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NGOs and the News: A Matter of Definition
Harvard is teaming up with Pennsylvania State to deliver a series on the future of journalism given the increasing role of NGOs in producing news. Can NGOs fill in for ever-shrinking foreign correspondence budgets? Should they be allowed to? When NGOs play by the media's rules, sexing up and dumbing down their observations to accommodate the general reader, do they compromise their primary mission of advocating for change? Read More
November 22, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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The Guardian says it’s a bad idea for the the Times of London to build a paywall by next spring. Spectator Magazine (UK) only lost 3% of readers after putting its content behind a paywall, but realize they serve a more niche audience than general newspapers. Still, a survey by the Boston Consulting Group found that many ar… Read More
November 19, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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Murdoch's News Corporation Makes a Move
A variety of English media reported today that the Times of London will begin charging its customers for 24-hour access to the Times’ website by spring. The Times, roughly the English equivalent of the New York Times, is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and will likely be the first major newspaper to adopt a mandatory online payment scheme. Read More
November 17, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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Arianna Huffington Says the Future of News Is Free
At the Monaco Media Forum lately, two competing business models for journalism were put forth by two industry leaders: Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post and Mathias Dopfner, CEO of the German media conglomerate Axel Springer. In lieu of watching their hour-long debate, read on for a summary of their arguments. Read More
November 16, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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An Old Debate Wrapped in New Clothes
The traditional opponents in the Afghanistan/America debate have once again taken their place: buildup versus withdrawal. However, recent news reports lack any historical perspective of America’s presence in Afghanistan dating to the Cold War. Details of Washington politics are not sufficient to inform the public about the war in Afghanistan. Read More
November 12, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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The New York Times reported today that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s office asked a Manhattan high school newspaper to alter quotations of the Justice following a talk he gave at the school. As a result, the high school paper’s story on the talk was delayed. Although Justice Kennedy is apparently a strong advocate of the First Amendment right to free speech, what is more surprising is that a high school newspaper is being treated as a powerful, unforgiving news source. But that is how th… Read More
November 11, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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US Climate Change Conference, Barcelona: Final Day
On the final day of the UN Climate Change Conference in Barcelona, delegations have begun looking toward Copenhagen where a climate change conference will again take place in one month’s time. Since the Bali conference in 2007, the world has counted on Copenhagen to deliver a legally binding treaty to combat global warming. Executive Secretary of the UN Framework on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, acknowledged that though such a treaty is now impossible to achieve, he still expects measurable progress in Copenhagen. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Environment
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UN Climate Change Conference, Barcelona: Day 3
A day after African delegates walked out of negotiations at the UN Climate Change Conference in Barcelona to protest the weakness of developed countries' commitments to reducing CO2 emissions, it is becoming clearer just how insufficient those current commitments are. The problem, as usual, is money. There's not enough of it. Without bold commitments from developed countries, the CO2 reductions required by the science behind climate change are simply not going to occur. Read More
November 5, 2009 | In Environment
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UN Climate Change Conference, Barcelona: Day 2
The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference will fail to realize its goal of creating a legally binding commitment to reduce CO2 emissions. This was the only reachable conclusion Tuesday night in Barcelona at the UN Climate Change Conference after the Pew Center on Climate Change, an American NGO, explained in detail the official U.S. position on global warming. Read More
November 4, 2009 | In Politics & Policy
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UN Climate Change Conference, Barcelona: Day 1
The second-to-last UN Climate Change Conference of 2009 opened Monday in Barcelona, Spain with a very clear message: get ready to deliver big at Copenhagen. Just one month away, the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, or COP 15, has been billed as the place where humanity will sink or swim, risk dire environmental changes or commit to difficult carbon reduction schemes. This week, the prelude to the future of the world is being performed in Barcelona. Read about it here. Read More
November 3, 2009 | In Environment
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The Military-Financial-Industrial Complex
Stories from major newspapers this week have examined this moment of crisis for American foreign policy in the Middle East. Afghanistan is expected to receive more American troops, while a run-off is being held due to election fraud. The President’s brother works for the CIA, Al Qaida is attacking civilians in Pakistan and the 2010 military budget provides for more classified programs than nearly ever before. Read More
October 29, 2009 | In Politics & Policy
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New Cult Doc: Fall of the Republic
A refreshingly non-mainstream media company, INFOWARS.COM, has released a new documentary in the tradition of other cult docs like Loose Change and Zeitgeist. The new film is called Fall of the Republic: The Presidency of Barack Obama and the arguments it makes are mostly of the ruling class, a… Read More
October 26, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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After the Office of the President went eight years without tackling many of our contemporary crises, there’s a lot to be done. It makes you wish Hillary had won and installed an exclusively female cabinet—on account of women’s ability to multi-task more effectively than men, I mean. Read More
October 23, 2009 | In Politics & Policy
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The Obama Administration has continued to challenge Fox News as a worthy news network and as noted earlier, reaction can concentrate on the content of the White House’s challenge or the form it is made in. In a sign that much of what we call news is increasingly opinion, the media reporting the Fox News v. White House story are asking whether the challenge is politically advantageous to the Administration, leaving to the side whether the claims being made by the two parties are true or not. Read More
October 22, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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A report calls for publicly funded journalism. Meanwhile, a Colorado newspaper is seeking a pot critic. 9 out 10 readers won’t pay for online news. And the Barnes & Noble e-reader offers subscriptions to 20 newspapers. Read More
October 21, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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Technology and media bloggers have been quick to declare the death of print, both in newspaper and book format. The bold new future will come to us through e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle, they say. Do the promoters of these devices really know what the public wants or are they happy to cash in on our materialistic cravings? Today I take a look at the demand-side of e-readers. Read More
October 16, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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Now that the Obama administration has characterized Fox News as a political opponent rather than a disinterested news outlet, people are debating the political fallout as well as the veracity of the White House’s challenge. The first clear shot in an already tense relationship was fired by Communications Director Anita Dunn who said, “We’re going to treat [Fox News] the way we treat an opponent.” How has the supposedly liberal media reacted? Well, not very liberally. Read More
October 13, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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Surprise! As if expectations weren’t high enough for the new American president, Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after nine months in office, and all without achieving a terrific amount of peace. In a rare move, the Nobel committee awarded the prize to encourage what it sees as a strong movement in the direction of peace rather than reward someone who had already brought peace about. Obama owes a nod to his predecessor, George W. Bush, for being such a bad guy that his own moderate liberalism seems God-sent. Read More
October 9, 2009 | In Future
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People, Courts Challenge Berlusconi
Days after protesters took to the streets in Rome and Barcelona against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his grip on Italian media outlets, the Italian courts have issued their own challenge to his authority. Berlusconi and his government are much maligned in the European press, so much in fact, that the Prime Minister has sued Italian newspapers La Repubblica and L’Unitá for alleging he has used prostitutes. However, should it be shown that Berlusconi has viol… Read More
October 7, 2009 | In Media & Internet
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One of my parents works in a cardiologist practice, one of my siblings is a nurse and I myself am covered by the Spanish public healthcare system. While ours views on America’s healthcare “debate” might qualify us as flesh-eating liberals on Fox News, which now informs the majority of cable viewers, by far the more distressing fact is that a once-conscientious press views people with an informed perspective through an Read More
September 30, 2009 | In Media & Internet
