Media
clock | December 27, 2008Researchers Hope Obama Team Will Reinvigorate Role of Science Adviser:
In recent years, though, some critics have charged that the science adviser's influence has reached another low under President George W. Bush....
"Some critics"? Like, the entire scientific community? The entire science blogosphere? All the science journalists? Because of the obvious fact that the Bush Presidency is the pinnacle of the Republican disdain for reality, empiricism and science. Governing from the gut instead of from the brain. Governing by listening to direct messages from the Lord.
Because the…
clock | December 21, 2008There was a good reason why the form and format, as well as the rhetoric of the scientific paper were instituted the way they were back in the early days of scientific journals. Science was trying to come on its own and to differentiate itself from philosophy, theology and lay literature about nature. It was essential to develop a style of writing that is impersonal, precise, sharply separating data from speculations, and that lends itself to replication of experiments.
The form and format of a scientific paper has evolved towards a very precise and very universal state that makes scientist-…
clock | December 12, 2008Remember this?
Now Simon Ovens interviewed several key players in this game - Pulitzers Open to Online-Only Entrants -- But Who Qualifies? It's longish, but worth your attention:
He did, however, confirm that a blog could hypothetically qualify. "If one or two people call their website a text-based newspaper, would it be eligible?" he said. "Blogs tend to fall into three categories. There are news reporting blogs, there are commentary blogs, and there's a hybrid version of the two. If they're text-based and meet our criteria, then they probably could compete. But it would be up to them to…
clock | December 12, 2008"In the summer, I will begin an appointment at the Harvard Law School, while directing the Safra Center."
More details here.
clock | December 12, 2008Starting this month, a new PBS documentary-three years in the making-will change the way Americans see life on Earth. Scientists the world over now agree that Earth is experiencing runaway mass extinction of life across virtually all ecosystems.
The bottom line? Life on Earth is dying off, fast. The good news? People everywhere are waking up and doing something about it.
Far from being just another nature film with awe-inspiring aerials (although it sports some), HOTSPOTS takes American television audiences to the front lines of some of the most far-flung places on Earth. Viewers are given a…
clock | December 12, 2008If you go to the Science page of New York Times, starting today, you will see on the right side, just below the "Most popular" box a brand new widget - "Selected Posts From Sb Scienceblogs" that looks like this:
Soon, we'll reciprocate the link by linking to NYTimes science content as well. A nice way for old media and new media to integrate with each other, send readers to each other and educate the general audience about the difference in format, form, style, voice and quality between the old and new media. Everybody wins.
clock | December 12, 2008It appears that the clash of generations in regards to journalism is also happening in journalism schools: Screw AP style! Why I don't want to be a journalist anymore.
5 of my friends began their college careers as eager journalists. 5 of my friends are now either in a different field or no longer eager about being a journalist but eager to graduate. My choice is to go back and get another degree in Graphic Design - something that results in product that highlights as opposed to false light.
And this comes from one of the most promising students in that class!
My question: is it the industry…
clock | December 10, 2008YouTube Usage Decoded:
Why are certain videos on YouTube watched millions of times while 90 percent of the contributions find only the odd viewer? A new study reveals that increased attention in social systems like the YouTube community follows particular, recurrent patterns that can be represented using mathematical models.
The Internet platform YouTube is a stomping ground for scientists looking to investigate the fine mechanism of the attention spiral in social systems. How is it possible, for example, that one YouTube video of a previously unknown comedian from Ohio can be viewed over ten…
clock | December 9, 2008Journalists are fantastically capable of forgetting the he-said-she-said False Equivalence mode of dishonesty if they are themselves one of the sides. In that case, they quote only the "skeptics" side, not the side that may have actually something intelligent to say about the matter.
Watch this incredible video clip.
It shows a horse dealer, a horse trainer, a farrier and a saddle-maker sitting around the table, with serious faces, discussing this new invention - the car! It is just a fad. Those engineers know nothing about transportation. This will remain just a toy for the idle and the…
clock | December 9, 2008Tina writes - Kinesthetic Learners: Why Old Media Should Never Die:
.....Many classrooms, however, don't offer this type of kinesthetic learning. The hands-on learner is left to fend for themselves and more often than not the only physical interaction they get is with the learning material itself.
You've seen them before. Sometimes, it's a student whose fingers trace the words as they read them. Or the highlighter: the student who makes a colored mosaic of their text as they try to physically interact with the material. Even note-taking is a kinesthetic activity. In a variety of subtle ways,…
clock | December 8, 2008Pulitzer Prizes Broadened to Include Online-Only Publications Primarily Devoted to Original News Reporting:
New York, Dec. 8, 2008 - The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, which honor the work of American newspapers appearing in print, have been expanded to include many text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced today. [Who defines "newspaper" and "news organization"? Can I claim "A Blog Around The Clock" as one of those if I call it that way? If not, why not? Who decides?]
The Board also has decided to allow entries made up…
drorzel | December 8, 2008In comments to last week's rant about the low esteem in which science is held, taffe writes:
Ok then, what should scientists be doing, individually or as a community? Maybe the masses just plain find political info more interesting. I mean hell, you had to use dog fans as a hook for your popular book, right?
One of the maddening things about blogging as a medium is the way its ephemerality leads to repetition. I feel like I've written this before, but it's unreasonable for me to be peeved about it, because there's no reason why anybody commenting last week would've seen the earlier post. So…
clock | December 7, 2008This kind of he-said-she-said False Equivalence journalism is infuriating and is the prime reason why nobody trusts the corporate media any more which is why the newspapers are dying:
Academic Elites Fill Obama's Roster:
.....All told, of Obama's top 35 appointments so far, 22 have degrees from an Ivy League school, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago or one of the top British universities. For the other slots, the president-elect made do with graduates of Georgetown and the Universities of Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina.
While Obama's picks have been lauded for their ethnic and…
clock | December 6, 2008Deborah Howell, the WaPo Ombudsman (for a few more days), wrote her thoughts on science reporting in the Washington Post (and in general) - Making Sense of Science Reporting:
The job of science reporters is to take complicated subjects and translate them for readers who are not scientifically sophisticated. Critics say that the news media oversimplify and aren't skeptical enough of financing by special interests.
That led me to review papers that are to be published soon as part of a project sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on how the media cover science and technology,…
clock | December 5, 2008An Injection of Hard Science Boosts TV Shows' Prognosis:
It's no fiction: Scientific fact has usurped science fiction as TV's favorite inspiration for prime-time story lines. And to keep everything on the up and up, show writers and producers are hiring scores of researchers and technical consultants to get the science straight.
pharyngula | December 4, 2008As part of an ongoing program of reducing their relevance and demolishing their credibility, CNN has just completely shut down their Science, Space and Technology unit. Who needs good science coverage, after all, since nothing important happens in that area…and as the US continues to dumb down its educational system, the number of interested viewers is probably dropping, too.
The media knows where the profits lie, and it's not in that expensive journalism stuff — it's in the cheap and popular domain of opinionated airheads shouting at each other. This is symptomatic of a deep intellectual…
pharyngula | December 1, 2008Seed Media has created a special offer: you can donate a subscription to Seed magazine to the school of your choice for only $14.95. It's a good strategy in general: help out your local schools by giving their libraries good science resources.
clock | November 26, 2008StoryCorps is declaring November 28, 2008 the first annual National Day of Listening:
This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives -- it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood. By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won't ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.
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This Thanksgiving, StoryCorps asks you to start a new holiday tradition--set aside one hour on Friday, November 28th, to record a conversation with someone important to you. You can interview anyone…
clock | November 24, 2008Jeff Jarvis systematically lays down the possible future of journalism (read carefully the entire thing):
It's fair to expect me to put forward scenarios for the future of news. In a sense, that's all I ever do here, but there's no one permalink summarizing my apparently endless prognostication. So here is a snapshot of - a strawman for - where I think particularly local news might go. What follows is just a long - I'm sorry - summary of what I've written here over time and an extension of the one model I think we need to expand coming out of the conference, where one lesson I took away is…
clock | November 23, 2008Daniel Drezner: Public Intellectual 2.0:
".....The pessimism about public intellectuals is reflected in attitudes about how the rise of the Internet in general, and blogs in particular, affects intellectual output. Alan Wolfe claims that "the way we argue now has been shaped by cable news and Weblogs; it's all 'gotcha' commentary and attributions of bad faith. No emotion can be too angry and no exaggeration too incredible." David Frum complains that "the blogosphere takes on the scale and reality of an alternative world whose controversies and feuds are ... absorbing." David Brooks laments, "…