The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future. The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond search” by “looking at the ‘invisible links’ between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events.”
“The cool thing is, you can actually predict the curve, in many cases,” says company CEO Christopher Ahlberg, a former Swedish Army Ranger with a PhD in computer science.
Read more at Wired.
Saturday, July 31
Friday, July 30
Thankful for WikiLeaks
The posting of 92,000 documents on WikiLeaks about the war in Afghanistan represents a triumph for what I like to call "data journalism." But it also has to be admitted that, within journalism, it has always been something of a minority sport, partially because it involved a lot of work and was anything but glamorous. In modern times, with increasing pressure on newsrooms to be more cost efficient, editors became increasingly reluctant to allow their staff to spend the hours necessary to delve through endless piles of documents.
The posting of the material on the internet is not in itself an act of journalism. It is merely the beginning of a journalistic process, requiring analysis, context and, in this particular instance, a form of necessary censorship in order to protect individuals identified in the documents.
We journalists should be delighted that WikiLeaks exists because our central task has always been one of disclosure, of revealing public interest material that others believe wish to be kept secret.
Read more at CNN.
The posting of the material on the internet is not in itself an act of journalism. It is merely the beginning of a journalistic process, requiring analysis, context and, in this particular instance, a form of necessary censorship in order to protect individuals identified in the documents.
We journalists should be delighted that WikiLeaks exists because our central task has always been one of disclosure, of revealing public interest material that others believe wish to be kept secret.
Read more at CNN.
Risky Paywall Experiment
The disastrous launch of the London Times' paid website is just the latest media "paywall" to run into trouble. Here, a history of how newspapers have failed — and succeeded — when asking readers to pay for online content. For every notable success like The Wall Street Journal's website, which boasts over 1 million online subscribers, there is a failure.
The Times puts its content behind a $3-a-week paywall, and promptly loses 90 percent of its online readership, according to some reports. This "could be indicative of what the rest of the newspaper industry can expect to undergo in the coming years," says Alla Goldman in the Bivings Report.
Read more at The Week
The Times puts its content behind a $3-a-week paywall, and promptly loses 90 percent of its online readership, according to some reports. This "could be indicative of what the rest of the newspaper industry can expect to undergo in the coming years," says Alla Goldman in the Bivings Report.
Read more at The Week
The Birth of Modern Advertising
The world of 'Mad Men' was really brought to you by a Chicago-based agency and its mercurial founder. In the nascent days of advertising, in the first half of the 20th century, no one was more successful—or more influential—than Albert Lasker. Lasker is the subject of "The Man Who Sold America" by Jeffrey Cruikshank and Arthur Schultz. As the authors note, Lasker's influence extended well beyond the confines of the advertising world. "He is the super-salesman of the generation," said Will Hays, who managed the 1920 presidential campaign that, with the super-salesman's help, put Warren Harding in the White House.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
Thursday, July 29
Injunction Against News Organization
The National Law Journal has been prohibited by court order from publishing information it obtained legally. D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff issued a temporary restraining order against the National Law Journal last Friday after she discovered the news organization was planning to publish a story regarding the fee dispute between District of Columbia-based law firm Hogan Lovells and one of its former clients. The news organization had legally obtained the information through public court documents.
“If I am throwing 80 years of First Amendment jurisprudence on its head, so be it,” the judge reportedly said. She also allegedly indicated that the court’s interest in maintaining the integrity of the docket overrides First Amendment concerns.
Read more here.
“If I am throwing 80 years of First Amendment jurisprudence on its head, so be it,” the judge reportedly said. She also allegedly indicated that the court’s interest in maintaining the integrity of the docket overrides First Amendment concerns.
Read more here.
No Anchors or Reporters
A Houston TV station is doing away with anchors and on-camera reporters in favor of a new format called “NewsFix.” The Houston Chronicle reports that KIAH will launch the new show this fall. “NewsFix” will be a pilot program for owner Tribune Broadcasting.
Read more at the Houston Chronicle.
Read more at the Houston Chronicle.
Newspapers Hit New Low
The number of Americans who say that newspapers are an important source of information continues to decline, according to a survey by the The Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Only 56 percent of Internet users surveyed agreed with the statement that newspapers were an important or very important source of information, while 68 percent said that television was, and 78 percent said that the Internet was.
The Center’s survey also found that newspapers are continuing to decline as a source of entertainment as well — only 29 percent of those surveyed said that newspapers were an important source of entertainment, down from 32 percent in 2008. Almost 20 percent of users said that they had canceled a subscription to a newspaper or magazine because they now get the same or related content online.
Read more here.
The Center’s survey also found that newspapers are continuing to decline as a source of entertainment as well — only 29 percent of those surveyed said that newspapers were an important source of entertainment, down from 32 percent in 2008. Almost 20 percent of users said that they had canceled a subscription to a newspaper or magazine because they now get the same or related content online.
Read more here.
Tuesday, July 27
Facebook Page for Journalists
Facebook officially launched a media page that's dedicated to journalists, developers and media partners to help them learn and use best practices and tools to drive referral traffic. Dubbed "Facebook + Media," the real juice for media companies is how the page offers data into how users engage with news content shared on Facebook.
This appears to be a PR move by Facebook. Regardless, "Facebook + Media" is a clear sign that one, the worlds biggest social network is looking to help arguably major content creators (media) stay engaged and relevant; and two, journalism will never be like it was 20, 10 or even five years ago. It's now called social journalism.
Read more here.
This appears to be a PR move by Facebook. Regardless, "Facebook + Media" is a clear sign that one, the worlds biggest social network is looking to help arguably major content creators (media) stay engaged and relevant; and two, journalism will never be like it was 20, 10 or even five years ago. It's now called social journalism.
Read more here.
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