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Yes, Sequim has a lot of beauty.

 
 

Teens define media

Melissa Paredes, a 16-year-old in Lompoc, Calif., maintains a Web site where she posts her own poetry and pictures and shares music. So when she was mourning her stepfather, David Grabowski, earlier this year,
she reflexively channeled her grief into a multimedia tribute. Using images she collected and scanned from photo albums, she created an online slide show, taking visitors on a virtual tour of Grabowski's life -- as a toddler, as a young man, at work. A collage of the photographs, titled "David Bruce Grabowski, 1966-2005," closes the memorial. "It helped me a lot," Melissa said in an instant message, the standard method of communication among millions of American
teenagers who, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, are fast becoming some of the most nimble and prolific creators of digital content online. For all of its poignant catharsis, Melissa's digital eulogy is also a story of the modern teenager. Using the cheap digital tools that now help chronicle the comings and goings of everyday life -- cell phone cameras, iPods,
laptops and user-friendly Web editing software -- teenagers like Melissa are pushing content onto the Internet as naturally as they view it. "At the market level, this means old business models are in upheaval," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew project. "At the legal level, this means the definition of property is up for grabs. And at the social level, it means that millions of those inspired to create
have a big new platform with which they shape our culture.
Source: Tom Zeller Jr., The New York Times via CNET news.com

Newspaper execs say circulation declines reflect shift to Web, less discounting

Editors and publishers at some of the newspapers hardest hit by
Monday's FAS-FAX reports say steps need to be taken to maintain
current readers while attracting new ones. But to many, the
circulation declines announced today by the Audit Bureau of
Circulations came as no surprise, given the overall industry trend.

But most say the circulation measurements are incomplete because they
still do not take into account growing Web site activity. Others also
said they had lost circulation deliberately by ending or reducing
discounted programs as their value becomes diminished in the ABC
measurements. "Circulation will continue to drop until there will be a
plateauing, then I expect a rapid decline," said Tom Fiedler,
executive editor of The Miami Herald, noting that he does not expect
circulation to increase during his lifetime, which means newspapers
must focus on the Web as a genuine delivery system. "Newspapers will
become supplemental reading for a very elite audience," he added, and
the online edition "will be where the popular press lives." "We are
well aware of it, that newspapers continue to struggle to reach their
audience," said Anne Gordon, managing editor of The Philadelphia
Inquirer, which suffered an 11,000-copy drop in daily circulation, and
about 30,000 on Sunday. "It's not a surprise." Still, Gordon was among
several who pointed to increasing Web activity as a factor that the
current FAS-FAX measurements do not address. "The Philadelphia
Inquirer has more readers than it has ever had if you factor in the
Web. We have well over one million readers." At the Herald -- which
has experienced a 4.3-percent drop in weekday print circulation since
September 2004 -- Fiedler says he sees a similar corresponding shift
online, where Herald.com has seen an "accelerated increase" of about
30 percent per year: "We are seeing that our readership is not
declining if you include online -- it is actually growing. Source: Joe
Strupp, Editor & Publisher

USATODAY.com - Senior citizen bloggers defy stereotypes

USATODAY.com - Senior citizen bloggers defy stereotypes: "Forget shuffleboard, needlepoint, and bingo. Web logs, usually considered the domain of alienated adolescents and home for screeds from middle-aged pundits, are gaining a foothold as a new leisure-time option for senior citizen"

Newspaper circulation figures show worst slump in years

The Fourth Estate is braced to get more bad news about itself next
week. On Monday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases its
semiannual figures on circulation -- and they are expected to show
that paying readers continue to disappear at an alarming rate during
the latest six-month period. Challenged by online rivals, a dearth of
younger readers and an advertising downturn, newspapers are suffering
through their worst slump in years. The last ABC figures, which were
released in May, were the worst for the industry in nine years,
showing that average daily circulation had dropped 1.9 percent in the
six months ended March 31 from a year ago. Indications from the
biggest newspaper publishers show many expect similar plunges for the
six months ended in September. Gannett Co., the nation's No. 1
publisher with about 100 papers, says its daily circulation through
Sept. 25, including its publications in the United Kingdom, was down
2.5 percent over year-ago levels. At No. 2 Knight Ridder Inc. -- whose
largest shareholder has called for the sale of the company -- the
daily drop was 2.9 percent. Tribune Co., publisher of the Chicago
Tribune and Los Angeles Times, among others, says its circulation as
reported to ABC will be down around 4 percent. That estimate excludes
figures for Newsday, of Long Island, N.Y., which has been censured by
the ABC following a scandal in which it -- along with several other
newspapers -- admitted artificially boosting circulation results. By
mutual agreement, its circulation won't be released on Nov. 7. Not all
chains are expected to report such big drops. Sacramento-based
McClatchy Co. says daily circulation was down 0.7 percent as of
September, to just under 1.4 million copies. But it also expects
circulation for the full year to fall around 1 percent -- ending 20
consecutive years of circulation growth. The Wall Street Journal,
published by Dow Jones & Co., expects circulation to be up slightly,
because of increases in online readership. ABC in recent years has
allowed the inclusion of certain online readers in circulation
figures.
Source: Joseph T. Hallinan, The Wall Street Journal

Is There Profit In Your Digital Photographs? Spy Media Says Yes. - Digital Camera Tracker

Is There Profit In Your Digital Photographs? Spy Media Says Yes. - Digital Camera Tracker "Spy Media International, www.spymedia.com, is the first news photo marketplace for everyone. Spy Media is simple and easy to use, as users can upload and sell electronic photos from their cameras and phones in less than 90 seconds"

PC Recording of AM and FM Radio

PC Recording of AM and FM Radio: "PC Recording of AM and FM Radio"

Craigslist founder pro-community journalism | News.blog | CNET News.com

Craigslist founder pro-community journalism | News.blog | CNET News.com: "Craigslist founder pro-community journalism
November 4, 2005 2:34 PM PST

Craig Newmark wants to shake up mass media, much the way his online classifieds site Craigslist.org has rocked the world of the newspaper business by siphoning off their advertising dollars.

Newmark said he'd like to see and support the same type of disruptive technology for the mainstream media--broadcasters and print publishers. In an interview with GradetheNews.org, Newmark said that the mainstream media isn't trustworthy, nor accountable to the public any longer. And he suggests that emerging community journalists on the Internet should counterbalance the short-sightedness of publishers that kow-tow to big business or powerful political interest groups."

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Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems - New York Times

Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems - New York Times: "Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems" The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.

Writing for the Web

Writing for the Web Jakob Nielsen's guide. Have a look.

US soldiers in Afghanistan burnt the bodies of dead Taliban

US soldiers in Afghanistan burnt the bodies of dead Taliban and
taunted their opponents about the corpses, in an act deeply offensive
to Muslims and in breach of the Geneva conventions.
An investigation by SBS's Dateline program, to be aired tonight,
filmed the burning of the bodies.

It also filmed a US Army psychological operations unit broadcasting a
message boasting of the burnt corpses into a village believed to be
harbouring Taliban.

According to an SBS translation of the message, delivered in the local
language, the soldiers accused Taliban fighters near Kandahar of being
"cowardly dogs". "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing
west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just
proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," the
message reportedly said.

"You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Taliban but you
are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your
family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."
[PsyOp calls Taliban "girly men". -d.c. ]

KNIGHT RIDDER buys community newspapers in Silicon Valley

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Knight Ridder
(NYSE: KRI) today announced the acquisition of Silicon Valley
Community Newspapers, which publishes eight weekly free-distribution
newspapers in the South Bay area surrounding San Jose. The eight are:
Los Gatos Weekly-Times, Saratoga News, Cupertino Courier, Sunnyvale
Sun, Campbell Reporter, Willow Glen Resident, Rose Garden Resident and
Almaden Resident. The group also includes the San Jose City Times, a
legal newspaper, and a glossy publication called Image.

The newspapers, which together comprise the assets of Silicon Valley
Community Newspapers, are weekly publications with a combined
circulation of more than 157,000. Terms of the transaction were not
disclosed.

Knight Ridder Senior Vice President Hilary Schneider said, "We believe
strongly in the importance of community journalism, which we know is
highly valued by readers. This group of tightly zoned weeklies will
help us extend our coverage of micro-communities in the Bay Area. They
serve a series of neighborhoods that are also highly desirable to
advertisers.

Greg Goff, Knight Ridder general manager/targeted publications, said,
These weeklies have been serving readers for 20 years. They provide
saturation coverage of their respective areas in the South Bay and are
a good fit with our Palo Alto Daily News Group of free dailies, which
are located primarily in the Peninsula. We're very pleased to be
adding them to our company.

David Cohen, currently publisher and CEO of the group, manages and
operates the publications and will continue to do so for Knight
Ridder. He will report to Goff. The plan is to maintain the operations
as they are now configured, Goff said.

Cohen said, "This was an easy decision, because I know that Knight
Ridder is committed to continuing our high quality, fiercely local
coverage. With the resources of Knight Ridder, we will be able to
fulfill our vision of bringing our brand of community journalism to a
greater audience.

The oldest of the papers dates back more than 120 years. The weeklies
provide coverage of local schools, youth sports, local government,
business, law enforcement, features, opinions and community profiles.

Knight Ridder is one of the nation's leading providers of news,
information and advertising, in print and online. The company
publishes 32 daily newspapers in 29 U.S. markets, with a readership of
8.5 million daily and 11.0 million Sunday. It has Web sites in all of
its markets and a variety of investments in Internet and technology
companies. It publishes a growing portfolio of targeted publications
and maintains investments in two newsprint companies. The company's
Internet operation, Knight Ridder Digital, develops and manages the
company's online properties. It is the founder and operator of Real
Cities (http://www.RealCities.com), the largest national network of
city and regional Web sites in more than 110 U.S. markets. Knight
Ridder and Knight Ridder Digital are headquartered in San Jose, Calif.

(NR)

SOURCE Knight Ridder Web Site: http://www.knightridder.com

NEWSPAPERS Free papers' growth threatens traditional news

Ideally, the free daily tabloids that are popping up in the Bay Area
and elsewhere like mushrooms after a rain would complement rather than
substitute for relatively high-quality paid newspapers like the San
Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News. Commuters and shoppers
would pick up the free daily tabs to learn what the city council was
up to, and still subscribe to a broadsheet for regional and world
news. Young people would enjoy the brevity of the free papers, then
graduate" to more substantive broadsheets. People who won't pay to
read would still be informed. Print journalism would flourish,
providing new entry-level jobs at the free tabs -- without diminishing
the workforce of broadsheet journalists who have deep knowledge of the
community. That was the hope. The reality appears to be shaping up
differently. While the free papers have delivered on their promise to
increase awareness of hometown issues ignored by the metro press and
local TV newscasts, they also are replacing the paid dailies in some
people's lives. The result so far has been the spread of an
abbreviated, underfinanced "news lite," adding to the woes of paid
papers that have supplied the in-depth, public-service reporting that
Americans have come to expect from print.

Source: Michael Stoll, Grade the News
http://www.gradethenews.org/2005/freepapers3.htm

The general nature and structure of select wikis

A self-archived copy of presentation is available at [
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gerrymck/TICER2005.ppt ] The
presentation reviews the general nature and structure of select wikis,
the features and functions of popular wiki software engines, and
describes the content and use of wikis by select businesses, colleges
and universities, and libraries.The presentation also speculated about
the wiki as an environment, framework, and venue for Disruptive
Scholarship, my proposed model for alternative scholarly authorship,
review, and publishing [
http://www.disruptivescholarship.blogspot.com/ ]

Yahoo! adds blogs to news section - Breaking - Technology - theage.com.au

Yahoo! adds blogs to news section - Breaking - Technology - theage.com.au: "Yahoo!'s online news search tool has added blog entries as a supplement to professional media offerings - an experiment that will test the public's appetite for information from alternative sources.

Under Yahoo!'s new approach, a keyword search for online news will include a list of relevant web logs, or 'blogs,' displayed in a box to the right of the results collected from mainstream journalism."

Grassroots journalism: Actual content vs. shining ideal

Grassroots journalism: Actual content vs. shining ideal Grassroots journalism: Actual content vs. shining ideal Community news sites get a lot of hype, but can they produce quality journalism? A survey, from pineapple salsa to virtual village greens.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Traditional media experiment with citizens as news producers MSNBC
invited viewers to share photos of their interactions with the late
Pope John Paul II, while The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash.,
anointed eight readers with the power to publicly criticize the
newspaper's coverage on its very Web site. Newspapers in Greensboro,
N.C., and Boulder, Colo., are even letting citizens write their own
news stories -- on weddings, awards, even a missing cat named Banjo.
Most go on the Web, but the best of the "hyper-local" news stories get
printed. Traditional news organizations are dipping their toes in
citizen journalism, engaging readers and viewers in news production
with the help of the Internet, camera phones and other technologies.
Yet there's frustrations in some circles that so-called mainstream
media aren't going far and fast enough. Source: Anick Jesdanun, The
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&sl
ug=Citizen%20Journalism

We don't own the news any more...

Media execs ponder the role of citizen journalism The avalanche of
high-quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens
following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the
British Broadcasting Corporation, the head of its global news division
said Wednesday. Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC World Service
and Global News Division, told a conference the broadcaster's
prominent use of video and other material contributed by ordinary
citizens signaled that the BBC was evolving from being a broadcaster
to a facilitator of news. "We don't own the news any more," Sambrook
said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between
large media companies and the public." Sambrook likened the increasing
use of user-generated news material to a sports game in which the
crowd was not only invading the field but also seeking to participate
in the game, fundamentally changing the sport.

Sambrook was speaking on a panel with other media professionals at a
conference on "citizen journalism" organized by The Media Center, a
media think tank based in Reston, Va., and hosted by The Associated
Press at its headquarters building in New York.

Source: Seth Sutel, The Associated Press via Breitbart.com
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/05/D8D200902.html