Media and Journalism Category Archive
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September 18, 2007

New York Times opens up

00:26 UTC » Media and Journalism

The New York Times
Times to End Charges on Web Site

The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight Tuesday night, reflecting a growing view in the industry that subscription fees cannot outweigh the potential ad revenue from increased traffic on a free site.

/cheer

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April 11, 2007

Advertising funded user generated media

18:03 UTC » Marketing - Media and Journalism

Old school user generated media ads

A subway mirror with an ad. In Web20-ese that's "Advertising driven user generated media".

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June 29, 2006

Other bloggers at Brainstorm 2006

19:26 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism

Some other bloggers at Brainstorm:

Ross Mayfield, Dan Gillmor, Rebecca MacKinnon, Gary Bolles

UPDATE: Diego Rodriguez is also blogging the event.

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March 7, 2006

Printing a blog post

13:23 UTC » Creative Commons - Global Voices - Media and Journalism

I was recently approached by a publisher who wants to translate my Chinese Anti-Japan Protests post and some of the comments into Japanese and publish them as a book. This site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license so legally they can do this without asking permission. However, I am worried that some people might be posting comments on this blog without being aware that their comments are also covered under this license. If you have contributed to the post and would not like to have your comments translated into Japanese and reprinted, please let me know. Any royalties or fees I might receive for this I will donate to Global Voices, which is the most relevant project to this post.

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February 8, 2006

Podcasting: The end of amateur hour?

00:01 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism - Podcasts

By

Wired magazine writes about the so-called phenomenon of podfading: When someone stops doing a podcast.

Reasons cited for stopping podcasts:
- Boredom
- No success
- Overwhelming success
- No money

Meanwhile, the US-based National Public Radio this week reached the milestone of 13 million podcasts downloaded just six months after it started podcasting.

At the pace mainstream media is entering the new media space, will today's star bloggers and podcasters be tomorrow's roadkill?

Note: I may cross-post comments on the IHT blog and they may be reproduced in the paper for publication.

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January 17, 2006

Live Door raided last night

11:00 UTC » Japanese Politics - Media and Journalism

Live Door, one of the large Internet portal/verticals run by the now well-known maverick Horiemon, was raided last night the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's office on suspicion of illegal securities trading. (Japan Times artice) Apparently they raided around 6PM last night and were there until this morning. One person who was visiting for a meeting reported that he was not allowed to leave for a long time and had to leave his papers there. Unlike the US, Japanese courts do not have a "discovery" process and often have to rely on these surprise raids to get necessary documents. It makes for good TV News.

Horiemon has been rubbing old-school Japan the wrong way by challenging the establishment with clever financing and takeover attempts of the media etc. I can see how he would get targeted. On the other hand Japanese companies like his tend to be sloppy so I wouldn't be surprised if they find something. It would be unfortunate if they end up slapping Livedoor down since I think he was serving an important function in Japanese business and this looks like a typical set-up.

Thanks to iMorpheus for reminding that I should probably blog this.

UPDATE: I haven't confirmed this, but I just heard a rumor that the National TV Network (NHK) was reporting the raid before people at Live Door knew they were being raided. ;-)

UPDATE 2: Live Door is Skype's Japan partner.

UPDATE 3: Apparently the first notice Live Door got of the raid was when Network TV called for an interview. TV knew before they did.

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January 15, 2006

Next Gen Publishing

23:10 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism - Sharing Economy - Social Software

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January 10, 2006

IHT Blog Launched!

20:55 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism

By

It is now official! The IHT blog has been launched.

Check it out.

Comments on the IHT Blog may be used in a column that will run in the International Herald Tribune's technology pages - print and Internet - if we get enough good comments.

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January 7, 2006

Center for Citizen Media

10:51 UTC » Joi's Diary - Media and Journalism

Dan Gillmor has launched his Center for Citizen Media. According to his post on Bayophere, "Starting in 2006, I'll be putting together a nonprofit Center for Citizen Media. The goals are to study, encourage and help enable the emergent grassroots media sphere, with a major focus on citizen journalism." I have joined his board of advisors. Good luck Dan! I think this direction is perfect for Dan.

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December 15, 2005

If news is not in English, did it happen?

19:26 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism

By

English was already the lingua franca of science, business and academia. Now English appears to be fast emerging as the media language of choice. Al Jazeera is preparing to debut a 24-hour news channel in English. A TV station in Russia also started English broadcasting this month (but got hacked down).

Recently, an ex-FIFA sports official praised the French newspaper, L'Equipe, for some of it's hard-hitting doping coverage, including revelations about Lance Armstrong. But, he added, they just don't get the same notice because their reporting is in French.

His implication: If news is not in English, it didn't happen.

Have you seen any examples of growing use of English in media or backlash against it?

Disclosure: This question is asked in preparation for writing a story for the IHT, so I may get back to you for follow-up.

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December 2, 2005

Macedonia: Wireless Nation

23:24 UTC » Media and Journalism - Wireless and Mobile

By

The entire country of Macedonia will be covered by Wifi, according to an announcement by Strix Systems.

There could be many uses for unlimited ubiquitous broadband.

Some of my ideas:

- Wifi webcams filming from a flock of sheep could make a great art project.

- Wifi webcams facing the stove would confirm that nothing is still turned on.

What other Wifi devices could be useful? (Even if it adapts current technology).

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December 1, 2005

Will Digital Communication Undermine NGOs?

02:43 UTC » Activism - Health and Medicine - Human Rights - Information and Media - Media and Journalism - Network Technology - Social Software

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November 30, 2005

Could 1.2 million Swedish teenagers be wrong?

01:06 UTC » Information and Media - Media and Journalism - Social Software

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November 28, 2005

Blogging: Outdated, outmoded and ugly.

17:55 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism

By

Recent thread on the types of blogs highlighted something that bothers me: The term Blogging has hit the use-by date.

Face it, the word "blog" does not have a beautiful sound.

More to the point, however, there are so many types of blog-like interactions that it is way too generic.

In the thread we arrived at three styles of blogging (they can be mixed in a single blog, of course):

1- Talk - distributed conversation that reaps ideas

2- Inform - links to interesting things

3- Opine - Puts forward viewpoints

Sam Tresler highlighted many uses for blogs:

- Organizational

- Personal

- Business

Can anyone think of a better term than blogging to describe what we are talking about?

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November 26, 2005

On CNN Situation Room again

12:16 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism

Abbi-1
Calling Abbi in the studio to coordinate...
Abbi from the Situation Room emailed me just as I was about to leave Croatia asking me to join Rebecca MacKinnon on a segment for the Situation Room today. (This is the second time. The first time was in August.) We just finished recording. It will air on CNN Domestic 7 PM Eastern Time on Saturday and 1 PM Eastern Time on Sunday. Rebecca talked about global voices and I talked about blogs being conversations. Nothing new to readers here, but felt good having a chance to say it on CNN. I also quoted Thomas Crampton's post about how the IHT only gets 30 letters to the editor while we often get more comments on blog posts.

Abbi who runs the segment that we were in reads our blogs and is totally into blogs and new technology. CNN is lucky to have her. Her segment has a refreshing style and is something new... something we didn't have last year as far as I know. At least some of the main stream media is working well with us. I just realized that I was on CNN talking about what Thomas from the IHT was saying on my blog. Holy MSM remix. That's a lot of progress from last year... at least from my perspective.

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November 24, 2005

Deconstructing Bloggers

03:21 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Information and Media - Media and Journalism

By

In studying blogs I have come to notice there are relatively few styles of postings.

In descending order of difficulty, they are:

Conversational: Asks for a response, implicitly or explicity. Often gets no responses but occasionally it hits a home run with a great discussion.

Informational: A "neat-o" style of posting that tells information but does not really encourage discussion. These tend to get links without comment. BoingBoing, Engadget, etc are very successful blogs of this sort.

Polemical: A posting that takes a strong opinion. These tend to get both responses and links. The responses, however, tend to be opinions. Can be dull unless you use it like a drunk leaning on a lamppost: More for support than shedding light.

Additions and comments welcome

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November 23, 2005

Discontinuous Changes to Media

19:51 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Information and Media - Marketing - Media and Journalism

By

Interesting post on the blog of PR man Richard Edelman about the future of media.

Extracted highlights:

* The largest 50 Web companies are attracting 96% of the ad spending on line.

* 9.5 million homes in the US now have TiVo or another digital video recorder. 64% of DVR users skip all ads and an additional 26% skip through most ads. The number of homes with DVRs is expected to triple in the next five years.

* Every dollar coming out of print advertising revenue for newspapers is replaced by only 33 cents online.

Changes to the media landscape are dramatic. I think many in the media industry have not yet internalized these numbers.

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November 21, 2005

IHT Journalist Trespassing in Blogosphere

20:44 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Information and Media - Media and Journalism - Social Software

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November 18, 2005

Blog Etiquette for Newspapers

19:12 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Information and Media - Media and Journalism

By

What options to refer to bloggers quoted in the International Herald Tribune blog-based technology page column?

- Shorter references make it easier on the reader
- Longer references make it easier for readers to track the person making comments and encourage the conversational-style that will hopefully develop

BUT Hyperlinks are not yet possible in the printed edition (sadly).

So options include:

- Use only the first name of the blogger (as many comments appear)
- Use the Blog/web address
- Include first name and blog address
- First name, blog address and a qualifying reference (author of XX book, etc)

What would make people more likely to participate? Concrete examples preferred.

PS: In preparing for the blog-based column for the International Herald Tribune I have spent vastly more time brainstorming and discussing issues here in Joi's blog than inside the newsroom. Thanks!

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November 17, 2005

Business Idea: Dial-in podcast editor

20:52 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism - Podcasts

By

Been asking around the newsroom of the International Herald Tribune as to why we don't have a podcast of our best story of the day.

Problem: We don't have the in-house expertise right now to do podcast editing, but we came up with the concept of dial-in podcasting.

Business idea: Our far-flung reporters - and others eager for high quality podcasts - would call in their stories from the field (like we used to do to the recording room) to a high quality editing service that would splice together the best version and put a standard intro on the start and finish of each podcast. The podcast would then be automatically posted on our website. (Sounds ripe for an enterprising outsourcer!)

Any ideas?

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Reporter's personal comments in Nikkei online edition

16:53 UTC » Humor - Media and Journalism

The Nikkei
10:31 13Sep2005 NIKKEI Hakuhodo Teams Up With Russian Ad Agency

Note: I couldn't identify the Russian firm. This is just a guess. KMD

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Hakuhodo Inc. formed a business partnership Monday with Russian advertising agency Prior Advertising, joining the growing ranks of Japanese automakers, consumer electronics firms and other businesses moving into the country to tap its developing economy.

Through its partnership with Prior, Hakuhodo aims to secure orders from
Japanese companies operating in Russia.  The Russian firm, meanwhile, will handle accounts on Hakuhodo's introduction.

Through this joint effort, the partners will aim for sales of 500 million yen over the next year.

Prior, an independent advertising company, recorded sales of about 65 million dollars, or roughly 7.1 billion yen, in the year ended December 2004.

Dentsu Inc. (4324) in August reopened its Moscow branch, which was temporarily closed.  Through its collaboration with Prior, Hakuhodo aims to compete with Dentsu in the Russian market.

The Russian advertising market is continuing to show growth.  In 2004, it was worth about 420 billion yen, up 30% from the previous year.
     (The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Tuesday morning edition)

"Note: I couldn't identify the Russian firm. This is just a guess. KMD"? This sounds like a message from the reporter to the editor. Oops. ;-)

The Nikkei is one of the largest newspapers in Japan. I guess even they screw up sometimes... or maybe they're trying to make it sound a bit more "bloggy".

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Hacking Boing Boing

00:44 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Information and Media - Media and Journalism

By

Looking for a model to follow in the IHT blog project and want to figure out what works.

The Guardian newspaper has a tech blog (check out their pipe-smoking tech editor).

But Technorati ranks Boing Boing the most popular blog by far. (Kudos, guys!)

Why do you read Boing Boing?

a - The frequent postings (up to 33 in one day, by my count)
b - The focus of stories?
c - Boing Boing should improve by . . .
d - Blog X is better than Boing Boing because . . .

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November 16, 2005

Clash over reader letters: "A lot!" or "very few"?

18:29 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Information and Media - Media and Journalism

By

Funny clash of perspectives in the International Herald Tribune newsroom!

In planning for my blog-based column, I chased down the actual number of letters to the editor we receive each day.

We receive at the IHT roughly 30 letters per day, of which 10-15 are usable, the letters editor said. We end up publishing roughly six.

Historical footnote: We formerly only accepted letters via post, then we accepted fax letters (by early 1990s) and now we almost exclusively receive letters via email.

For a daily newspaper printed in 31 print sites around the world and distributed in more than 150 countries, 30 letters per day struck me as very low, but several colleagues thought it was "a lot".

I sometimes get more than 20 responses - many publishable - for a single posting on this blog.

Once the blog-column is up and running I will be interested to see how many letters to the editor we can inspire. (For the newspaper as a whole, not just for the column.)

If you feel strongly about an article or issue, the email is letters@iht.com and please mention this blog so we can get a sense of the level of blogger input.

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November 15, 2005

Success on IHT Column pitch! (and next issues)

20:00 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Information and Media - Media and Journalism - Social Software

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November 11, 2005

Collaborative Newspaper Column, Part 2 (The Pitch)

03:14 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism - Social Software - Wiki

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November 9, 2005

Dan on the cover of Aera

12:16 UTC » Books - Media and Journalism

Danaera
Holy we the audience Batman! Dan's on the cover of Aera. Aera is probably Japan's biggest news magazine. Congratulations Dan! Although I will take credit for giving a copy of the book to Mr. Hattori at Asahi, many thanks to Asahi for getting Dan's book out in Japanese and giving him great coverage here. Seeing Dan on the cover of Aera really made my day. Maybe Japan's not that bad after all.

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November 8, 2005

French Suburbs in Flames

06:10 UTC » Activism - Economics - Information and Media - Leadership and Entrepreneurship - Media and Journalism - Sharing Economy

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October 29, 2005

Diseases of the Rich

02:08 UTC » Activism - Economics - Health and Medicine - Media and Journalism

Posted by

My minor hand operation this week highlighted to me how journalism/blogging are literally manual labor.

Also, my ability to tell many people about this injury reminds me of how repetitive strain injury/carpal tunnel syndrome only became something of broad public concern when the chattering classes (ie: white collar workers, including journalists) were hit due to their typing on computer keyboards.

Throughout the industrial revolution, however, the same problem had afflicted manual laborers who could not bring their problem to a wider audience. (Lately there seem to be fewer complaints about it here at the International Herald Tribune, perhaps because there is a greater understanding of ergonomics.)

Must be many examples of diseases that only became well known when they also became diseases of the rich. Any interesting ones?

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October 21, 2005

Collaborative Newspaper Column - Wiki-style?

21:59 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Gadgets - Games - Global Politics - Human Rights - Information and Media - Media and Journalism - Social Software

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October 18, 2005

Mainstream Media Journos Tackle Blogging

21:13 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Information and Media - Media and Journalism

Posted by Thomas Crampton

Interesting venture launching in a few weeks by a group of Mainstream Media journalists in a blog. It is called Pajama's Media and has contributors from a number of mainstream outlets.

I think a cooperative blog is a good model - www.boingboing.net style - and would like to explore those possibilities myself. Seems to me the key is finding the right mix of people and then letting them loose.

My company - the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times - is not moving into the blog sphere as quickly as I would advocate.

That said, some colleagues are blogging on their own: Howard French in Shanghai, for example. Don't know of others.

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Yahoo's Political Prisoner?

02:34 UTC » Activism - Global Politics - Human Rights - Media and Journalism

Posted by Thomas Crampton

Three questions regarding the Committee to Protect Journalists today naming online journalist Shi Tao as a winner of the International Press Freedom Award.

His 10-year sentence to a Chinese prison came partly due to a disclosure about him by Yahoo!.

1- Do employees of Yahoo! feel responsible for/comfortable with this man going to prison? (Will they, for example, send care packages or join a letter-writing campaign petitioning the government of China for his release?)

2- How do users of Yahoo! feel about the company's privacy policies? (Or privacy policies of other Internet companies, for that matter.)

3- As a journalist who has had many police encounters in countries with nasty authoritarian dictatorships, I am always very concerned about the safety of those with whom I interact. Does online interaction lead to a sense of diminished responsibility? Do we need to see someone's face or visit their family at home to feel their pain?

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October 15, 2005

Defending Freedom of Speech in India

09:32 UTC » Global Voices - Media and Journalism

Good post on Global Voices describing how Gaurav Sabnis made comments about an educational institution and receives threats to sue him for 30 billion rupees (45 rupees to a USD). Gaurav leave IBM but sticks behind his words and fights for his freedom of speech. This is an important issue where, as the GV post points out, the USP of the country is its open democracy.

It reminds me a bit of my sms.ac incident...

via Suresh

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October 13, 2005

Narrowcasting Magazines to Hidden Markets (Divorcees and Gay Parents)

20:08 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Economics - Information and Media - Marketing - Media and Journalism - Sharing Economy

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October 7, 2005

Times Select: Fee or Free?

21:57 UTC » Information and Media - Media and Journalism - Sharing Economy

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October 4, 2005

Blogging vs Journalism

21:02 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism - Social Software

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September 28, 2005

Global Voices Live Chat on Handbook for Bloggers & Cyber-Dissidents

00:24 UTC » Activism - Global Politics - Global Voices - Media and Journalism

Global Voices Live Chat on Handbook for Bloggers & Cyber-Dissidents going on right now. Join us at #globalvoices on Freenode. For more information see the post on the Global Voices blog.

Update: Just ending now. Will post link to transcripts when they've been posted.

Update: The transcript of the IRC chat has been uploaded.

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September 15, 2005

Will the Next Elections Save Japanese Democracy - by Karel van Wolferen

06:03 UTC » Japanese Policy - Japanese Politics - Media and Journalism

Karel just sent me an article he wrote for the Asahi about the recent election. I've posted it on my wiki.

Karel van Wolferen via email
Dear Joi,

The widespread -- and I mean truly widespread -- misconception that Japan has been pushed by Koizumi in a market-capitalism direction should teach us something about the function of the world's media as agents of ignorance. Like with subjects such as Iraq or Russia those who ought to know do not have a clue of what is actually going on.

Herewith my article as it appears this morning in the Asahi Shimbun.

best wishes

Karel

Will the Next Elections Save Japanese Democracy - by Karel van Wolferen - September 12, 2005

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September 13, 2005

Dan Gillmor's blogger meetup in Tokyo September 26

15:45 UTC » Blogging about Blogging - Media and Journalism

Dan Gillmor's in town and having a bloggers meetup at the Apple Store in Ginza from 20:00-21:00 on the 26th of September. I'm going to be out of town, but if you're around, it should be a lot of fun.

More info here.