Lies, Liars and the Media that Enable Them: Part 1
I don’t normally promote books on this blog. Actually, that’s not true. I don’t normally promote books that I didn’t edit (like Guy Golan, Thomas Johnson and Wayne Wanta’s, International Media Communication in a Global Age) or that I am not a part of (like Zizi Paparcharissi’s The Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture in [...]
The Internet and Well-being: Flogging a Dead Horse
After last week’s blog on Pew Internet’s “Social Isolation and New Technology,” which didn’t exactly lead to a torrent of comments (or even a trickle), I pledged I was done with the topic. But quoting from Michael Corleone in Godfather III: “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.” What pulled [...]
All the Little Birdies on Jaybird Street … but What About ‘Em?
Dr. Tom Johnson, the founder and primary author here at mediaconvergence.org, has talked about Twitter before. Given that I am responsible for all of 16 tweets in nine months from my account, I should probably leave the topic to him. Against my better judgment, though, I want to put some questions about Twitter out there for wiser researchers to answer.
E-Democracy: Won’t Get Fooled Again?
When I read Pew Research’s recently published “The Internet and Civic Engagement,” I immediately thought of one of my all-time favorite songs, the Who’s classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (the theme for CSI Miami for nonWho fans). The song is an anti-political anthem; the leaders who are swept in by revolution often quickly resemble those [...]
AgencySchmagency
I saw Tom’s article about the Atlantic piece and thought I’d share an essay I wrote about this for Journalism Studies (2009 vol:10 iss:2 pg:268 -280). Here is the intro: —— “In the July/August 2008 Atlantic Monthly proclaimed that Google is making us all stupid because we can no longer read deeply and without distraction [...]
IS Google making us stupid?
The question posed in the title has haunted since last week when my friend Kathy Ward sent me a link to the Web site Is Google Making us Dumber? The website includes questions posted on the Google search engine such as: Is poop flammable? Does the magic 8 ball work? How can I get this [...]
Happy Bday Napster! Just Don’t Say Anything…
This summer celebrates the 10th anniversary of the birth of Napster. It is also the 20th anniversary of Say Anything, considered one of the top teen comedies of all time and one of the best- reviewed movies of that year. The movie stars one of my favorite actors, John Cusack, as Lloyd Dobler. I bring [...]