Posts Tagged ‘Newspapers’
What the Tweet? from GOOD.is on Vimeo.
We love infographics – especially ones about media. Watch the video above, but make sure it’s full screen. There is a ton of information to catch.
GOOD and Part & Parcel put this animation together to show the breakdown of tweets. Despite a large amount of people sharing information through Twitter, most of that information is coming from old media sources like newspapers Maybe what they found isn’t shocking, but it’s interesting to consider.
We’ve heard over and over again that print media is dead, that nobody reads newspapers, and that nobody listens to the radio.
However, this information paints a different picture. People are consuming old types of media. The difference is not that old media is dying, it’s that the way humans interact with that media is changing.
Sending links to news articles or radio broadcast through tweet is a great way to peak the interest of followers. Interestingly enough, most of the tweeting is about technology.
To see a comprehensive still image of the information covered in the video, look here.
We at USDemocrazy are nutzo for the ‘net, but we’ve also talked before about our passion for paper. Thus, we get kinda depressed when we hear of major American newspapers shrinking, shrivelling and shutting down all together.
Ever heard of a little (OK, not little) paper called the Boston Globe? We have learned the venerable Globe came pretty darn close to being shut-down by its parent company, The New York Times Company. Fortunately, we also learned (through newspapers, no less) the close-down crisis may had been averted.
The New York Times Company, the Globe, and the three major Boston unions worked through the night on Sunday and reach a deal. The Globe stated:
This includes agreements with the drivers, mailers, pressmen, the electricians, machinists, and technical services group. As a result of these agreements, which are subject to ratification by union members, we expect to achieve both the workplace flexibility and the financial savings that we sought from these unions.
It appeared maybe a modern metropolitan media meltdown may have been missed! BUT NO!
One of the unions, the Boston Newspaper Guild, has stopped… and then resumed negotiations with the paper over lifetime job guarantees for 200 of its employees. (The Globe reportedly offered to cut Guild wages by 23%.)
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE! There’s MORE!
Some Washington big-wigs are coming to the Globe’s rescue! Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, insist that the biggest newspaper in their state should not be left to die. John Kerry declares newspapers are vital to our free democracy. (We tend to agree.)
This all comes amid the announcement of Amazon’s newest version of the Kindle, which is rumoured to have a larger screen and facilitated for reading news “papers.” We’re keeping our eyes on the news of the newest Kindle, which we’re wondering will make news “papers” obsolete entirely…
Courtesy of Gawker
We at USDemocrazy are pretty big fans of the news. That’s why, when 2009’s Pulitzer Prize winners were announced on Monday, we were on the edge of our seats. (OK, well, not literally because there was this baseball game on, and we were pretty into that, then we had to take a nap, and… well, nevermind.)
But we did hear that this year was the first time the Prize committee considered entries from online-only news sources, which is great because we may have a shot at one next year! (Don’t you think??) But enough about us… Turns out that the awards were announced amid a swirl of turmoil in the world of print media.
The news about newspapers is not good. They are laying off writers and editors, selling sections of the paper, shrinking (literally… newspapers are getting smaller), and posting ridiculous losses. Most people are getting more and more of their news online, which present print papers with a positively puzzling predicament: How to make money in this funky new media landscape?
The Pulitzer Prize, which awards great work in journalism, literature, photography, and music, reminded us all of the media sob story, especially when one Prize went to writers who had been laid off.
A story on NPR’s Morning Edition reminds of the stress the newspaper industry is under, due to it not making money and there being a low demand for old-fashioned ink-on-your-fingers black-and-white-and-read-all-over papers, even noticing that the New York Times celebrated its five wins in a news room that no longer belongs to them.
We at USDemocrazy, appreciators of very fine journalistic talent, congratulate all of the Pulitzer winners and are proposing that they all pool together their prize money to save the newspaper industry…
Oh, it’ll take like, billions of dollars you say? Nevermind. Maybe they should just keep the money to pay off their mortgages!
Where do you all see the future of print media? Is there a future at all? While you guys figure that out, we’ll be working on our Pulitzer Prize-winning piece for next year.
22
Own your words!
by ForeverPlaid
News
Newspapers of the good, old-fashioned variety. Courtesy of the author.
You know, the readers and commenters of USDemocrazy have things pretty darn good. Yes, you get to read OUR AWESOME CONTENT, but also, we let you post your thoughts to our site anonymously!
Now what if we told you that anonymous posting could be a thing of the past?
We noticed a little discussion going on about this topic over at the NPR blog, The Two-Way. Those guys started a discussion there on how sometimes, anonymous comments lower the standard of dialog on a certain topic, on a blog, online newspaper, or elsewhere. They continue: