Here are some media stories of note for Wednesday, January 22, 2014:
The Guardian is the latest media organization to find itself in collision with the Chinese government. The Guardian's site has been blocked following its story on the offshore wealth of the government leadership.
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Jay Rosen, the NYU scholar recently hired by the new Pierre Omidyar news organization, offers some thoughts on the controversy this week involving the Grantland site. It published an investigative story on a golf club inventor; in the process of its research, it revealed the inventor's trans history, and she killed herself.
Rosen says the episode is the best argument for diversity in a newsroom. More than a dozen employees saw the story before it was published, but none had an understanding of the transgender community.
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Maria Konnikova, writing for The New Yorker, looks at a book that identifies the six elements that contribute to the viral nature of a story.
Not surprisingly, emotion and arousal top the list. But social currency is also a key (it makes people feel they're smart). A memory-inducing trigger helps, as do lists, as does the quality of the story itself.
The Guardian is the latest media organization to find itself in collision with the Chinese government. The Guardian's site has been blocked following its story on the offshore wealth of the government leadership.
---
Jay Rosen, the NYU scholar recently hired by the new Pierre Omidyar news organization, offers some thoughts on the controversy this week involving the Grantland site. It published an investigative story on a golf club inventor; in the process of its research, it revealed the inventor's trans history, and she killed herself.
Rosen says the episode is the best argument for diversity in a newsroom. More than a dozen employees saw the story before it was published, but none had an understanding of the transgender community.
---
Maria Konnikova, writing for The New Yorker, looks at a book that identifies the six elements that contribute to the viral nature of a story.
Not surprisingly, emotion and arousal top the list. But social currency is also a key (it makes people feel they're smart). A memory-inducing trigger helps, as do lists, as does the quality of the story itself.
