Media News

News about the media.

Media Are Transforming

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Article in Newsweek by Saul Hudson, 8/27/24

Headline: “Five Things Startup Founders Need to Know About Changing Media Landscape”

“A spate of content licensing agreements with artificial intelligence companies shows the media are in the midst of rapid disruption—again. Where once legacy print media stood as gatekeepers of information, now savvy users of social media dominate many conversations.

“Most media are digital, not print. Advertising operates under a completely different business model. It can all be dizzying, and for those who have kept pace with the innovations of the past 25 years, well done, but don’t get too comfortable. The rise of AI, crypto and other new trends is already pushing the media to become something new yet again.”

Read the article here:  https://www.newsweek.com/five-things-startup-founders-need-know-about-changing-media-landscape-1944944

 

 

Post-Cable But Want Local News?

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Streaming News Media

Article from Associated Press by David Bauder, 8/26/24

Headline: “Going local: A new streaming service peeks into news in 2024 election swing states”

In some states, for those who ditched their cable and still want to keep track of local campaign news.

“Fans of politics have another way to keep track of what’s happening in the most competitive states in the country through a new service that collects and streams local newscasts.

Swing State Election News, which began operation Monday, lets streamers choose from among 37 local television stations . . . ”

https://apnews.com/article/swing-states-election-tv-streaming-09fc97f64ad284f29134371a923a4d74

Using Ads to Disrupt Free-Speech

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From The Guardian by Adam Gabbatt, 8/24/24

Headline:   “Tactical ad breaks and lies: rightwing coverage of DNC is exactly as expected”

Sub-head:  “Hard-right hosts resurrect racist Obama birther conspiracy theory and lament Democrats’ treatment of Joe Biden”

“The coverage, which has at times avoided the more pointed Democratic criticisms of Trump by cutting to ad breaks, has also including the criticism of women both for smiling too much and not smiling enough, and the coining of a new name for Barack Obama: ‘Barack-Stabber’.

“As the week wore on, it became clear that one tactic for news channels was just to ignore certain things happening at the convention. When a video was aired at the DNC about about the January 6 insurrection, Fox News cut to an advert for a landline telephone.”

Read the article here:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/24/oann-fox-news-dnc-harris-obama-biden

Sometimes Local Newspapers Can Grow

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Headline “Defying Crisis in Local News, The Star Tribune Expands’

Sub-Head “The newspaper in Minneapolis is expanding its statewide coverage and changing its name to The Minnesota Star Tribune.”

Article in The New York Times by Katie Robertson, 8/18/24

“The expansion is a rare big bet in the newspaper industry. Local newspapers have been shrinking across the country in recent years. A 2023 report from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern found that almost 2,900 newspapers had shut down since 2005.

“But The Star Tribune has remained a bright spot: It hasn’t made major layoffs in recent years, and its newsroom has remained around 225 people for years.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/18/business/media/star-tribune-minnesota.html?searchResultPosition=5

 

 

 

Media Reformer Phil Donahue Dies

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Headline: “Phil Donahue Daytime Talk Show Pioneer Dies at Age 88”

Article in CBS News by Alex Sundby, 8/19/24

Phil Donahue was a keynote speaker at the National Conferences on Media Reform in Memphis and Minneapolis. The events, sponsored by Free Press, brought together activists, educations, media makers, and concerned citizens working for better media.

“President Biden awarded Donahue the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this year. The White House called ‘Donahue’ one of the most influential television programs of its time.

” ‘Phil Donahue broadcast the power of personal stories in living rooms all across America,’ Mr. Biden said during May’s White House ceremony. ‘He helped change hearts and minds through honest and open dialogue. And over the course of a defining career in television and through thousands of daily conversations, Phil Donahue steered the nation’s discourse and spoke to our better angels.’ ”

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/phil-donahue-dies-age-88/

Wikipedia article:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue

 

Under-Covered – Or Ignored in the Media?

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Media hiding under the covers

From Mother Jones by David Corn, 6/13/24

Headline: “The Most Under-Covered Story of 2024: Trump and Right-Wing Extremism”

Sub-Head: “And it goes far beyond Project 2025.-Wing Extremism”

“One of the most under-covered stories of the Trump era and the 2024 presidential campaign is Donald Trump’s relationship with far-right extremism. This has been going on for years.

“Take Project 2025, the operation organized by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing think tanks to develop a far-reaching agenda for a second Trump term that would grant him expanded powers to run an authoritarian-ish government

As late as July there was silence in the media, ” A recent poll found that 76 percent of voters said they had heard ‘a little’ or ‘nothing’ about Project 2025.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/donald-trump-turning-point-usa-charlie-kirk-right-wing-extremism-our-land-david-corn/

 

80s Radio Broadcasts in California, Found

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Article in Slashdot by Editor David, 8/19/24

Headline: Internet Archive Streams Re-Discovered 1980s Radio Show About Early Computers

“In the 1980s, a radio show about home computers was broadcast on a handful of California radio stations. 40 years later, reel-to-reel tapes of the shows were re-discovered — and digitized — by an Internet Archive special collections manager.

“Interviews in the recovered recordings include Timothy Leary, Douglas Adams, Bill Gates, Atari’s Jack Tramiel, Apple’s Bill Atkinson, and dozens of others. The recovered shows span November 17 1984 through July 12, 1985.”

https://idle.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/0454252/internet-archive-streams-re-discovered-1980s-radio-show-about-early-computers

 

When Being a Brave Reporter Can Get You Killed

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Article from The Guardian by Andrew Gumbel, 8/17/24

Headline “Journalist Jeff German was stabbed to death. Las Vegas watches as the accused politician goes on trial”

Sub-head: “German had written about workplace harassment by Robert Telles, a county lawyer, before he was killed”

“Two months after German’s death, his colleagues at the Review Journal retrieved his notes and contacted his sources and fleshed out a long story about . . . ” the alleged murderer.

“Part of the investigative team’s goal was to pay homage to their fallen colleague in the language he understood best: old-fashioned, muck-raking journalism. ‘All we did after Jeff was killed was work on the investigation and deal with our trauma and grief,’ Prast said.

“In a precarious news business, however, in which investigations are expensive and newsroom budgets strapped, the Review-Journal has gone through two years of upheaval, leaving only one of German’s colleagues still at the paper.”

The full story:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/17/jeff-german-las-vegas-journalist-murder-trial

Newspapers of the Future? Wait . . . The Onion?!

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Article in the New York Times by Benjamin Mullin, 8/16/24

Headline: “No Joke: The Onion Thinks Print Is the Future of Media”

Sub-head: “The satirical site is hoping a newspaper with fake stories and fake ads will lead to real money”

“The Onion: ‘Americans Demand New Form of Media to Bridge Entertainment Gap While Looking From Laptop to Phone’

“The Onion will hand out its new print edition next week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — where The Onion is based — though Mr. Collins joked that the publication was not credentialed to cover the event.

“The major influx of influential journalists will make it a perfect opportunity to debut the print edition, said Jordan LaFlure, The Onion’s executive editor.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/16/business/media/the-onion-print-paper.html?searchResultPosition=1

When News Becomes Ads

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Article in Associated Press by David Bader, 8/16/24

Headline:  “They look like — and link to — real news articles. But they’re actually ads from the Harris campaign”

In the struggle for our minds, the line between advertising and actual news is shrinking.

“If you’re not looking too closely, some recent Kamala Harris ads may give the false impression that some leading news organizations are taking sides in the campaign for president.

“The advertisements, which have turned up in some Google search feeds, include links to legitimate news stories but feature — in words that appear to be headlines from the originating news organizations — pro-Harris messages written by the Democrat’s campaign.”

https://apnews.com/article/advertising-harris-google-guardian-2551b67dcf742df0d079122b25dd63d9