As military officials, world leaders and politicians debate the impact of the release of tens of thousands of raw classified field reports on the Afghan war, journalists and those who study the media are debating the impact of the release on the news business. The records released were included in a classified archive obtained by…
An excellent analysis of the role of social media in news coverage is presented by Antonia Zerbisias in the Toronto Star on July 11. She aptly describes how Twitter became a news sources for untold numbers of people as journalists on the front lines used social media as an instant news wire, sending valuable, pertinent…
BBC radio Scotland airs an interesting program pitting an old hack journalist using traditional tools against a younger new media journalist loaded with technology. The idea is to see which one gets the better, more credible story. The results are aired on the radio. The programme ‘Old Hack, New Tricks’ will air today at 11:30am…
“Put in simplest terms, the troubles in Thailand are a classic clash between the rural poor – who live in places like Chiang Mai – and rich urbanites in Bangkok.” So concluded a report carried across Canadian newspapers this Saturday.It’s not that simple, of course. But neither is the Thai landscape so complicated that western…
In light of abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, how well is the media covering this issue? This was one of the questions behind a Sunday Edition panel discussion, MediaPhiles: God and the Media. In J-Source’s Ideas Section we learn there’s more to the story than clerics and victims. Over in the Town Hall,…
A quickening is apparent within Canada’s biggest newspaper conglomerate, long mired in the slough of despond. Beleagued Canwest LP is comprised of the remnants of some once-venerable FP publications, some once-venerable Southam publications and a whole bunch of small newspapers that once served their communities. Other than the relatively new National Post company flagship, mostly…
The imminent auction of the CanWest chain of newspapers has drawn the attention of Canada’s largest media union, which urged consideration of the “public trust” in the choice of a new owner. Meanwhile, CanWest appointed an interim president to steer its newspaper division through the final throes of its bankruptcy protection and sale …
Canadian climate scientist Andrew Weaver is suing the National Post for its coverage of him and his work — and he is also asking the court to force the CanWest flagship newspaper to help scrub the web of its re-posted articles, which a news release from his law firm says “poison” the Internet. The suit,…
Americans who spend a lot of time on Fox news are also more likely than most to visit the New York Times, suggests a new study by two business professors in Chicago. Their findings counter the received wisdom that the Internet creates citizens isolated in silos, reading only news they choose. “We find no evidence…
An academic study on the re-election of corrupt politicians concludes investigative journalism is the solution. But it warns the disappearance of a business model for “a free and aggressive press” does not bode well for political accountability.