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The Best Writing from The Atlantic’s Technology Channel
Commentary:
The Atlantic just released a series of best blog stories which can be downloaded for free until the end of the year. The author writes this it’s a personal how-to-guide “for producing meaningful, in-depth stories in a resource-starved, time-crunched media age”. It is also a great post that gives insight on tech blogs and how they can last.“But how to create stock in a blogging environment? It may sound crazy as a content strategy, but we developed a worldview: habits of mind, ways of researching, types of writing. Then, we used the news to challenge ourselves, to test what we thought we knew about how technology worked. Embedded in many stories in this volume, you can see us going back and forth with ourselves over the biggest issues in technology. How much can humans shape the tools they use? What is the relationship between our minds and the tools we think with, from spreadsheets to drones? What is the potential for manipulating biology? How do communications technologies structure the way ideas spread?”
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Tech Start-ups are About to Start Dropping Like Flies
An article on a new report out called “Series A Crunch” on the flood of seed funding for startups that has not translated into an increase in investment that can turn a promising start-up into a real company.”The hardiest will find a way to survive on their own”. The focus, worldwide, but especially in Jordan will need to be on sustainability — not only in funding but in local staff, creativity and long terms vision. 2012 was the year of ideas and many had a chance. 2013 will be about who will survive.
“As PandoDaily’s Sarah Lacey points out, the Series A crunch shows that big investors are proceeding with due caution, rather than hurling millions at anything with a “.com” in its name like they did in the late 1990s. A few big flameouts like Groupon and Zyngaaside, Lacey is right that “the bulk of the froth in the Web 2.0 world was mostly just in the private hands of insiders, not the public markets or broader economy.” The coming year may be a brutal one for startups, but those left standing will be better off than before.”
Read the article in Slate ... -
What’s going to get MENA’s young people to work?
“ver the next decade, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) faces the challenge of creating 40 million jobs for its youth with an estimated 10.7 million new entrants expected to join the labor force. With nearly one in five people between the ages of 15 and 24, the region has one of the youngest populations in the world. Caroline Freund, MENA Chief Economist, notes that the employment response must be well above average to employ the current and future jobseekers.”
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Why social media – not violence – could bring change to Oman
“The Arab Spring left the Gulf state of Oman relatively unscathed, with long-term ruler Sultan Qaboos moving to quieten discontent by introducing reforms, but how long can tradition hold back calls for change?”
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Crowdfunding Citizen Journalism in Cairo
“Mosireen, a media collective in downtown Cairo that has become a vital source of video reports about life in post-revolutionary Egypt, is engaged in an online crowdfunding campaign.”
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Twitter to Add Photo Filters to Compete With Instagram
Adding filters may seem like a trivial addition to a social network that processes a billion 140-character missives every two days, but it could be an important part of the company’s business.
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‘Irish Times’ to change in look and size
“‘The Irish Times’ is enhancing the newspaper and its journalism at a time of rapid digital development, writes Kevin O’Sullivan, Editor.
From tomorrow, The Irish Times will change in look and size. Most significantly, our journalism will be strengthened to better serve our readers from Monday to Friday, and to do so in a distinctive way at the weekend.
Renowned designers Palmer Watson have joined us in redesigning the newspaper to make it more modern, more readable, and more convenient to consume by virtue of being a little narrower in size.
We have talked to readers, regular and occasional, about how they read the paper, their preferences and what engages them. We have taken on board research on the case for change in presentation of our journalism today, particularly in response to how people consume news through a wide variety of devices and yet retain an affinity for print.”
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What it was like to work at Newsweek at its best.
“Tina Brown, the founder of the Daily Beast and editor of Newsweek, announced this week that the print magazine was headed to the morgue file, dead after nearly 80 years. A digital offering called Newsweek Global will take its place. Those of us who worked at Newsweek through the turn of the century wish the new venture well, but we can’t escape the feeling that there’s been a death in the family.
Until the Washington Post Co. sold the magazine in 2010, I qualified as a “lifer,” a concept that no longer exists in the American workplace. Over nearly three decades at Newsweek in the pre-tweet era, I was the magazine’s media critic and later a columnist. I interviewed and wrote about five American presidents and authored more than 50 stories, almost all of them on domestic affairs.”
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The newsonomics of The New York Times’ expanding global strategy
“This has been the year of global expansion for the world’s biggest news companies. The Wall Street Journal launched its Deutschland digital edition in January, and Alisa Bowen, WSJ’s head of product, tells me additional international expansion, along with video, is a top 2013 priority. The Financial Times, which had retrenched from non-English language initiatives a number of years ago, just launched a new Latin American homepage on FT.com and rolled out a new mobile app for the region, while initiating “digital printing” through HP. Reuters and Bloomberg have both also upped their presence in the market. For the Times, the Brazil edition follows on its China edition launch in June. (For more on this developing phenomenon, see “The newsonomics of global media imperative”).
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NPR leader outlines strategies for digital survival
When Gary E. Knell took over as CEO of NPR in 2011, his assignment was clear, if daunting: “to provide an economically sustainable platform for journalists.” Knell, who spoke at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism on Monday, joined NPR at a time when the organization faced not only internal strife, but also a business environment still reeling from a decade of digital disruption. His response was that of a realist. “You can’t stop technology. People will demand programming when and where they want it,” Knell said. “To not be in the digital space means you’ll be replaced. And you’ll never come back.”
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Internet anti-censorship tools are being overwhelmed by demand
“U.S.-funded programs to beat back online censorship are increasingly finding a ready audience in repressive countries, with more than 1 million people a day using online tools to get past extensive blocking programs and government surveillance. But the popularity of those initiatives has become a liability.”
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What digital skills do today’s journalists need?
“During this week’s career chat, we talked with Doug Mitchell, a consultant and project manager for NPR who used to teach radio at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
Mitchell drew upon his experiences in the workplace and the classroom and talked about the digital skills that journalists need to succeed. Specifically, he offered tips about how to acquire these skills and how they can help you in the newsroom.”
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From London, a Lesson in the Benefits of Free Wi-Fi
“Free Wi-Fi service, like what was offered during the London Olympics, is becoming an important tool for operators in maintaining quality mobile service during a time of skyrocketing data traffic.”
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Feesheh, A Jordanian Online One-Stop-Shop for Arab Musicians
“Feesheh, an online music store based in Jordan, is seeking to make it easier for Arab musicians to pursue their dreams.
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With a wide range of musical instruments, books and gear at competitive prices, Feesheh which means “plug” in Arabic, seeks to be a hub for aspiring musicians across the Middle East, according to its co-founder Nur Alfayez.
The online music warehouse, which went online in February 2012, is one of the companies incubated by Amman-based Oasis500 that seeks to help young Jordanians turn their business ideas into reality.
“There is a huge market for musical instruments and gear not only in Jordan, but also in the Middle East. Musicians face difficulties in finding the instruments they need, but Feesheh.com seeks to music to their doorstep,” she said.” -
Read? Listen? Who has the time?
“TAMPA—Sitting in my motel room Thursday on the fringes of Tampa, maybe 20 miles and three weather systems away from the convention site, I am surrounded by enough newsprint to equip a Broadway revival of The Front Page. These are all the newspapers, glossy magazine convention specials and other journalistic handouts that I have meant to read since I arrived on Sunday. Later today, when I arrive at my convention workspace, I will also have my pick of all the major newspapers this side of Le Monde. And (sorry to end this paragraph on a downer) I undoubtedly will read none of them.
Relax. This isn’t another jeremiad about the death of newspapers. At my first convention as a fledgling reporter—Miami Beach in 1968—I was awed to discover that stacks of dailies like the Washington Evening Star and the Chicago Daily News were flown in each morning as a promotional gesture. And sadly I never got around to reading them either…”
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Why we need “open journalism” more than ever
“There has been a rush of fact-checking of recent comments made by Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan, but does this mean the traditional media’s obsession with objectivity and the “view from nowhere” has changed? Not really — which is why more alternative sources are necessary.”
“There’s been a lot of sound and fury over Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s speech at the party’s national convention on Wednesday, and how it was riddled with inaccuracies, or what some prefer to call “demonstrably misleading assertions.” Is it news that a politician on the campaign trail would shade the truth, or use underhanded rhetorical tactics? Probably not, but the Ryan speech touched off a powder keg of emotion around the role that the traditional press plays in such acts of political theater, and whether the mainstream media deliberately downplays those kinds of falsehoods. If nothing else, such incidents show that the process of fact-checking and claim-debunking has to be distributed as broadly as possible — particularly to non-traditional sources.”
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Ink-stained assassins
Cartoonists have skewered our politicians in the pages of newspapers for generations. Can they survive in a digital age?
“Yet this is the paradox of cartooning: a few dozen people make a very good living from it, but when eventually they hang up their nibs, will they be replaced? Print sales are falling; the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations show the daily newspaper market contracted 7.79 per cent in the past year. Do cartoons work divorced from the topography of the newspaper page? Will they bring enough “eyeballs” to advertisers to justify their existence on the internet?”
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How The Economist makes millions through events
“To understand the importance that events play in The Economists’s operation, it is useful to note that conferences are organised by a business unit with staff separate from the newspaper called Thought Leadership & Events. Marc Koskela (@MarcKoskela), Head of Marketing Operations for Thought Leadership & Events, said in an email interview that the division hosts between 90 and 100 events a year around the world, with editors from the newspaper chairing the majority of the events. Each region has its own website with a calendar of upcoming events that offer “privileged access to thought leaders”. Last year’s Economist-organized The China Summit was named China Conference of the Year at the Asian Conference awards.”
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How News Organizations are Taking Advantage of iPad’s Features
“The newest iPad has ushered in a new high-resolution Retina Display that renders text that’s similar to the quality you see in print.
The core of most news apps is the printed word. The coarse typography of the iPad 1 and 2 and other tablets led to less than ideal news experiences because letters and words literally don’t stand out as much on low-resolution displays. But that’s changed with the latest iPad.
News outlets have been updating their apps to take advantage of the new iPad, which features a display with twice the pixel density, 264 PPI. Apple says that pixel density qualifies the 9.7-inch iPad as a Retina Display. (Individual pixels are not perceptible by the human eye).”
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JORDAN – Dismay after government approves repressive media bill
Reporters Without Borders is very worried by the Jordanian government’s approval of a bill last week that would radically change the existing media legislation and drastically restrict freedom of information. Parliament is due to begin considering the bill on 2 September.
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“We are disturbed by the decline in freedom of information in Jordan and, in particular, the government’s proposed changes to the press and broadcasting code. Politicians should not interfere in journalists’ work. Media independence is one of the foundations of freedom of information. We call on parliament to reject this repressive bill.
“The new provisions are like a sword poised over the head of every journalist. They show that the authorities are determined to bring journalists and their news media to heel, so that dissident views get as little exposure as possible.”
The bill would make the 1998 press and publications code much tougher, especially articles 38, 42, 48 and 49. Under the amended articles, the officials in charge of enforcing them would have more authority to restrict the freedom of expression of media that are deemed to have acted outside the law. -
App Tells Freelancers How Much to Charge
“Freelancers, specifically designers currently or fresh out of school, often find it challenging to price themselves and their services to potential clients in an informed way. A new iOS app called MyPrice aims to solve this predicament.
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The new app lets you calculate the amount you can reasonably charge for your professional services while factoring in your educational background, experience, the nature of your project, client and location.” -
Additional Restrictions on Internet Freedom |n Jordan
“After government’s green light to block websites under very dubious “ethical” reasons, the Jordanian government approved today the new Publications Law, which gives authorities more power to control and censor the Internet in Jordan, Issa Mahasneh reports.
The Jordanian council of ministers approved today a new law amending the Publications and Press Law of 1998, making the new law, if approved by lawmakers, one of the biggest threats to Internet Freedom in Jordan.
“The draft law was needed to regulate work of electronic sites, make them accountable under the penal code and oblige the ones interested in covering Jordan’s internal and external affairs to register and get license like the print press”, our state-run news agency reported, although news websites were already included in the Press Law and classified as press publications in a 2010 Supreme Court decision, a decision met with fierce opposition from journalist, media organizations and, of course, by Jordan Open Source Association.”
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U.S. viewers watched 36.9 billion online videos in July
“U.S. viewers watched 36.9 billion online videos in July
Millions of Americans watched billions of videos online in just one month, and their favorite platform was Google, followed by Facebook. They also watched nearly 10 billion video ads.According to new numbers released by market research firm ComScore, 85.5 percent of people in the U.S. with Internet access watched online videos in July — that’s 184 million people who watched a total of 36.9 billion online content videos in only one month. For comparison, that is equal to every single person on Earth watching at least five videos each.
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And U.S. viewers’ venue of choice is Google, which is not really surprising given the growth and popularity of YouTube. However, what is surprising is that the No. 2 spot goes to Facebook. This isn’t the first time the social network has gotten so high on the video chart, but it’s been a while since it last took this spot.” -
Report: Media as a Key Witness and Political Pawns
Upheaval in the Arab World. Media as a key witness and political pawns. Reporters without Borders Report 2011.
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Investigative video news channel to launch on YouTube
US Center for Investigative Reporting receives $800k in Knight Foundation funding to create ‘hub for high-quality investigative videos’
The channel will feature videos from major broadcasters – including NPR, ABC and the New York Times – and will also seek contributions from freelance video journalists and independent filmmakers around the world.
The CIR said in a release that journalists would be trained in audience engagement and other best practices for online video. Revenue from the channel will be used to subsidise public interest journalism projects.
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