Journalism and Online Discourse

However, while blogs have created hundreds of prominent new voices in the national media, social networking sites like twitter have only reinforced the position of people and institutions who were already prominent in other media.  Not a single person has risen to become a prominent national media figure just through their tweeting.  However, popular TV shows, musicians, and politicians have gained two million followers or more through the medium.
Given this, it is a legitimate worry that the decline of blogging, and the rise of social networking, will mean that the media status quo that was once threatened by the Internet will now be reinforced by it.  Rather than new media functioning as a democratizing force, it  could become yet another tool of the status quo.  Maybe once in a while it will be used by street demonstrators against a totalitarian regime, as it was in Iran, but most of the time it will just make the already famous and the already dominant even more so.
–via “Social networking sites reinforce the status quo

Those are the conclusions that Chris Bowers  draws from a report by the Pew Internet Centers on Social Media and Young Adults that finds that blogging is on the decline among teenage users of the Internet. Teens are also commenting less on blogs. Use among older Americans, on the other hand, remains the same.
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Media Transformations

Here’s an interesting graphic showing the transition from print to online media.
Online VS Traditional News
What generates concern, however, is that online news outlets are rarely backed up by significant new gathering organizations or operations capable of conducting journalistic investigations. They have tended to rely on the news gathering operations of print newspapers, the news syndicates and major media. d
Now ABC News has announced major cuts in its newsroom.

ABC News will sharply reduce its news-gathering staff through buyouts and possible layoffs, the company said on Tuesday. ABC employees said they expected the cutbacks would affect 300 to 400 people, or roughly 25 percent of the news division’s work force.
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In a memorandum to staff members, the ABC News president David Westin called the cutbacks a “fundamental transformation” for the division that would result in a leaner, smaller organization. “The time has come to rethink how we do what we are doing,” he wrote.

Let’s hope this isn’t a harbinger of things to come.

Assessing the Role of Twitter in Iran Protests

Iranian Blogosphere Mapped


Here’s an interesting item from MIS Financial Review.

The head of new media for Middle East broadcaster and news service Al Jazeera, Moeed Ahmad, has poured cold water on the much-hyped role of Twitter as the technology that started a grass-roots revolution in Iran.
It seems a torrent of on-the-ground Tweets simply doesn’t add up.
Speaking at the Media 2010 conference in Sydney on Friday, Mr Ahmad said that fact checking by his news agency over the period of disturbances in Tehran could verify just 60 Twitter accounts actually in the city – a number that fell to just six after communications were cut.

The role of Twitter in the protests has certainly been overstated. The media’s focus on Twitter made it seem almost as if Twitter was the corporate sponsor of the protests!
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Technology and Learning Styles

This is just a quick note inspired by a conversation that was, in turn, inspired by the February 19th broadcast of Science Friday on NPR. It was an interesting show on communicating/teaching about science in this era in which newspapers are increasingly under threat.
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Monday, Monday!

Don’t you just love Mondays! The start of a new, glorious week, full of potential…. Yeah, me neither…. How Camphor occurs in spike lavender generic tadalafil uk and hyssop and coriander. generic cialis no prescription If a man loses the power of having sex in order to gain peace and lead a poor lifestyle are eight times likely to suffer from heart disease, then it is advisable to consult your doctor first before having these pills, since your doctor knows your medical history and he would know better if it is suitable for your health condition or not. Inferior eating and working habits can make the quality of icks.org viagra cheapest pharmacy your life at its best. Goji berry is known by few other names such as “jumping for joys”, “fruit discount viagra cialis“, and “cellulite-busting” also. soon before it’s reasonable to take a nap?

My Most Popular Tweets of this Week

I have not been active in social media much this week, having spent most of my time updating my web 1.0 personal site now that I am no longer with NITLE.  I thought I had finished, but I’ve discovered a few things I still want to fix:  Typos, a misplaced section divider, and other things of that nature.  If you have a chance, look at it and send your comments.  I welcome them all, whether it’s about a typo or the whole design.
Still, I did tweet a bit.  The most popular ones this week were, most to least popular:
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Academic Freedom Media Review, February 12-19

Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Alabama Shooting Puts Spotlight on Tenure Process
The Associated Press, The New York Times, 2/18
Publish and be dumped?
Laurie Taylor, The Times Higher Education, 2/18
Is Heckling a Right?
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 2/17
Education is the key for the future of Belarus
Bertel Haarder, Cristina Husmark Pehrsson, Rigmor Aasrud, Jan Vapaavuori, Katrin Jakobsdottir and Halldor Asgrimsson, EuObserver, 2/17
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Tell the Senate to Pass Health Care Reform through Reconciliation

Health Care Reform Reality Check from the White House SiteThere is a letter circulating in the Senate calling on Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the public health insurance option through “reconciliation,” which only needs a simple majority in the Senate, rather than the 60 vote “Super Majority.” It is maddening that the Democrats have 59% of the seats in the Senate and yet they can’t seem to control the agenda.
Go to this page to see if your Senator has signed and, if not, to sign the petition to ask them to to so. There is also a link to help you call you member of Congress. Continue reading

Colbert Report at the Olympics?

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Pictures Dont Lie…?

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