2008 April — contentious.com

Monthly Archives: April 2008

links for 2008-04-30

April 30, 2008 – 9:35 am

GreylockNews.COM: Upstate New York weekly editor offers opportunity
“When big-media Cassandras come to our conventions and prognosticate about the future of journalism being interactive & hyperlocal, we just grin because that’s what we’ve been doing. We’re doing more online, but the key thing is that people are engaged.”
(tags: local hyperlocal journalism community conversational+media newspapers print career [...]

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Links | Comments (0)

links for 2008-04-29

April 29, 2008 – 9:36 am

Toxic Culture: bibliography
Excellent reading list for understanding what makes a culture “toxic.” Key ingredient seems to be despair. This definitely sounds true of the culture of mainstream journalism. How to change that?
(tags: culture research human+nature emotions psychology social+dynamics tidbits+fodder)

Monetizing Wordpress: 11 Sources For Ad-Ready WordPress Themes
“WordPress users have a seemingly endless supply of themes to [...]

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Links | Comments (0)

Toxic Journo Culture Oozes Across Blogosphere

April 29, 2008 – 7:41 am

E-Media Tidbits on Poynter.org

My Tidbits post yesterday seemed to resonate with a lot of journalists. Check out the comments .

My E-Media Tidbits post yesterday, Journalism: A Toxic Culture? (Or: Why Aren’t We Having More Fun?) (cross-posted to Contentious.com) has gotten many comments and also picked up wider traction. Here are the various people [...]

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Conversations, blogs, community, conversational media, culture, journalism, media evolution | Comments (1)

Rupert Howe mourns his dead Nokia N93

April 28, 2008 – 2:38 pm

A post by Beth Kanter today introduced me to the work of videoblogger Rupert Howe, who recently emigrated from the UK to Canada. I checked out his videoblog, Twittervlog.tv, and saw that I’m not the only one who’s been having a passionate, torrid, heartbreaking affair with Nokia’s N-Series high-end phones.
Here’s Rupert’s moving tale of the [...]

By Amy Gahran | Posted in blogs, problems, tools, usability, video | Comments (1)

Journalism: A Toxic Culture? (Or: Why Aren’t We Having More Fun?)

April 28, 2008 – 11:58 am

Despair, Inc.

Remind you of any journalists you know?…

(NOTE: I originally posted this article on Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits. But I thought Contentious readers might be interested in it, too.)
Most of what I do is help journalists and news orgs wrap their brains around the Internet. Generally I enjoy that work. Lately, though, I’ve been getting quite [...]

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Media Musings, careers, collaboration, community, credibility, culture, emotions, events, fun stuff, journalism, media evolution, mindset, problems, skills, solutions | Comments (1)

links for 2008-04-28

April 28, 2008 – 9:37 am

Couple Sues Google Over “Street View” - April 4, 2008
“While they are litigating, perhaps the Borings should consider suing Allegheny County’s Office of Property Assessments, which includes a photo of their home (which was built in 1916 and sits on 1.82 acres) on its web site. Here’s a screen grab. “
(tags: law privacy maps photos [...]

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Links | Comments (0)

Why you should disable “sharing” on your laptop

April 27, 2008 – 2:12 pm

I’m sitting at the Las Vegas airport, hoping to get an earlier flight home on standby. They’ve got free and reasonably fast open wifi here, which is helpful.
But apparently some folks here aren’t too conscious about wifi security — they’ve left their laptops open to “sharing” (access by other computers on the network. I’m not [...]

By Amy Gahran | Posted in tips, travel | Comments (2)

JibJabbing Intellectuals

April 27, 2008 – 1:42 pm

This is a brilliant form of commentary on so many levels, I’ll just let it speak for itself.

Thanks to Tom Vilot for the tip.

By Amy Gahran | Posted in creativity, fun stuff, social media, video | Comments (1)

links for 2008-04-27

April 27, 2008 – 9:36 am

Global Voices Online » PangeaDay: Videos to change the world on May 10th
5/10, 18:00 GMT: “24 films will be broadcast during a 4-hour event from 6 locations worldwide in 7 languages to be viewed through internet, television or cellphones. Purpose: to encounter the lives of others and focus on what makes us similar.”
(tags: film broadcast [...]

By Amy Gahran | Posted in Links | Comments (0)

Vegas-bound, sans Nokia N95…

April 25, 2008 – 1:18 pm

Quick video post from the Denver International Airport today. Thanks again to the folks at Nokia for raising on their own Conversations blog the issues related to Nokia USA’s inadequate service I’ve been talking about on Contentious.com. (See Nokia’s posts yesterday and today) . I appreciate their willingness to engage in a frank public [...]