Category: Internet

May 29, 2014 media notes: Internet trends report; Conde Nast, BuzzFeed and sponsored content; Kinsley responds to NYT

5/29/2014

For Thursday, May 29, here are some media stories of note:

The annual Internet Trends report by investor Mary Meeker for Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers is arguably the strongest data set on the direction of digital. It emerged Wednesday (embedded below) and pointed to the vast untapped potential of mobile, the disproportionate strength of display advertising (but eventual demise) for newspapers, the emergence of sensors as a factor in our media consumption and data gathering, and some concerns about the valuation of tech firms, among many other trends.
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Two large digital players are figuring out how to deal with sponsored content. Condé Nast has drafted what it calls an internal Magna Carta on the matter. AdAge reports the magazine publisher will keep logos off the content and enforce strong standards and practices. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that BuzzFeed is going to clarify the labels atop such content to be clearer about its promotional nature.
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Yesterday it was noted that the public editor of The New York Times had been critical of a Michael Kinsley review of the Glenn Greenwald book on surveillance. Kinsley has responded, saying Sullivan didn't accurately quote his observations.

KPCB Internet trends 2014 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

May 22, 2014 media notes: A T & T's Internet TV vision; algorithms and the news audience; Twitter and censorship

5/22/2014

For Thursday, May 22, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

John McDuling, writing for Quartz, explains the "simple, brilliant logic" behind the expensive acquisition of DirecTV by A T & T in the United States: the company is in the race to be America's first full-fledged Internet TV service. While the $48.5-billion deal has its detractors, A T & T believes it can negotiate better deals with programmers and then deliver their content across a range of platforms.
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Jihii Jolly, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, looks at the pro's and con's of the increased use of algorithms by news organizations to optimize the audience's experience. On the one hand, readers are served what they are likely to like most readily; on the other, it takes away serendipitous discovery of things you never thought you'd enjoy.
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Mathew Ingram, writing for GigaOm, looks at the spread of country-withheld content by Twitter. While it is true that governments' selective use of Twitter's ability to block certain Tweets, Ingram concludes the approach is simply censorship packaged in another wrapper.

March 24, 2014 media notes: Turkish Twitter battle, Glenn Greenwald on Edward Snowden, Quartz explains Internet

3/24/2014

For Monday, March 24, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

A serious skirmish is under way in Turkey as the government attempts to suppress social media platform Twitter and all sort of efforts take place to circumvent the interference.
The Washington Post reports on how the government has strengthened its measures, including a crackdown on efforts to shift to public DNS servers to get out from under the blocked Turkish ISPs. Some users are able to use Virtual Private Networks, while others are moving over to the Tor browsing tool, but both are more complex workarounds and not necessarily accessible to all.
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Glenn Greenwald sheds light on the process by which the records former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden are handled. Greenwald says Snowden gave documents nine months ago to a select set of journalists (not including The New York Times, which had the latest revelation from them on the weekend), made clear he didn't think all should be published, but has since left them to their devices and judgment.
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Tim Ferholz and Daniel Yanovsky, writing for Quartz, provide a thorough explanation of how the Internet works. They look at the reasons why download speeds vary and the overall governance and economics of the Internet, particularly why some of the debate on net neutrality is a bit misguided.

March 21, 2014 media notes: Turkey blocks Twitter, Poynter debates value of page views, data journalism's challenges

3/21/2014

For Friday, March 21, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

Turkey has blocked Twitter. The prime minister promised to eradicate it, and soon after it could not be used by the country's 10 million Tweeps. This is the latest in a string of measures to suppress free expression in the country and focus on state-run media to inform citizens. Not surprisingly, there is a large effort to thwart the block, including the use of Google as a workaround.
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Poynter has a healthy debate under way between two of its writers on the value of page views as a metric for online news sites. Rick Edmonds has taken the view that the day has come to ditch the page view and measure other forms of engagement, but News Corp.'s Raju Narisetti argues on Poynter that page views remain important and not only as "vanity" metrics in the business model of journalism. It is a recommended discussion.
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This week's launch of FiveThirtyEight at ESPN has prompted several posts on the value and challenges of data journalism. The Columbia Journalism Review's Tanveer Ali argues it will not succeed without a narrative, without recognizing that numbers are a means to telling the story and not the story itself. Ben Thompson, meanwhile, looks on the stratechery blog at the decline of the newspaper and its incompatibility with the Internet's capacity to find what people want. Self-promotion: I posted this advice to the newspaper on LinkedIn overnight.

February 13, 2014 media notes: journalists urged to lead Internet debate, news replaces literature, China's news needs

2/13/2014

Here are some media stories of note for Thursday, February 13, 2014:

Michael Copps, a former Federal Communications Commission commissioner, says journalism needs to lead the debate over the future of the Internet. Copps says the Internet, still in its early days, will produce several more revolutionary changes in the news, but "not by continuing down the road it is presently on." He writes an open letter to journalists in the Columbia Journalism Review. Copps argues regulatory moves to widen broadband access and guaranteeing an open Internet are vital to the future of news, and he writes that journalists need to be involved in these decisions. Otherwise, the axiom will hold that decisions without you are usually decisions against you .
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Lee Siegel, writing for The New Yorker, poses the question: Is the news replacing literature? He cites the recent reprised dispute between Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen over sexual abuse allegations as an example. "Instantaneous news of what happened, or might have happened, has become our art, and, like the chorus in ancient Greek tragedy, we are all part of the swelling roar."
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Hu Shuli, editor-in-chief of Caixin Media, writes of the challenge of building independent, sustainable journalism in her native China. She notes in the latest Nieman Reports the lack of business acumen and the need for "better company structures and digital know-how" to meet the challenge of developing press that can stand strong. An important priority is for Chinese media to collectively protect intellectual property rights.

February 4, 2014 media notes: journalist flees Egypt as arrest video seen, Turkey cracks down, and the need for corrections

2/4/2014

For Tuesday, February 4, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

The trial of Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt has led one Dutch journalist to quickly leave the country for fear of imminent arrest, and the release of video of two of the arrests on a government-friendly television station is being seen as intimidation of journalists in the country. The New Yorker's Joshua Hersh looks at how journalism is suddenly an Egyptian crime.

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In Turkey, a bill about to pass through its Parliament would tighten the government grip on the Internet and further restrict what are already strong measures to suppress press freedom. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports the bill would permit the government to block URLs without court approval, mandate data protection for two years and consolidate service providers into a single association.

A new report by Freedom House chronicles the campaign by the Turkish government to exert media control and intimidation by limiting debate on issues central to the country's democratic ambitions.

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Late last week it emerged that a former New Jersey state official was shedding new light on the controversy involving Governor Chris Christie and a traffic tie-up last year in a district that did not support Christie politically. The governor has asserted he did not know his officials ordered the traffic snarl (on the pretense of a traffic study). Now a former official says there is evidence to refute the governor. Initially, The New York Times said the former official "had the evidence to prove" this. But the story later changed to say "evidence exists." Margaret Sullivan, the Times' public editor, says the newsroom should have noted the editing change for readers of the story because it was a significant iteration.

January 15, 2014 media notes: U.S. ruling on net neutrality, China explains blocking sites, Russia bars journalist

1/15/2014

Here are some media stories of note for January 15, 2014:

The U.S. Federal Appeals Court ruling Tuesday on so-called "net neutrality" could see various tiers of service emerge for users: a lower tier for email and light use, one for social media, and a higher one for streaming video, or various charges to companies like Google or Netflix or Spotify.

The ruling has thrown open the business practices of the Internet. One thing is certain: the net neutrality discussion is far from over. Apart from an appeal of the ruling, which largely keeps the Internet from being treated as a utility, all sorts of new legislation and regulation could emerge to work through the concept and preserve the principles of access. Mathew Ingram of Gigaom and Brent Kendall of the Wall Street Journal analyze the ruling.

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China's ambassador to the United Kingdom, in an interview with Sky News, defends his country's decision to block several western-based websites and platforms, including The New York Times, Bloomberg Facebook and Twitter. They spread rumours, he notes, and China is looking for truth to serve its people.

The U.S. is expressing diplomatic disappointment following Russia's decision not to permit entry to journalist David Satter, who has written three books on the country. Satter is a distinguished correspondent, but Russia says his presence is unwelcome.

media notes 09.27.13

9/27/2013

For Friday, September 27, 2013, here are some media stories of note:

A former federal Pakistan minister has suggested the country needs a press ombudsman to deal with standards and practices of the country's media. Javed Jabbar, a former minister of information, is a member of a commission examining media in the country. He argues that standards of fairness and balance have not been high and that a form of oversight is needed for media in his country.

Mathew Ingram, writing for paidContent, examines a recent presentation in Italy by Google's chief economist on what ails the newspaper business. Hal Varian argued that the Internet isn't responsible for the decline of newspapers (television news was much more significant) and that the Internet remains a much better way to deliver content. He notes that newspapers have made money from certain of their sections, but that it is much more difficult to profit from a "pure" news story.

A new British study suggests television remains the prime news source in the country, more than double that of newspapers, with radio and the Internet only slightly behind print. Press Gazette reports the Ofcom study found the BBC was the largest and most important source of news in the country. Of the 3,000 surveyed, 78 per cent used television, 40 per cent used papers, 35 per cent used radio and 32 per cent the Internet for news.

media notes 09.05.13

9/5/2013

For Thursday, September 5, 2013, some media stories of note:

United Nations representatives have expressed concern that Britain might be using its need to protect government secrets to "intimidate the press into silence." The UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression says the press plays a central role in clarifying human rights abuses. He and the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism have spoken out in the wake of British detention of David Miranda, the partner of former U.S. security employee Edward Snowden.

Bolivian journalists are protesting a new government bill that would permit authorities to declare developments off-limits to reporting in the country. GlobalPost reports that demonstrations were held in Bolivian cities Wednesday against the bill that would prevent material deemed sensitive from being disclosed.

A new Pew study looks at how people pursue their desires for privacy online. Andrew Beaujon, writing for Poynter, notes the study found that one-quarter posted comments anonymously. All told, 86 per cent have taken steps to remove or mask their digital footprints. One-fifth have had their social network or email accounts compromised.

Mathew Ingram, writing for GigaOm, looks into the little-noted criminal proceedings against Barrett Brown, charged for reposting a link on an Internet Relay Chat channel. The link went to documents stolen from an intelligence consulting firm. Brown was attempting to crowdsource contract information. Ingram calls his case even more outrageous than those of Edward Snowden or James Risden.

Jessica Meyers, writing for Politico, looks at the free-speech record of Jeffrey Bezos, the new owner of the Washington Post, in his capacity as Amazon founder. Meyers notes that Amazon pulled WikiLeaks off its servers and the curious search results from its China site. She says there is some anxiety about Bezos as he adopts his role.

media notes 08.30.13

8/30/2013

For Friday, August 30, 2013, here are some media notes:

Nora Caplan-Bricker, writing in The New Republic, provides a guide to the most effective and relevant citizen journalism in Syria. In some cases the content is coming directly from people ther, but she notes that some of the most significant journalism is curated from expatriates with excellent sources. She also identifies the less reliable outlets. Tom Fudge of KPBS San Diego interviews two Syrians on how to create a free-to-express journalism culture in Syria.

Amy Guth, writing for the Chicago Tribune, presents the 10 commandments of social media. Among them: don't steal, don't work too hard, don't be snarky, don't succumb to shiny new objects. It's a nice look at the social media culture.

Quentin Hardy, writing for the Bits blog at The New York Times, looks at the enormous challenge for Internet advertising. For one, people are increasingly enlisting ad-blocking software. But the bigger issue, he notes, is the format of ads themselves and how they are ineffective. Hardy notes the role ads are playing in arousing buyers is changing, and ads themselves may not be the most useful way to market products in this age.

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