From Poynter: Within minutes of the school shooting at Parkland High School in Broward County, Florida, video of the shooting, including shots and screams flowed online. Graphic video of a bloody body gave a hint of the horrors that would unfold. Another student snapped photos while crouched in a classroom while another recorded SWAT officers herding children […]
The Penn State – Joe Paterno situation immediately grabbed public attention. But it took way too long for the Michigan State University gymnastics scandal to capture the country’s attention. Here’s why. From Alex Putterman, writing for The Atlantic: It was an arresting moment, even on a day full of them. The Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman […]
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] The fight for your eyeballs just escalated among TV news people. New numbers out from the Pew Research Center say that now, only half of American adults rely on television for their news. That’s down from 57% in 2016. The biggest user losers? Local TV news stations, which dropped from […]
From our good friend, Gene Grabowski: A disturbing sidebar to the story about accusations that Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein engaged in decades of alleged sexual misconduct features the performance of his former lawyer, Lisa Bloom. Bloom, who resigned after clashing with the Weinstein Company’s board of directors, was recently exposed for presenting to the board […]
From Robert Kozinets, at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, writing for The Conversation: The people of the United States continue to learn how polarized and divided the nation has become. In one study released in late October by the Pew Research Center, Americans were found to have become increasingly partisan in […]
From Roy Peter Clark, writing for Poynter, on the why of it all. For journalists, that means get it right the first time on the why. Mistakes on the why will live forever. Our worst blunders are immortal. If I made a list of books that all journalists should read, “Columbine” by Dave Cullen would be near […]
By Howard Fencl/Hennes Communications Here’s a frightening quote from a founder of Wired magazine – perhaps the most frightening quote about the future of truth I’ve yet encountered: “Truth is no longer dictated by authorities, but is networked by peers.” The rise of “fake news” and the proliferation of misinformation – particularly in the social […]
From The Atlantic: Phrases that are not often used to describe a cease-and-desist letter: “the best,”“hilarious,” “cool,” “perfect,” “super classy.” And yet that is exactly the praise that Netflix’s lawyers received this week, from a variety of media outlets, for going about that most lawyerly of tasks: telling people they aren’t allowed to do a thing. In this case, […]
From The Guardian: The University of Washington’s Synthesizing Obama project took audio from one of Obama’s speeches and used it to animate his face in an entirely different video In an age of Photoshop, filters and social media, many of us are used to seeing manipulated pictures – subjects become slimmer and smoother or, in the case […]
From Ozan Varol: If you had asked me this question–How do you change a mind?–two years ago, I would have given you a different answer. As a former scientist, I would have cautioned you to rely on objective facts and statistics. Develop a strong case for your side, back it up with hard, cold, irrefutable […]