Here are some media stories of note for Tuesday, June 18, 2013:

Andrew Beaujon, writing for Poynter, presents the latest not-so-great news about American media trust. Newspapers and TV news were trusted "a great deal" or "quite a lot" by a mere 23 per cent of those surveyed. Within the range of error, TV news trust rose by two points and newspaper trust declined by two points. The good news is that these two media were trusted more than big business, organized labour, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and Congress. The bad news is that they were behind many institutions and organizations, including the military, police, church, presidency and others.

Jeff Jarvis, writing for his Buzzmachine blog, argues that all journalism is a form of advocacy of some sort. He looks at the recent leaks by Edward Snowden, carried by Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian, and notes that they challenge their own politics; instead, they stand up for certain principles. In that regard, he notes, the true test of journalism is its advocacy on the part of principles and the public.

Tom Rosenstiel, writing for Poynter, argues for journalism that does more than make sense of distributed information. He worries that technology's capacity to provide information is driving journalism to move too quickly --- and driving journalism away from discovery into a simple augmentation of delivered content. Technology deepens journalism's potential, but he asserts it needs to be used better.

Some media stores of note for Friday, May 31, 2013:

Jeff Jarvis, posting to Medium, argues the case against sponsored content. (The New York Times is reported considering more such content, Bloomberg reports.) Jarvis asserts that the trend in sponsored material diminishes the news brand, gives rise to conflicts of interest, and confuses the audience with inconsistency. He also argues that news organizations ought to focus on being in the relationship business, more so than the content business, and that marketers should recognize that sponsored content won't benefit from the sponsored content business, either.

The U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, met a handful of news organizations Thursday (another handful declined his invitation) and acknowledged mistakes had been made in spying on media that were evincing leaks from government.  Politico reports that Holder told organizations he understood what had been done wrongly. Meantime, National Journal argues there were good reasons why journalists shouldn't have met Holder.

The largest media owner is Google. That is the finding of the ZenithOptimedia report. Press Gazette says the report suggests Google's holdings total 65 of all Internet searches and 82 per cent of all Internet paid search advertising. The value is an estimated $37.9 billion. 

Four media stories of interest for Monday, March 11, 2013:

Margaret Sullivan, the public editor for The New York Times, looks at the "danger" of suppressing leaks of classified information. She wonders what the world would be like without an understanding of Abu Ghraib, black sites, or the drone program. She explores the concerns that leaks can undermine security, but notes that the trend line is toward chilling journalistic investigation. She concludes the Times needs to be more robust as a media leader in this realm.

Jack Shafer, the veteran media columnist writing now for Reuters, examines the rise of "native advertising" or "sponsored content" and is skeptical of its effectiveness. He says "publishers are advertisers have polluted their own tradition by erasing the traditional line" between editorial and advertising content. One result of this blur, he asserts, is that readers will blame controversial stories on advertisers and controversial ads on journalists. 

Jeff Jarvis, in his latest Buzzmachine post, notes the collapse of the Daily Voice hyperlocal enterprise and identifies some of the common causes of strife in the sector and what might address them. More than anything, Jarvis says, the ventures are trying to do too much, too soon, on scales that are not sustainable. While hyperlocal efforts will eventually take hold, he believes financiers need to place their efforts away from tools and grants and into consciously sustainable models --- even if they're small.

The Mr. Magazine vlog interviews Keith Kelly, the media reporter for the New York Post, on the biggest problem in media. His one-minute video concludes that advertisers don't know how to use digital properly yet.