joshuago’s Bookmarks

18 MAR 2010
[Jay Rosen] Press Can Survive Newspaper's Demise, But Must Benefit Public

Rich and powerful people will always get their news. When trying to save investigative journalism, one challenge is to fight the fatalistic notion that the masses -- or public opinion, depending on who you ask -- do not deserve to be informed. Public opinion cannot be avoided, but in a democracy we're better off if public opinion is informed. The press will be necessary and can continue as long as it can still serve the public.

18 MAR 2010
[Reynolds Journalism Institute] Steal This Idea! Hot New Revenue for News

The idea is Deal Brokering. You use your knowledge of the local scene, your brand and your contacts to negotiate group deals with local businesses from bars to restaurants to dry cleaners. The businesses offer big one-time discounts to attract new customers, your audience gets access to great deals, and you broker the deal on your site and get a substantial cut of the money. It’s already happening around the country.

18 MAR 2010
macwidgets

Collection of Mac style widgets written in Java.

18 MAR 2010
[ProPublica] About Us

We have created an independent newsroom, located in Manhattan and led by some of the nation’s most distinguished editors, and staffed at levels unprecedented for a non-profit organization. Indeed, we believe, this is the largest, best-led and best-funded investigative journalism operation in the United States.

18 MAR 2010
[Nicholas Carr] The Great Unbundling: Newspapers & the Net

When a newspaper moves online, the bundle falls apart. Readers don’t flip through a mix of stories, advertisements, and other bits of content. They go directly to a particular story that interests them, often ignoring everything else.

18 MAR 2010
[PressThink] Where's the Business Model for News, People?

An overview of the major problems facing journalism today, and an exploration of potential funding models.

17 MAR 2010
[Reflections of a Newsosaur] Are hyper-local programs fair to j-students?

Journalism students must understand how to build audiences by propagating their work on the Internet. They will have to be sufficiently entrepreneurial to leverage the openness of interactive publishing to ensure that they can build remunerative and satisfying careers. This means they'll have to establish themselves as experts in one or more specialties to build identifiable personal brands. They will be on their own to monetize those brands.

15 MAR 2010
[The Atlantic] Myth Diagnosis

Health care heals, but it also kills. Someone who lacked insurance over the past few decades might have missed taking their Lipitor, but also their Vioxx or Fen-Phen.

13 MAR 2010
[Foreign Affairs] Complexity and Collapse

Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice.

12 MAR 2010
[Foreign Affairs] From the Sun King to Karzai

The United States hopes to create a strong central government in Afghanistan -- but is such state building possible? Yes, and policymakers should look to Louis XIV and the development of France's ancien régime for guidance.