Media News and Analysis

"I've written many times before about how the anthrax attack played at least as large of a role as the 9/11 attack itself, if not larger, in creating the general climate of fear that prevailed for years in the U.S. and specifically how the anthrax episode was exploited by leading media and political figures to gin up intense hostility towards Iraq (a few others have argued the same). That's why it's so striking how we've collectively flushed this terrorist attack down the memory hole as though it doesn't exist. When Dana Perino boasted this week on Fox News that "we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term," most of the resulting derision focused on the 9/11 attack while ignoring -- as always -- the anthrax attack." - Sean McBride from Bookmarklet

I've heard that the DC sniper attacks caused as much fear there as the anthrax attacks. - Andrew C

"Only a year ago, the conventional wisdom was that blogs were dead and microblogging would soon replace them. Twitter was supposed to kill blogs because it’s so much simpler to publish one sentence fragment at a time rather than whole thoughts bunched together into what is known in the trade as “paragraphs.”" - Sean McBride from Bookmarklet

Prediction: eventually people will figure out that Twitter is mostly useful for broadcasting pointers to documents, and useless for almost everything else. - Sean McBride

Business people and consumers looking for one electronic device that can take care of all their needs have false hopes, according to researchers at Intel Corp. But scientists at Intel's research facility in Pittsburgh say they do expect that personal devices will one day become ... well, much more lovable. - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

Web browser Opera has closed a loophole which allowed Chinese users to access sites banned by the government. - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

Even Opera have 2 adhere to China :( - polou/indigo_bow

"The company will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices. The company will not develop an e-book, but create something that people familiar with the plans compare to iTunes—a store where you can buy new and distinct iterations of The New Yorker or Time. Print magazines will also be for sale." - George Dearing from Bookmarklet

Web search leader Google Inc said it is buying Silicon Valley display advertising technology startup Teracent, which expands its competition with display leader Yahoo Inc - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

Google is growing like monopoly in online advertising... Just like Microsoft did with operating systems. - TrafficBug

For years, Google has all but dared traditional media companies trying to develop online businesses to live without the traffic it sends their way. The folks at the Googleplex make it clear that content owners who believe Google is unfairly indexing (or stealing, depending on your point of view) their content can easily remove that content from Google's massive corner of the Internet. - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

Murdoch vs Google, I am getting very weary of 1 sided news. Or even the way Murdoch wants himself 2 be covered. - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

"Convergence" may not be the best term -- the Internet will completely absorb broadcast and cable television. - Sean McBride

another thought // what will the internet not consume..itself? ;) - George Dearing

It will consume all surrounding galaxies. :) - Sean McBride

Let me know if you're planning 2 try using the ChromeOS. - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

Did you have the password? Or have you read the article that provided the pwd? - polou/indigo_bow

""The AP was determined to get the first copy," Oreskes [a senior managing editor] wrote, detailing how the writers learned a store had "inadvertently placed the book on sale five days before its official Nov. 17 release date." "They bought a copy, ripped it from its spine and scanned it into the system so it could be read and electronically searched," he wrote." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"The all-new HDAiR wireless USB-to-VGA / HDMI adapter is essentially the same one as before, but this time audio is involved. In response to widespread demand for the feature, the outfit has added the ability to output audio in both 3.5mm analog, as well as embedded on the HDMI output. This one's also compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, and it's still using the tried-and-true UWB protocol to sling content. If you managed to hold off on the first guy, this one's available to order now for $219." - Bluesun 2600 from Bookmarklet

"In the 1952-53 television season, more than 30 percent of American households that owned televisions tuned in to NBC during prime time, according to Nielsen. In the 2007-8 season, that figure was just 5.2 percent." - George Dearing from Bookmarklet

Broadcast television is to cable television as AM radio is to FM radio. And the Internet will swallow cable television whole. - Sean McBride

"But the cultural implications of the decline of broadcast television may be as profound as the business forces at play. Gone are the days when the nation gathered around television sets in the evening to watch, say “The Cosby Show” or “All in the Family” and then chat about it the next day at work. Broadcast television was “a place, an arena, where ideas were presented in a fashion in... more... - Sean McBride

interesting. but of course the problem with credit cards and loans is that you have to pay them back :) - B.L. Ochman from email

"News journalism relies on a tried-and-tested model of inverted storytelling. Contrary to the introduction-middle-end style of writing that pervades school essays and scientific papers, most news stories shove all the key facts into the first paragraphs, leaving the rest of the prose to present background, details and other paraphernalia in descending order of importance. The idea behind this inverted pyramid is that a story can be shortened by whatever degree without losing what are presumed to be the key facts.But recently, several writers have argued that this model is outdated and needs to give way to a new system where context is king, Jason Fry argues that this "upside-down storytelling" is broken ... Fry cites an excellent article by Matt Thompson at Nieman Reports, which compares the reading of modern news to "requiring a decoder ring, attainable only through years of reading news stories and looking for patterns, accumulating knowledge". Both writers make excellent points... more... - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"HNews is the product of a project overseen by none other than Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the physicist who created the first Web protocol in 1990 and is widely regarded as the "inventor" of the World Wide Web." - Sean McBride from Bookmarklet

"The purpose of hNews, says its creators, is twofold: its first goal is to enable media outlets to "tag" their sources and make them searchable and dynamic. Its second is to make that information readable by computers, an effort more broadly known as "semantic Web." The thinking goes that if computers can recognize and "read" the content of a website, instead of just browsing for keywords, it will enable more accurate searching." - Sean McBride

Can Google OS really replace desktop or more competition coming? - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

"Last week we told you about young Will Phillips, a boy who refuses to pledge allegiance to the flag and the United States of America until gays and lesbians are allowed to marry. While Will is finding support from op-ed columnists and his parents, the kids at school are not as kind. They are harassing Will and calling him a "gaywad." Well, last night Jon Stewart decided to do something about it. After praising this precocious 10-year-old, he decided the boy must be protected so he brought out professional wrestler Mick Foley to delver a message." - Brad Williamson from Bookmarklet

I wish we could get wrestlers to protect all kids from bullies. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

"Are members from the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences being paid to short list some films over others? That's what it sounds like director James Toback was alluding to when he spoke to the New York Times recently about how his buzzed-about documentary, Tyson, was left off the Academy's short list along with several other notable documentaries from the past year. Toback told the Times that at some point during the selection process he experienced something he puts "fully in the category of extortion", adding that he did not go along with it. Speaking on behalf of the documentary branch -- which Toback refers to as "some tiny, dirty covert weirdly protective group" -- chairman (and filmmaker) Rob Epstein said, "I have no idea. It certainly hasn't come before me." Among some of the critically acclaimed docs snubbed this year are Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, the awesome Anvil! The Story of Anvil, and The September Issue. This year's... more... - Bluesun 2600 from Bookmarklet

رونوشت به مهتاب و مصلح. از لحاظ تایسون و هنگ اوور - alihejvani

Facebook has threatened legal action against a service that sells friends on the social networking site. It said it would take the action against marketing firm USocial unless it stopped violating Facebook's rights. - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

"For a century and more, newspapers made money hand over fist. Then came the Internet. Now, newspapers are dying. And news giant Rupert Murdoch is getting mad. He’s ready to fight. Murdoch’s target is the biggest kid on the Internet block: Google. The News Corp chief says Google has essentially been stealing the news from companies like his and giving it away for free. It’s got to stop, he says. Is Murdoch just blowing smoke? This hour, On Point: We’ll hear from Jeff Jarvis, Michael Wolf, and Steven Brill — plus Google CEO Eric Schmidt — on Google versus Murdoch." - Sean McBride from Bookmarklet

Rupert Murdoch: raging against the dying of the light. - Sean McBride

After a predefined period designed to increase transparency and maximize user feedback, Facebook has announced that, with fewer than 7,000 user comments, it will proceed to implement its proposed amended privacy policy. - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

A study released today (PDF) by Weber Shandwick says the answer is not very well, and that the majority of Fortune 100 companies don’t really get Twitter. Though 73 of 100 companies had at least one registered Twitter account..One major result of this ineffective use seems to be low engagement from followers. Out of the 540 total TwitterTwitterTwitter accounts registered by Fortune 100 companies, 50 percent of the accounts had fewer than 500 followers and another 15 percent weren’t being used at all. - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

no surprise here #twitter #business #socialmedia #stats #data - See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

really do we need the ALL CAPS here techcruch??? - polou/indigo_bow from Bookmarklet

I wonder how we're gonna be looking back on all this in 20 years time. I mean, as much as I despise the guy, he does have a point that advertising alone just won't cut it. There needs to be a more direct route for making money off of editorial content/media on the net. With video and audio media, I certainly see the cable subscription system being introduced for the likes of Hulu, with... more... - alphaxion

I agree we do need some pay subscription or some sort of pay model 4 willing parties, but how Murdoch does it, well very old way of doing biz. - polou/indigo_bow

thought I'd scribble a little more based on my initial comment. - alphaxion