For Wednesday, April 23, 2014, here are some media stories of note:
When the very future of television is deemed at stake, it pays to pay attention to a court case. The U.S. Supreme Court has heard the arguments involving Aereo, the service that uses tiny antennas to capture over-the-air programming, record it and stream it on the Internet. Aereo argues its service is little different than a consumer's right to use rabbit ear-style receivers to watch TV. Broadcasters, who aren't compensated by Aereo, believe their business model would be ruined unless they can ruin Aereo's. The justices expressed some skepticism about the service but also focused on the implications for cloud-based services if Aereo is sidelined, in that such services as Dropbox might face challenges. Several strong stories from the Washington Post, CNN Money and The New York Times, among others, captured the seriousness of the case, which will be settled this summer when the court rules.
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Casey Newton, writing for The Verge, examines the phenomenon of click-bait content discovery, those links that tantalize the reader to head over to related content. Newton writes that the rise of such links has propelled many firms to profitability, but that the technique is going to run its course.
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The Guardian is no shrinking violet when it comes to explanatory journalism, but James Ball writes for its Comment is Free blog that perhaps we're being overrun with data-driven journalism sites like Vox, FiveThirtyEight and The Upshot, all of which have launched in the last month. Ball says it isn't clear who is the audience and what is the point. He suggests that data alone won't illuminate.
When the very future of television is deemed at stake, it pays to pay attention to a court case. The U.S. Supreme Court has heard the arguments involving Aereo, the service that uses tiny antennas to capture over-the-air programming, record it and stream it on the Internet. Aereo argues its service is little different than a consumer's right to use rabbit ear-style receivers to watch TV. Broadcasters, who aren't compensated by Aereo, believe their business model would be ruined unless they can ruin Aereo's. The justices expressed some skepticism about the service but also focused on the implications for cloud-based services if Aereo is sidelined, in that such services as Dropbox might face challenges. Several strong stories from the Washington Post, CNN Money and The New York Times, among others, captured the seriousness of the case, which will be settled this summer when the court rules.
***
Casey Newton, writing for The Verge, examines the phenomenon of click-bait content discovery, those links that tantalize the reader to head over to related content. Newton writes that the rise of such links has propelled many firms to profitability, but that the technique is going to run its course.
***
The Guardian is no shrinking violet when it comes to explanatory journalism, but James Ball writes for its Comment is Free blog that perhaps we're being overrun with data-driven journalism sites like Vox, FiveThirtyEight and The Upshot, all of which have launched in the last month. Ball says it isn't clear who is the audience and what is the point. He suggests that data alone won't illuminate.
