"And the Pulitzer Prize for Tweeting goes to..."

So the Twitter talk, and talk of Twitter practically never stops.



Oprah tweeted her first tweet and the Web went crazy.

Ashton Kucher and CNN had a Twitter follower face-off.



Just this week Facebook opened its system to third-party developers, allowing them to build Facebook applications that will let users post status updates, share pictures and links, and interact with most other elements of the site without ever visiting Facebook.com. (Some say it's Facebook's way of trying to be like Twitter. Others disagree on the technological spat.)



Microsoft is even trying to be in with the "in crowd", announcing this week a public test of a Twitter-like notification service.



And I must be a bit clairvoyant because apparently people ARE using Twitter to track the Swine Flu outbreak. (An idea that I discussed a few months ago in a class presentation at USC regarding health epidemics and the use of Twitter.)



With the Pulitzer Prize winners being announced last week, this little cartoon came to mind.



It just might be a glimpse into the future.



Never say never.

Scholarly databases becoming collateral damage in Media Wars

Who'd have thunk it?

Databases like LexisNexis are also feeling the pinch as the Digital Media War rages on.

With shrinking staffs and less legacy news being produced databases that rely on original material from newspapers are practically starving for material.

But the databases themselves are to share in the blame for their emaciated state.

As papers began to cut back, databases did little to nothing to find other sources of news to archive and continued to exclude wire reports (and, as we've been learning in class, even wire services have been cutting back.)

A set of scholars even concluded that a Google search uncovers just about twice the number of sources that LexisNexis produces for a given topic.

Funny, I never took the time to think that databases were also on this sinking ship of an industry.

But this does go to support a hypothesis of mine: Google is some sort of info god.

Beyond sad...

Apparently, a "higher-up" at the Associated Press didn't know that the organization had a YouTube channel and recently gave a country radio station in Tennessee a cease and desist order regarding its contents.

Will someone please knock the AP in the head with a common sense stick A-SAP!?!

Still useful....I guess.

I honestly don't even know how I stumbled upon this story (and just in case you're wondering, no, I didn't use Stumbleupon.com or whatever)

This, I guess, is kind of a glimmer on the possible silver lining that exists around the dark cloud of newspaper journalism.

The Commercial Appeal in Memphis has uncovered a financial scandal that involves the FBI, a Christmas party and the city's mayor, Willie Herenton.

I'd qualify this as a big deal.

And guess what? The Commercial Appeal is the ONLY news outlet with the information.

The story has dissiminated to at least three or so other news media, but the Commerical Appeal is the only news source credited as being the originator of the information.

I'm not sure if that's a bad, good or great thing. One one hand it's a SCORE! for the home team.

On the other hand, it kind of shows that, in terms of the big head and long tail form of journalism, that the tail's not really up to much which shows that newspapers ARE still the main source for news which would then mean that they have a reason for living.....

...but then again, this is just one story.

*shrug*

Murdoch: Pimpin' Papers is Preferable

First let me say that I find the above cartoon completely hilarious....and oh, so, so, so sad.

But, on to the blog!

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch was recently quoted as saying that U.S. newspapers need to begin charging for online content if they wish to survive.

Sorry Ru, but in my opinion, it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too late for this.

To support my point, let me tell a quick story: I was sitting next to one of my journalism professors in a digital media workshop on Friday when, in reference to blogging and other types of on-line indy journalism, he said, "I just can't get used to the idea of giving it away for free. I mean, we're not even whoring it out. We're total sluts."

It's a beautiful analogy.

Changing to charging for newspaper content at this point, is pointless and won't work.

To bring it to the gutter a bit more, let me pose a question: How in the world are we going to go from being total sluts to being top-notch call girls? As good as our "content" might be, most people are not going to start paying for it when they've been getting it for free for oh so long.

Still, Murdoch, the King of Media, is trying to rouse a rebellion against search engines

Questioning whether the newspaper industry should continue to allow online news aggregators, like Google, to aggregate newspaper content without being compensated for it, Murdoch basically said "Hell No!" at a recent cable news industry gathering.

"Should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyrights? If you have a brand like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, you don't have to," said Murdoch. "You can say thanks but no thanks."

Seriously Ru?....can they?

I doubt it.

I'm still not hopeful. And, I'm not the only one.

My own mother sent me this little gem in the mail the other day.

If you're having trouble seeing it, click here for a larger image.

And this comment about the cartoon is priceless: "The news is very grave folks!
The Mourning News: we’re in tomb with the times..."

It definitely brings the LOL's.

New Blood, New Life, New Media: The Youth Are Speaking

Didn't I tell y'all that journalism will find a way to survive?

Case in point: YouthRadio.org

Here, young people -- tweens, teens and twenty-somethings -- are finding their voice and broadcasting it online.

They pitch stories to National Public Radio and sometimes they get on.

But honestly, isn't viral more vital for the future?
In it's recently released The State of the News Media annual report on American Journalism, the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism calls audio "well suited to the digital transition."

Covering stories that I don't think anyone but they could cover correctly -- from police shootings in Oakland, to black market junk food at schools with healthy food policies -- the youth are speaking.

Thank God.