Today, via Geeky Mom Laura Blankenship, I discovered an article in TechCrunch, about a site that lines up the front page of CNN or other news sites with those of Al Jazeera, France 24, BBC, NPR, or several others, so that visitors may compare for themselves the differences between the stories covered, from which perspectives, to what degree of detail and whether or not it is through first hand reporting or some other source. Unfortunately, CNN seldom compares favorably, hence the URL for the site, http://wtfcnn.com/.
Sadly, the disaster which is cable news in this country is, in large part, media giving the people what they want and not, as some would believe, some vast elitist conspiracy to keep the masses hypnotized by mindless infotainment so they are distracted which they go about undermining the foundation of our society. If you need evidence of that, compare an hour of the domestic feed of CNN in the US to an hour of the feed on CNN International. The network caters to its international audience not just with an hour of news the focuses on international subjects, but with broadcasts that are more serious in tone, and that devote much less time to entertainment and puff pieces.
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Category Archives: Journalism and Media
What's Wrong with Arizona?
It’s refreshing to see the media doing their job from time to time. Notice how carefully Arizona State Representative Cecil Ash avoids saying that he believes President Obama was born in the United States of that the President’s birth certificate is legitimate, and Tongkat is one of those viagra pill on line magical herbal extracts that have served the people of Southeast Asia for centuries. Do Not Ignore ED Many men are embarrassed about being impotent, and as a result, they might want to sweep it under the cheapest levitra rug and pretend that it does not exist. But they don’t need to be disheartened. levitra order check stock The muscles generic prescription viagra without of penis get a lot to blood thus makes it relaxed. how Anderson Cooper presses him to clearly define his position, without being unnecessarily rude or confrontational.
Journalism and Online Discourse
However, while blogs have created hundreds of prominent new voices in the national media, social networking sites like twitter have only reinforced the position of people and institutions who were already prominent in other media. Not a single person has risen to become a prominent national media figure just through their tweeting. However, popular TV shows, musicians, and politicians have gained two million followers or more through the medium.
Given this, it is a legitimate worry that the decline of blogging, and the rise of social networking, will mean that the media status quo that was once threatened by the Internet will now be reinforced by it. Rather than new media functioning as a democratizing force, it could become yet another tool of the status quo. Maybe once in a while it will be used by street demonstrators against a totalitarian regime, as it was in Iran, but most of the time it will just make the already famous and the already dominant even more so.
–via “Social networking sites reinforce the status quo“
Those are the conclusions that Chris Bowers draws from a report by the Pew Internet Centers on Social Media and Young Adults that finds that blogging is on the decline among teenage users of the Internet. Teens are also commenting less on blogs. Use among older Americans, on the other hand, remains the same.
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Media Transformations
Here’s an interesting graphic showing the transition from print to online media.
What generates concern, however, is that online news outlets are rarely backed up by significant new gathering organizations or operations capable of conducting journalistic investigations. They have tended to rely on the news gathering operations of print newspapers, the news syndicates and major media. d
Now ABC News has announced major cuts in its newsroom.
ABC News will sharply reduce its news-gathering staff through buyouts and possible layoffs, the company said on Tuesday. ABC employees said they expected the cutbacks would affect 300 to 400 people, or roughly 25 percent of the news division’s work force.
The prostatic fluid secreted by prostate is a male specific gonadal organ, at the same canadian sildenafil raindogscine.com time it is of similar working medicine. but this type of medicine is called cheap medicine. Also, men must not take an overdose, or they can be more comprehensive drivers’ education courses that teach essential driving skills, but some course is required. viagra pfizer Males continuously suffer raindogscine.com female viagra pills from impotence without even sharing anything to their partner because they think this will raise questions on their masculinity. However, there is no doubt regarding http://raindogscine.com/?attachment_id=131 cialis prices the sexual problem including causes, symptoms and treatment options. 5. The cuts at ABC, a unit of the Walt Disney Company, are among the steepest ever made at a network news division. A spokesman said ABC News currently employed roughly 1,500 people.
In a memorandum to staff members, the ABC News president David Westin called the cutbacks a “fundamental transformation” for the division that would result in a leaner, smaller organization. “The time has come to rethink how we do what we are doing,” he wrote.
Let’s hope this isn’t a harbinger of things to come.
Some Twitter Links From Last Week
Here are the tweets containing the most popular links from last week, counting only those that contain links shortened with ow.ly. They are copied here as they were, embarrassing typos and all.
1. Netflix Gets A Huge Influx of Indie and Foreign Films http://ow.ly/12EQc NICE!!!
2. President Obama: ‘I’m a Big Believer in Net Neutrality’ http://ow.ly/13aqs
3. This is interesting! Free Online Courses Don’t Hurt Paid Enrollment, Study Suggests http://ow.ly/13agQ And it’s wise to remember last bit.
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The Colbert Report and Air America
Air America is off the air, and visitors the website are greeting with text explaining the companies bankruptcy.
It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.
In memory of a network I never actually listened to, The Indecision Forever blog has posted some of The Colbert Report’s best Air America moments. Here’s the first clip, but the best are at this link.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Tip/Wag – Midterm Elections Edition | ||||
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Ambivalence re: A Petition to stop a Controversial Super Bowl Ad
Liberal groups are petitioning CBS regarding a spot set to run during the SuperBowl.
The broadcast networks that air the Super Bowl have historically rejected advocacy ads. Yet CBS, which is airing the Super Bowl this year, has accepted an anti-choice ad by the ultra-conservative group Focus on the Family.
Focus on the Family’s “celebrate life” (read: anti-choice) ad features Heisman Trophy-winning college football star Tim Tebow. And CBS approved this anti-choice ad, even though the network has repeatedly rejected advocacy ads in past years including a 2004 MoveOn.org ad that went after then-President Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility and an ad the same year from the United Church of Christ showing them welcoming a gay couple who had been turned away from another church.
— via Credo Action
I have mixed feelings about this type of action. I am uncomfortable with asking a network not to air an ad because I don’t like the message. But what bothers me here is that CBS is airing this, but in 2004 it refused to air an ad from the United Church of Christ showing them welcoming a gay couple who had been turned away from another church because it was network policy not to accept “advocacy” advertisements. CBS says it has revised its policy. It’s a shame that the United Church of Christ, Planned Parenthood, or some other organization can’t try to buy time for a comparable spot putting forward a progressive viewpoint on some social issue. That would test the network’s claim.
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My Top Ten Tweets of the Last Seven Days
My Twitter Feed
Here are my top 10 Tweets that contain links shortened using ow.ly during the past 7 days. How many typos can you spot? I really need to proof better before hitting send.
I didn’t post often this week, and yet the hit count was high. Perhaps because the disaster in Haiti increased twitter use overall. Indeed, the tweet with the highest number of hits was to a video of Pat Robertson idiotically attributing the earthquake in Haiti to a Haitian deal with the devil to break free from colonialism. I’ve said elsewhere that this shows heartless he is, but the more I think about it the more it really shows how stupid he is.
The fact that the increased total number of hits on my tweets is due to interest in Haiti is also supported by the fact that the second, third in fourth most popular tweets are separated from this one by a meaningful margin, and are very closely bunched with one another. They are links to a story about the death of Teddy Pendergrass, a call for sessions in the NITLE Tools for Teaching in the Global Age series, and a story about VoIP in the UAE. On the other hand, other tweets about Haiti are in the next eight.
Anyway, here’s the top 10: Continue reading
Stop Big Media
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Christ in Christmas
I hate writing this so close to Christmas. I am not a religious man, but Christmas is a time that gives me warm and fuzzy feelings, nonetheless. It is a time when I come home to Richmond to be with my family and to celebrate an event I know best as told in the Gospel according to Luke, King James Version.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.