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category archive listing Category Archives: critical thinking

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Reader Discussion Guide Excerpts

Cover via Amazon

I just finished reading a killer classic fiction mashup (literally), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It’s a parody of the Jane Austen novel (which I tried to read in college and found unbearably tedious).
I must admit, though: The addition of a Night of the Living Dead-style zombie plague made all the endless fretting [...]

What’s “Media?” Time to Update Default Assumptions

Yesterday it occurred to me — as I heard about yet another “multimedia workshop” for journalists — how dated and useless the term “multimedia” has become. It’s now normal for media content types to be mixed. It’s also normal for anyone working in media to be expected to create and integrate various types of content [...]

MediaCloud: Tracking How Stories Spread

Last week, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society launched Media Cloud, an intriguing tool that could help researches and others understand how stories spread through mainstream media and blogs.
According to Nieman Lab, “Media Cloud is a massive data set of news — compiled from newspapers, other established news organizations, and blogs — and a [...]

What ABCnews.com got really wrong about social media and Mumbai attacks

On Nov. 28, ABCnews.com published a story by Ki Mae Huessner called Social Media a Lifeline, Also a Threat? about the role of Twitter and other social media in the coverage of, and public discourse about, last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Huessner interviewed me for this story because I’ve been blogging about it on Contentious.com [...]

Tracking a Rumor: Indian Government, Twitter, and Common Sense

This morning, as I check in on the still-unfolding news about yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, I noticed a widely repeated rumor: allegedly, the Indian government asked Twitter users to stop tweeting info about the location and activities of police and military, out of concern that this could aid the terrorists.
For example, see Inquisitr.com: Indian [...]

Can you commit journalism via Twitter?

Today on Twitter Tips, Jason Preston asks:
“Journalism requires that stories been constructed, facts be tied together, narratives presented, and context created. In short, journalism is the big picture.
“No one would argue that you can get the pig picture in 140 characters. But what about aggregate tweets? One person over a long time, or many people [...]

Nokia Talks More (Much More) About US Service Problems

Nokia Conversations Blog

Nokia’s Conversation Blog has launched an extended discussion on its myriad US service problems.

I’m happy to report that there has been some progress (small, but real) from Nokia in terms of addressing it US service problems, which I’ve written about extensively.
First, here’s their most concrete step forward so far: Today, Nokia announced that [...]

Breaking Out of the Echo Chamber

OpenDemocracy, via Flickr (CC license)

What might this Malian girl and I have in common, and what might we learn from each other? How could we know if we can’t really connect?

This morning I listened to an excellent Radio Open Source interview. Host Christopher Lydon was talking to Global Voices Online founder Ethan Zuckerman and GVO [...]

Foolish Journalism

At last, it all ties together! I just spotted on Twitter the most likely reason why I adore both journalism and April Fool’s Day, courtesy of blogger Prentiss Riddle.

(Thanks to David Sasaki of Global Voices Online for the tip.)