Boston’s Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, AKA the first multi-page newspaper published in America, has been shut down before it could print its second round of newspapers. The paper did not have permission from the English Crown to be printed, so they banned it and destroyed every undistributed copy.
Thank God they shut down the dumb paper and not Perez Hamilton!!!!
America needs us!
PerezHamilton is a hilarious Perez Hilton parody website that copies the exact style of Perez Hilton’s writing, only they write about events in history! This is an entry about the closing of Publick Occurences. They even copy the way Perez Hilton writes inappropriate things on celebrities’ pictures. Check out the “d” they wrote on the title.
