For Monday, March 10, 2014, here are some media stories of note:
Timothy Karr, writing for FreePress, profiles Dunja Mijatovic, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's representative for press freedom. She has been shuttling between the Crimea and the rest of the Ukraine in recent days to attempt to restore operations of media services shuttered and to demand authorities investigate the murder of a journalist. Her role, admittedly challenged in these circumstances, is to enforce press freedoms in the OSCE's 57 member states.
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Casey Newton, writing for The Verge, argues that news personalization services have flailed, if not failed, in the media landscape. He cites the recent all-stock sale of Zite to Flipboard, and the closure of several such sites by others, as evidence that the category isn't lifting off. Flipboard may yet solve the challenge of delivering content, but the conversations and serendipitous qualities other sites deliver is an advantage. "The truth is that the news remains stubbornly impersonal," he writes. "Algorithms have proven brilliant in many things, but newsgathering isn't one of them."
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Jessica Gresko, writing for The Associated Press, examines the landmark Sullivan libel ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court 50 years later and finds its impact endures in the digital era. The ruling came as a result of officials' efforts to reduce the civil rights coverage by The New York Times. It made it much harder for public figures to win lawsuits and money over false statements that damaged reputations. Even if technology today permits more people to write damaging statements, there is also a greater opportunity to reply. Courts have come to consider how false statements are a reality in an environment of open debate.
Timothy Karr, writing for FreePress, profiles Dunja Mijatovic, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's representative for press freedom. She has been shuttling between the Crimea and the rest of the Ukraine in recent days to attempt to restore operations of media services shuttered and to demand authorities investigate the murder of a journalist. Her role, admittedly challenged in these circumstances, is to enforce press freedoms in the OSCE's 57 member states.
***
Casey Newton, writing for The Verge, argues that news personalization services have flailed, if not failed, in the media landscape. He cites the recent all-stock sale of Zite to Flipboard, and the closure of several such sites by others, as evidence that the category isn't lifting off. Flipboard may yet solve the challenge of delivering content, but the conversations and serendipitous qualities other sites deliver is an advantage. "The truth is that the news remains stubbornly impersonal," he writes. "Algorithms have proven brilliant in many things, but newsgathering isn't one of them."
***
Jessica Gresko, writing for The Associated Press, examines the landmark Sullivan libel ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court 50 years later and finds its impact endures in the digital era. The ruling came as a result of officials' efforts to reduce the civil rights coverage by The New York Times. It made it much harder for public figures to win lawsuits and money over false statements that damaged reputations. Even if technology today permits more people to write damaging statements, there is also a greater opportunity to reply. Courts have come to consider how false statements are a reality in an environment of open debate.
