Forbes: Facebook revealed it has more than 955 million monthly active users, as of end of June 2012. Read more.

When it comes to news consumption, mobile devices are expanding reach, rather than cannibalizing other media, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The ability to distribute real-time information through social networks like Twitter is a powerful thing, but a new study points out that one of the downsides of this phenomenon is the fact that much of the content that gets linked to eventually disappears. Read more.

By Kenneth Rosen on Mashable, September 10  – 

Goodbye mascots and cheerleaders, hello Facebook Likes and Twitter Retweets.

Colleges are extending their campuses and communities past the physical realm, far past the quad, into social media where they’re engaging prospective and enrolled students feverishly.

Unigo, an online resource for college information, selected the top 10 social media campuses by drawing from the top 100 national and liberal arts colleges.

Based on metrics such as total number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers, average number of posts/tweets a month and the engagement of those posts by users, Unigo was able to discover what works when it comes to collegiate social media and what falls flat.

Read the full post and slideshow on Mashable

By Geneva Overholser on Nieman Journalism Lab, Sept. 11 – 

Just after I became director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, in a brief speech to the university’s trustees, I mentioned four goals for the school:

• In the midst of change, we must be ever more devoted to the basics: critical thinking, good writing, the fundamental ethics of journalism, the history and law of our craft.
• We must get better, fast, at multimedia storytelling, including improved digital skills. We must envision and embrace new ways of getting information in the public interest to audiences wherever they are, on whatever platforms.
• We must focus on the inclusion of all voices. Americans want to participate in the collection of information. No more lectures. It’s seminars now. And all communities in this fast-changing country need to be given voice — and given trustworthy information.
• We must infuse the school with a sense of entrepreneurship. Long gone are the days when we could do a story and toss it over the wall, letting other people worry about assembling an audience and paying for our work. If journalism is to thrive, its best minds must be applied to sustaining it.

Read the full post on Nieman Journalism Lab

By  Tina Barseghian on KQED, August 27 – 

For many schools across the country, today marks the first day of a new year. In addition to thinking about tools that help boost educators’ teaching practice, this moment might be a good time to pull back and think about some big-picture ideals, too. Here are a few to consider.

1.   INFUSE PASSION INTO LEARNING.

Nine Tenets of Passion-Based Learning. Educators who focus on integrating kids’ own interests and passions into the curriculum will see them flourish as learners. Educators can think about integrating such practices as showing relevance of what students are studying to life outside school, connecting with parents, and using digital media as a way to spark interests and spreading ideas.

2.   TRY SOMETHING NEW.

Jumping Into the 21st Century. For both veteran educators and newbies, the temptation to stick to what’s acceptable and what’s been done is hard to overcome. Educator Shelley Wright talks about how she took the plunge and redesigned the entire structure of her teaching practice. Her goal? “Changing to a student-centered, skill-based, technology embedded classroom,” she says.

Read the full post on KQED

By Michael J. Bugeja, on The Chronicle – Aug. 22, 2012

If the Great Recession has taught us anything, it is that academe must abandon its usual strategy of begging state lawmakers for more money while expenses rise for utilities, technology, and instruction. Neither can we continue pressuring donors to give and give, or count on a turnaround in the economy.

In Part 1, I argued that the financial crisis in higher education—high tuition, excessive student debt, and diminished legislative support—had been exacerbated by a rubber-stamp culture that expands curricula beyond the means of many colleges and universities. Now I’d like to suggest some solutions. I believe we can decrease debt to a point where institutions can contemplate how to freeze, or even lower, tuition and provide access to education for future generations. The following series of steps, taken over a period of years, could help us dig our way out.

Read the full post on The Chronicle of Higher Education

For Immediate Release | August 22, 2012
ASJMC Press Release (PDF version)

Journalism and mass communication programs are making sweeping changes to their curricula and putting new models in place for training the next generation of American journalists.

Results from the Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Enrollments indicate that nearly 80 percent of all U.S. university programs in journalism and mass communication have made changes to their curricula in the last two years to reflect changes in the communication landscape.

Among the digital skills more than three-quarters of the programs reported teaching are:

• 96% writing for the web
• 95% using the web in reporting
• 94% using social media
• 92% using video on the web
• 92% using still photos on the web
• 90% creating and using blogs
• 89% using audio on the web
• 88% web layout and design
• 88% editing for the web
• 88% using the web in public relations
• 87% using graphics on the web
• 82% digital storytelling
• 77% using slide shows on the web

In addition, just under half of programs reported teaching management skills for online or web publishing (46%) and teaching entrepreneurial “start-up” skills (44%).

“A recent ‘Open Letter to University Presidents’ from leading foundations that support journalism and mass communication education underscores the importance that our programs must place on continuously moving the culture and the curriculum forward to reflect and anticipate the changing media environment,” said Peggy Kuhr, president-elect of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication and dean of the School of Journalism at the University of Montana.  “Often these changes occur in subtle ways, and sometimes with greater fanfare. What’s important about the results of this survey is the consistency of the message: Our programs have made change, and I know we’ll see even more in the future, particularly in the areas of mobile technology and entrepreneurship.”

“The Open Letter raises issues that have been important to the accrediting process for several years now,” said Peter Bhatia, president of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and editor of The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Ore. “As this survey shows, many, many programs are embracing the necessary and ongoing curricular change required to prepare students for the digital world. They should be applauded and encouraged to keep pushing ahead and to be doing so in a timely and continuing fashion.”

More than half of the programs responding to the survey reported having hired new full-time faculty members with digital media skills (55%).  Three-quarters of the programs said they had hired adjunct faculty with digital media skills (77%).  Nearly seven in 10 (68%) of those responding said they had sent faculty members to digital media training programs, while a quarter (26%) said they were now using digital media skills as a criterion for promotion of faculty members.

“These results indicate that journalism and mass communication programs are well aware of the imperative for our curricula to change so that our students can continue to be prepared to enter the media industries or go on to graduate study,” said Beth E. Barnes, president of ASJMC and director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky.  “Even as programs continue to face budget challenges, they are finding ways to enhance current faculty members’ digital skills and bring in outside expertise to provide their students with access to current practice.”

The survey of administrators at 491 programs offering coursework in journalism and mass communication was conducted between October 2011 and July 2012 and asked about curricular offerings and enrollments during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years.

The survey identified 487 programs offering bachelor’s degrees related to journalism and mass communication, 222 with master’s degree programs and 50 with doctoral programs.  In Fall 2011, these programs enrolled 203,561 students in undergraduate programs, 13,392 in master’s programs and 1,789 in doctoral programs.

Not all of the administrators answered the questions on program offerings.  Responses were weighted to reflect the full population of programs.

The Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Enrollments is conducted every year in the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, a unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Dr. Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox Center, also directs the enrollment survey project.

All programs listed in either the Journalism & Mass Communication Directory, published by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, or The Journalist’s Road to Success: A Career Guide, published online by the Dow Jones News Fund, Inc., are included in the survey.

For further information:
Dr. Beth E. Barnes, bbarnes@uky.edu
Professor and Director, School of Journalism and Telecommunications
Associate Dean for Undergraduate and International Programs, College of Communication and Information
University of Kentucky

Dr. Lee B. Becker, lbbecker@uga.edu
Professor and Director, James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Georgia

 ————–

The Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication promotes excellence in journalism and mass communication education. A valuable resource for chairs, deans and directors, ASJMC is a non-profit, educational association composed of some 190 JMC programs at the college level.

The following address was given by Richard Gingras, head of news and social products at Google, as the opening keynote of the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass and Communication on August 9, 2012.

I’m honored by the opportunity to speak here tonight. When it comes to the future of journalism, there is no more important audience than the one in this room. It is you who will nurture, guide, and enable those who invent journalism’s future. We can talk tonight about the emerging news ecosystem. We can discuss its many emerging attributes. However, much of the invention that will occur, that needs to occur, will be the inventions of those you inspire.

Allow me to note a few points of context about me. I am not a journalist. Not that I wouldn’t be proud to accept that label. But I haven’t earned my stripes. While I have created several news products, and in a few instances, held the title of editor, I have never reported a story or worked deeply enough in the journalism trenches to ever be comfortable using that label. I am a technologist. I develop and architect products. I have spent a third of a century working in the fields of new media. This does not mean I have answers. In fact, all it means is that I have had the opportunity to make more mistakes than all of you! And with those mistakes, I might have attained insights into the architecture of information ecosystems and their evolution over the course of the last thirty years.

These are extraordinary times. The media landscape is in the process of being completely transformed, tossed upside down; reinvented and restructured in ways we know, and in ways we do not yet know. The process of change is far from over. Indeed, it will never be over. The pace of technological change will not abate, it will only quicken. The consumer Internet is less than twenty years old. The emergence of Google and the power of search occurred only fifteen years ago. Less than ten years ago saw the eruption of the blogosphere. And only five years ago, the notion of social networks had not entered our consciousness. What will be the next startling innovation?

Looking just at the social dimension, let’s also note that it is also only in its infancy. The history of social networking is, at best, in its first chapter. There is much, much more innovation waiting to happen. We certainly recognize that at Google with our efforts with Google Plus. We are tremendously excited by the prospects. We are fascinated by what we are learning. We are eager to continue to try new things, to explore new arenas.

One realization is that social is not just about Friends and Family. It’s also about people you don’t know but should know. Just as Google News uses algorithms to find, cluster and present news in near realtime, we are now using algorithms to identify and harvest interesting and popular posts, mapping those posts to the interests of individual users – and enabling them to discover new people, new communities, new experiences. I started my career decades ago in the comparatively simplistic world of television programming and counter-programming. We are now combining the use of computer programs along with the basic concepts of media programming to drive discovery over the full matrix of the social graph, the interest graph, the functional graph, the geo-graph.

Yes, these are interesting times. They are exciting times. Yes, there has been tremendous and painful disruption but let’s consider the huge positives that underlie that disruption.

There are no longer any barriers to publishing — everyone has a printing press. There are no gatekeepers. Technically, anyone can publish and have his or her expression available to anyone in the world. We have more voices participating than ever before. We have more publishing than ever before. Of course, that does not mean it’s all high-quality expression but if one looks at things statistically, which I tend to do, and assume that wheat-to-chaff ratios stay reasonably the same, then we have more good content as well. It might be hard to find, but it is there.

There are also many new ways for people to consume and share news: from the emergence of the social layer of the web to myriad new devices and form factors. And, there are powerful new technologies that can change what journalists do and how they do it: whether it be the evolution of new media forms, the ability to engage audiences, the use of computation for analysis and reporting, or the ability to report in multiple media forms with a device that fits in your pocket

In my view, the future of journalism can and will be better than its past. We have never had a more open ecosystem for the expression of information and ideas.

Let me note that much of what I will say are my own personal observations and not official Google pronouncements. Please accept it as that. My work at Google has certainly given me an excellent perch with which to observe the ecosystem and its evolution.

Google’s position with respect to the changes in the journalism ecosystem goes back to what has been and what will continue to be its core mission: to connect the dots between a consumer’s interests and informational needs and the most relevant available knowledge from the best possible sources.

Today, Google News puts current events coverage in front of an audience in excess of one billion unique users per week — Google News, by the way, is not so much news.google.com as it is a “freshness engine” underneath myriad Google properties, most specifically Google Search, globally scouring the web for the latest current events coverage. We do that in 72 countries and over 40 languages. We just launched and edition for Serbia as part of an ongoing expansion of our coverage. In doing that, all of our efforts are focused on quality. How can we find the highest quality coverage from the best possible sources, the best article on any given subject or new story. We do all of that algorithmically for Google search, Google News, and now, as I mentioned, we are working to apply our algorithmic prowess to the social realm as part of our efforts with Google Plus.

Before I talk further about the future of news, and as much as I believe the future is all we should be thinking about, I’d like to touch on a bit of historical context.

I often sense that people believe that the challenges facing journalism are all about the business model, and more importantly, that somehow the foundation of the prior journalistic era, the newspaper business model, was somehow etched on tablets brought down from the mount. This is not the case.

Newspapers historically were not hugely profitable. There was tremendous competition. Most cities had multiple papers – four, five, six or more from varying viewpoints, areas of focus, and quality. It was a tough business. In each market, the largest circulation paper did well, a few others did okay, and the remainder struggled. Starting in approximately 1949, television ad revenues grew from zero to nearly 20% over the course of the following decade. A huge portion of that revenue came at the expense of newspapers. Newspapers went from owning 37% of the advertising market to 25% or so. As a result, we saw a steady decline in the number of newspapers, from five down to one, in some cases two with a joint operating agreement. We went from having a rich set of voices to having only a few. From democratic perspective, this was not a good thing. However, for the newspapers left standing it marked the introduction of forty years of extraordinary profitability. They went from fighting for every ad dollar to having near monopolistic control over local ad pricing. They had tremendous distribution leverage and used it to fullest advantage.

The open distribution of the internet destroyed that leverage, but with the internet’s open distribution came the potential for many new voices. Would anyone really want to flip  back the clock on that change? Disruptions of media marketplaces have happened before and will happen again. The 40-year golden period of newspaper profitability began with a disruption and ended with one.

The openness of the underlying distribution architecture of an ecosystem has a huge impact on the number of voices and the levels of profitability. The more controlled the distribution, the higher the profitability but the fewer the voices.

The distribution architecture also impacts product design. The golden era of near-monopoly newspapers also saw the expansion of the product to be all-things-to-all-interests — or at least those interests that made economic sense with large circulation audiences. Lifestyle sections, Gardening sections, and so on, expanded the product model. Indeed, beyond classifieds, it was these “soft” news sections that drove profitability. However, that product model doesn’t quite work in the open ecosystem of the Internet. All-things-to-all-people portals have become irrelevant as the Web has matured and spawned thousands of editorial products focused on nearly as many niche audiences. That Gardening section is competing against a dozen excellent sites that focus only on gardening.

But again: the change in the underlying distribution architecture and in the underlying business model of news is but one aspect of the extraordinary transformation that is currently playing out.

In light of these dramatic changes, we need to rethink every facet of the journalism model. I’m not suggesting that everything MUST change, but a comprehensive rethinking is a necessary and valuable intellectual process. We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the importance of our journalist mission to consider and reconsider all options, all opportunities for positive change. Frankly, that re-thinking, that re-creation will happen whether we want it to or not. It will happen because young innovators and entrepreneurs will approach these opportunities with no baggage, no old models to protect. Their canvas will be fresh and clean. Existing players are challenged, if not crippled, by their reluctance to “eat their own young”. Entrepreneurs bear no such burden! I don’t say this to criticize strategic decision of traditional media outlets. A few years ago, someone said to me, “why didn’t newspapers respond more quickly when Craigslist came onto the scene?” That’s far easier said than done. At that time most major newspapers were public companies. I can’t criticize the decision of a CEO at that time to not jeopardize their classifieds business, the fattest of cash cows, in response to an emerging upstart and still answer to the demands of Wall Street. Far easier said than done however cogent the lesson therein.

Rethink everything. That’s what must happen. That’s what will happen. Let’s look at several key dimensions. By the way there are dozens if not hundreds of dimensions to explore, questions to answer. These are but a few:

What is the nature and purpose of a website when most of the inbound traffic comes from search and social? Four years ago, many news sites saw half their traffic come to the home page. My traffic I mean inbound uniques, not page views, not the returning visits of loyal users. Today, due to continued growth in traffic from search and social, home page traffic is typically 25% of inbound audience. That means 75% of inbound traffic is going to story pages. What do these changes in audience flows say about site design? Indeed, what do they say about the very definition of a website?  Should we not flip the model and put dramatically more focus on the story page rather than the home page? Or for that matter, on that corpus of content and media we call a “story”.

How do we approach content architecture in an edition-less medium with a near limitless capacity for storage and accessibility? The architecture of news content has barely changed, particularly as practiced by traditional media outlets. It continues to mirror the edition-oriented nature of the prior medium form — streams of articles that appear one day and drop into the archive the next. Should we not explore and adopt new approaches that, like Google’s earlier experiments with “the living story” maintain the full expression of a reporter’s efforts in one place behind a persistent URL where I can more readily build value in the link economy of the web? “Digital First” needs to be more than a catchphrase. It must drive a deep rethinking of our product models and behaviors. We have both the capability and the need to do things differently.

What is the evolution of the narrative form in a medium dominated by updates, bullet points, and posts? As McLuhan said, “Every new medium begins as a container for the old.”  While early radio news began with the reading of newspaper articles, that model was quickly superseded by a shorter crisper style that was appropriate to the radio medium. In a culture dominated by updates, bullet points, and posts, read increasingly on smartphones and tablets, are there approaches to conveying in-depth journalism that move beyond the long-form narrative? I’m not suggesting that the long-form is dead, but what is the right form to convey knowledge in a rich media ecosystem increasingly oriented towards short bites of content consumed on various mobile devices? This is not the world of my dad reading the newspaper for 90 minutes before dinner. Can we learn from the approach of sites like ProPublica who create a series of social posts, each disclosing an additional nugget of journalistic knowledge and wisdom?

How can we take better and full advantage of computational journalism? One major technological impact is the opportunity to use computer science to assist with reporting efforts, to parse massive data sets, to monitor public sources of data. Can investigative journalism aggressively leverage computational journalism to not only help with stories but eventually become persistent, automated investigative reports? Let me repeat that: persistent, automated investigative reports. Why not? We have only seen the earliest, modest efforts in computational journalism. The potential is huge.

What tools does a journalist need to have? What new tools are now necessary given we have no real limit on publishing capacity and no technical barriers to realtime publishing that can readily accommodate multiple forms of media? How might we support reportorial efforts such that it is easier to gather large amounts of info and use much more of that information to good effect. Since our medium can now accommodate the full expression of the reporter’s work, is there not huge value in developing new tools to support a reporter’s efforts? Who out there will drive the creation of a toolset we might call Reporter’s Notebook 2.0?

What is the right approach to organizational workflow? What is appropriate given current and future advances in how news is gathered, organized and presented in a virtual, do-anything-from-anywhere, 24/7 medium? What is the job definition of a reporter, of an editor, of a computational journalist as the underlying models change? What is the role of a reporter in a medium that not only enables audience engagement but requires it? Does this not suggest a complete rethinking of editorial roles and organizational workflow? Are there new approaches that better allow news organizations to leverage the assistance of the trusted crowd as was done by Josh Marshall and Talking Points Memo in winning their Polk prize. Might we benefit from systems that allow small news orgs to collaborate and work together?

How can we create work cultures of constant innovation? Again, the pace of technological change will not abate. It will only quicken. To think of this as a period of transition from one state to another is unwise. How do we staff news organizations with the appropriate resources and the appropriate mindset such that constant innovation is imbued into the organization’s DNA and into the role of every participant? The approach I am wary of is the creation of a Chief Innovation Officer within a company. This suggests that innovation only occurs in certain roles rather than being part of each and every role. Companies that do this well, for example Apple and Google, are constantly pushing innovation in every corner of their enterprises. Apple thinks out of the box about the box! Google builds cool features but then spends as much if not more time making sure that feature can happen instantly via a constantly evolving infrastructure that can provide both speed and cost-efficiency. Innovation is not just about a sexy new user interface. It’s not just about what we do, it’s also about how we do it. Innovation is about taking risks and trying things. Mistakes will be made. That’s a good thing. That’s where true learning happens. I understand why this wasn’t the case in the past. There wasn’t the need. Change happened slowly. Those days have passed.

Rethink everything, including how we teach journalism. What is the right curriculum given this new landscape, given these new opportunities? How do we equip and guide students with the right skills and mindsets?

How can we best teach newswriting and reporting for this new media landscape? And teach the ability to be creative with the form? How can we best provide the research skills, the data mining skills for this new media landscape? Should there not be more combined programs of computer science and journalism?

Can we give journalism students enough of an understanding of content architecture and product design to think creatively about content architecture and product design? Can we give them enough of an understanding of the relevant technology and tools to continue to readily adapt to tomorrow’s technology and tools? At a journalism conference a year or so ago I heard a journalism professor bemoan the fact they taught students Flash only to have it fade from use. Really? Every one of those students learned valuable and transferable skills. Authoring tools change. Understanding of programming concepts and models persists and evolves.

Can we give them enough of an understanding of the business aspects so that they can actively participate in the evolution of that business model? The time is gone when one side of the organization can practice determined ignorance of the other. Let’s not conflate the value of knowledge with the practice of ethical decision-making.

Can we build out faculty that values the need for change as much as it respects depth of experience?

Can we enable in our students a sense of personal entrepreneurship, not necessarily to build companies but to build and evolve their own careers. Can we inspire a mindset that is comfortable and ultimately confident in taking creative risks so that they thrive in fast-changing environments. The 40-year, one-company career is a thing of the past.

With great technological change comes great opportunity. And with great opportunity comes great responsibility. Among its many powers, the Internet has the ability to provide support for any opinion, any belief, any fear and give it greater volume. Sadly, political players, interest groups, and even media companies know all too well that affirmation sells far better than information. Our society’s need for credible journalistic knowledge and wisdom has never been greater. While the evolution of the web has been hugely beneficial it also raises the bar. How might we evolve our craft to build trust in journalism and restore some semblance of cognitive-reasoning?

Yes, the future of journalism can and will be better than it’s past. In fact, I believe we are at the beginnings of a renaissance in the exploration and re-invention of how news is gathered, expressed, and engaged with. But the success of journalism’s future can only be assured to the extent that each and every person in this room helps generate the excitement, the passion, and the creativity to make it so. May you enjoy the journey, and more importantly, might you inspire others to enjoy theirs.

By MEGAN GARBER, The Atlantic. July 26 – 

From 1896 to 1899, Walter Hines Page – who would later become the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain — was the editor of a little magazine then known as The Atlantic Monthly. Before taking that post, though, Page was the editor of another monthly, The Forum. In 1891, Page accepted, on behalf of that periodical, an article submission from William Roscoe Thayer. And the note he sent to inform Thayer of this development was a classic good news/bad news affair: On the one hand, acceptance! On the other … sorry, Sir, but lousy pay.

My dear Sir:

I thank you for submitting your interesting paper on “Europe’s Military Frankenstein,” which I shall be glad to use in an early number of The Forum. I shall ask you to accept our check for the sum we usually pay per article — $75, which is not a large sum, to-be-sure. We shall be able to give you, however, the most appreciative audience reached, we think, by any periodical.

Page’s letter was discovered by Sydney Bufkin, who found it, she told me, while doing research on Page at theHoughton manuscript library at Harvard. Bufkin points out that the $75 payment Page felt the need to apologize for equates to $1,796.34 in 2010 dollars. (“The letter doesn’t say how long the article was,” Bufkin adds, “but I’d guess not more than 2 or 3 thousand words.”)

Read the full article on The Atlantic

The AEJMC Council of Affiliates has launched a new competition beginning with AEJMC’s Centennial Convention this August in Chicago, our first annual Industry Research Forum. The interdependence between the academy and the professional and industry organizations it serves provides an opportunity for collaboration on research that can benefit everyone.

The Council of Affiliates of AEJMC, which consists of 35 member organizations related to the fields of journalism and mass communication, is therefore sponsoring this Industry Research Forum designed to strengthen that academy/industry link.

Three winners of $1000 each will present their research at the convention.  Mike Philipps and the Scripps Howard Foundation provided an additional $1000 so a third award could be made. The three winners are as follows and can be found here:

• “Media Entrepreneurship: Curriculum Development and Faculty  Perceptions of What Students Should Know,” Michelle Ferrier, Elon  University.
• “Best Practices in Managing News Website Comments,” Mitch McKenney, Kent State University.
• “The Ten Percent Dilemma: The Opportunities and Challenges of Managing Newspapers in the Digital Age,” Paul Steinle, professor emeritus, Southern Oregon University; Sara Brown, Valid Sources, Seattle

By Lauren Rabaino on 10,000 Words, July 20 – 

A new journalist reference guide on tools and applications that can be used for iPhone reporting has launched fromUC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Although the book is called a “mobile” reporting guide, it’s actually device-specific, focusing specifically on the iPhone.  You can download the book to read as a PDF, or download it from the Apple iBook store.

Read the full post on 10,000 Words

By Kristal Brent Zook on CJR, July 16

Perhaps Liane Membis, the Wall Street Journal intern fired recently for inventing quotes, started out with noble intentions. As Miss Black America-Connecticut last year, she spoke against high illiteracy rates among African American children and of wanting to represent black women “in a positive light.” We’d assume that Membis, a Yale graduate, brought these ideals to her internship at one of the nation’s most prominent dailie

So what happened? How did her high ideals come crashing down so horribly? As odd as it may seem, she may not have thought she was doing anything so terribly wrong. As the director of the MA Journalism Program at Hofstra University on Long Island (and a former adjunct at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism), Membis’s transgressions probably should surprise me, but they don’t. Many students these days are amazed—I mean, truly baffled—when confronted with their own unethical behavior.

Read the full post on CJR

From RTDNA on July 10 – 

The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey found that TV news staffing soared in 2011 – adding 1,131 jobs – to reach total full time employment of 27,653.

That’s a gain of 4.3% over last year and the highest average full time TV news staff ever.  However, overall, it puts 2011 in second place for total TV news employment.  First place is still held by year 2000.  The average station newsroom employment then was lower than today, but more stations originated local news.

 

Read the full post on RTDNA

Photo credit: chrisinplymouth (Creative Commons)

By DYLAN BYERS on Politico, July 10 – 

Americans’ confidence in television news has hit an all-time low, according to a new survey by Gallup.

Twenty-one percent of the 1,004 adults polled said they had “a great deal” or “a lot” of confidence in television news media, continuing a steady decline from the 46 percent who expressed confidence in television media in 1993.

Meanwhile, just 25 percent of those polled expressed confidence in newspapers, the second-lowest rating since 1973 and less than half of the 51-percent peak in 1979.

Read the full article on Politico

By DAVID CARR on The New York Times, July 8  – 

While the rest of us were burning hot dogs on the grill last week, the newspaper industry seemed to be lighting itself on fire.

There have been cracks in publishing operations that are both hilarious and terrifying. The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa., published a box score for a baseball game that was never played, after one of the coaches made up a result to spare the other team the embarrassment of a forfeit.

The U-T, the daily newspaper of San Diego, published a two-week-old blog post — on its front page. And most notoriously, “This American Life” revealed that Journatic, a content farm owned in part by the Tribune Company that produces local articles on the cheap, was using fake bylines. Some of those hyperlocal pieces, which ran in newspapers like The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Houston Chronicle and The San Francisco Chronicle, were written in the Philippines.

 

Read the full article on The New York Times

Recent entries posted on or linked to the Poynter Institute website and AEJMC listservs on the long-running but heated debate on the value, proper structure, and best practices in journalism education have addressed some major issues: the status of professionals in journalism education, the gap between educators and journalists, the value of research, the importance of a doctorate in getting and keeping academic jobs. Some of the discussion conflates very different, albeit often intersecting, problems.

These arguments are becoming increasingly strident, with these different questions treated as if they are the same, partly because of crises over scarcity of resources—both economic and social. No one denies the sunami of technological changes facing journalism, as well as major upheaval in attitudes about news. Huge numbers of people assume (wrongly) that they don’t need news or don’t need professional journalists to produce it for them; they can use the same technologies to gather and disseminate their own news.  News organizations are closing down, or squeak by with fewer people. Therefore, many more journalists—some highly experienced and award-winning, some with a few years of low- or mid-level experience—are seeking academic jobs.

Professionals regularly go straight from newsrooms both to academia, as they certainly deserve to. This includes deanships, arguably a more difficult transition, given the need for skills and talents not necessarily developed or tested in newsrooms. At my own university, professional journalists–from the full professors and “professors of the practice,” to the lecturers, who enjoy five year, renewable contracts — run the show. Indeed, lecturers are paid significantly more than assistant and associate professors, face no publish-or-perish, up-or-out crisis, so need not spend money, weekends and vacations, on research.

As historians of status conflict have shown, prestige and respect are finite resources in a zero-sum game: the gains of one group subtract from the prestige of others. As a result, battles over prestige and honor become most fraught precisely when those at the top begin to sense that they are losing ground. Precisely because professional journalists face this loss of credibility and authority, they are lashing out at journalism educators for not doing more to help what professionals call “the industry.” Yes, it’s also true that some universities anxious about their status require the Ph.D. These days, the economic crisis facing higher education probably goes further than this university-level dictate about Ph.D.s to explain why people don’t get jobs. New faculty positions cannot be created at will, and especially in a dismal economy (especially when jobs prospects look grim). AEJMC consistently tries to help departments make the argument to provosts about the value of professionals.

It’s worth adding that many Ph.D.-holding journalism researchers started out as journalists. This is ignored in complaints such as that of the Knight Foundation’s Eric Newton about “the slow rate of change in journalism education, including how exceptional professionals (without advanced degrees) are being treated. You have not heard the last of this. Universities are likely to lose private-sector funding if it doesn’t stop.” He is correct that degrees are not more important than competence. But the Ph.D. should not be regarded as “disabling,” as if people who spend five or six years to earn a Ph.D. and launch a research trajectory suddenly forget everything they learned while in the newsroom, and become, as professionals suggest, uniformly unable to teach professional courses, serve as deans, apply accreditation standards–only able to write “unreadable articles for journals no one quotes, achieving nothing.”

Journalism education, including AEJMC, must do much more. As in every university domain, journalism faculty members teach what is most needed, but do research on a far broader spectrum; and we cannot dictate individuals’ research agendas. Collectively, however, journalism educators—not only in teaching, and service, but also in research—can and should do much more to help journalists figure out how best to carry their important role in these new and changing contexts. (In my experience, moreover, print-oriented professionals on faculties have been the most resistant to change, the most adamant about journalism’s unchanging values). Carrie Brown-Smith, one of the newer faculty members to respond to Howard Finberg’s recent essay, correctly noted that researchers can use blogs and social media to translate published research into versions more accessible and more relevant for working journalists.

So what is AEJMC doing to collaborate with professionals, in and out of the organization, toward our shared goals of promoting high quality journalism and encouraging support of journalism? True: we retain an admittedly old-fashioned name; in this sense, we have not met Mr. Newton’s call for “radical reform.” But divisions have changed names. “Online” has been added to the newspaper division. More to the point, we have programs to help faculty get back into the newsrooms to see what they know and do and as a way to see first-hand what makes their research more relevant; and to bring professionals to campus. One AEJMC task force is sponsoring workshops for minority journalists to help them understand what is necessary (or not) to move into academia, and thus to help insure that those moving into both part- and full-time teaching represent diversity. Another task force is specifically addressing the needs of Latino/a journalists. The AEJMC website features “Research You Can Use.” Our Council of Affiliates can always share these summaries of research relevant to news organizations with members. Indeed, this year the Council funded three research projects specifically helpful to professional journalism. They will be presented at our summer conference, and posted on our website.

Indeed, I invite you to attend the AEJMC conference in Chicago, marking our 100^th anniversary, to see what we are doing. Richard Gingras, the head of Google News, will be the keynote speaker. You’ll learn about research, programs, and services that can help you.

Linda Steiner
President, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2011-2012
Email: lsteiner@jmail.umd.edu

By KEN DOCTOR on Nieman Journalism Lab, June 27 – 

Are two Ruperts even better than one? We may soon find out, as News Corp.moves forward today to clone itself.

The cloning, or splitting, of the $34 billion company certainly has its logic. Hive off those pesky newspaper assets and the company’s book arm HarperCollins into a separate company. Then let the News Corp. entertainment conglomerate — satellite, cable, broadcast, movies, and more — focus on global opportunities as both the Internet and old-fashioned pipes offer seemingly unlimited upside for the distribution of entertainment content. (Fox News, best understood for its entertainment value, would go appropriately with the entertainment company, not the publishing one. That raises the question of whether those two operations, to be owned by separate companies, would continue to uneasily share prime Times Square office space. And who gets the News Corp. name? The company with the news or the company without it?)

View the full post on Nieman Journalism Lab

By Howard Finberg on Poynter, June 15 – 

“As we think about the changes whipping through the media industry, there is a nearby storm about to strike journalism education.

The future of journalism education will be a very different and difficult future, a future that is full of innovation and creative disruption. And, I believe, we will see an evolution and uncoupling between the value of a journalism education and a journalism degree.”

Read the full article on Poynter

By Liana B. Baker and Yinka Adegoke on Reuters, June 12 – 

DirecTV Group (DTV.O), the largest U.S. satellite TV operator, could deploy technology that would enable its millions of subscribers to automatically skip television advertising, its top executive said on Monday.

Mike White, chief executive of DirecTV, said his company bought rights to the technology from a company called Replay TV nearly five years ago but has not seen any need to make it available to customers.

Read the full post on Reuters

By STUART ELLIOTT on The New York Times, June 11 – 

A consortium of media owners, advertisers and media agencies says it is pleased with the results of two pilot tests, commissioned more than a year ago, that are intended to help improve and modernize the way video viewership habits are measured — all the better to cash in on those new habits.

The consortium, which was formed in 2009 and is known as the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, or CIMM, on Tuesday is to present  the results of the tests, conducted separately by two big media measurement firms, Arbitron and comScore.

Read the full post on The New York Times

By D. D. GUTTENPLAN on New York Times, June 11 – 

At Northwestern University in Qatar the administration recently came up against a surprising problem: How to improve students’ Arabic.

The overseas campus of the renowned university in Evanston, Illinois, attracts students from 30 countries for its programs in communications and journalism, popular majors in the hometown of Al Jazeera, the satellite broadcasting network. Although courses are given in English, about 60 percent of students speak some form of Arabic. “But most of them don’t speak Arabic well enough to appear on Al Jazeera,” said Everette E. Dennis, the school’s dean.

By Leonard Downie Jr. on The Washington Post, June 7 – 

Investigative reporting in America did not begin with Watergate . But it became entrenched in American journalism — and has been steadily spreading around the world — largely because of Watergate.

Now, 40 years after Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein wrote their first stories about the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate office building, the future of investigative reporting is at risk in the chaotic digital reconstruction of journalism in the United States.

Read the full post on Washington Post

By Michael J. Bugeja on The Chronicle, May 29 – 

In the past year, public colleges and universities across the country have been shrinking degree programs and terminating personnel—including tenured professors—in an effort to cope with budget cuts in higher education.

The situation is not confined to a handful of mismanaged public institutions, as in the past. It is a national phenomenon and the inevitable outcome of three trends that have been incubating now for a decade: expanding curricula, reduced legislative support, and increased student debt.

Read the full article on The Chronicle website

By Aaron Chimbel on Online Journalism Review, May 29 – 

We all know the way people get their news has been upended in the past two decades. If you wanted to get the day’s news a few years ago you had to get it when the news organizations said you could have it. That usually meant a few times a day on television and radio or when the newspaper was published.

By the time what we now call legacy media was able to present the news it was inherently old.

Times, of course, have changed. News organizations have to change, too.

Read the full post on OJR

By Rachel McAthy on Journalism.co.uk, May 24 – 

“A new tool that will enable journalists to illustrate multimedia stories over time and locations using Google maps is to launch in around a month’s time.

Meograph will also enable journalists to integrate multimedia content, such as YouTube videos or images and link to extra context such as articles or galleries on other website.”

Read the full post on Journalism.co.uk

By Mallary Jean Tenore on Poynter, May 23 – 

When I first wrote about Twitter in September 2007, I got emails from journalists who said I was highlighting a tool that would never have journalistic application.

A lot has changed since then.

There’s now a greater willingness to embrace Twitter and other social media tools — or to at least see their potential. As more tools emerge, we need to be open to teaching others how to use them and how to integrate them into our workflow.

I’ve put together some tips for teaching social media based on teaching I’ve done here at Poynter. While the tips are mostly geared toward journalism educators, journalists who are coaching their colleagues may also find them useful.

Read the full post on Poynter

By Lance Whitney on CNET, May 18 – 

How much online video did you watch last month?

Across the U.S., 181 million Internet users tracked by ComScore caught a total of 37 billion videos in April. That means 84.5 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed an online video, and the average person spent 21.8 hours doing so for the month.

Read the full post on CNET

By David Goetzl on MediaPost, May 18, 2012 – 

A top Nielsen executive said the company’s fledgling Online Campaign Ratings (OCR) product is heading toward an industry standard in tracking Internet consumption with metrics similar to TV.

“What we’re seeing is a real step toward the creation of a currency, and the evidence around that is the fact that both buyers and sellers of advertising inventory are using the product to guarantee the delivery of an audience,” said Steve Hasker, the president of Nielsen’s watch business.

Read the full post on MediaPost

By Cyndi Stivers on CJR, May 8 – 

“There’s nothing new under the sun.” Thus spake my high-school teacher, then nearing retirement, and if I remembered nothing else (besides his rampaging eyebrows and alarming amounts of nostril hair), I would not forget this. His point, at the time somewhat dispiriting, was that ideas are continually repackaged and re-presented.

Read the full article on CJR

By Mathew Ingram on Gigaom, Apr. 30 – 

One of the big areas of focus for technology companies over the past year has been “big data” — in other words, the idea that there can be a lot of value in finding patterns in the massive quantities of user data and other information that a business generates. This has a corollary in journalism too: namely, the growing realization that there is a lot of value in finding patterns in news-related information.

Read the full post on Gigaom

By Robert Andrews on paidContent, May 1 – 

The Financial Times is preparing to kill off its iPad and iPhone app for good, signalling its final conversion from executable-app to web-app publishing.

The news publisher launched a HTML5 web app and pulled its iOS app off iTunes Store in mid-2011 but left the iOS version usable by subscribers with it already installed.

Read the full post on paidContent

By Robert Andrews on paidContent, Apr. 26 – 

Some of Silicon Valley’s biggest technology companies reject suggestions they are now news organisations.

But they nevertheless think they have the prescription for what news media must do next…

First, the disclosures: “We’re not a news company,” Google’s head of news products and Google+ programming Richard Gingras told media executives at the Paley Center’s international council of media executives in Madrid on Thursday. “We’re a platform,” Facebook’s journalism manager Vadim Lavrusik duly followed.

Read the full article on paidContent

The East Carolina University controversy over the firing of a student advisor has been settled, so we’ve compiled a few articles that may be of interest to journalism and mass communication educators about the topic.

• ECU and adviser reach accord after newspaper streaker controversy [News Observer]
• What Did We Learn From Paul Isom’s Feud with East Carolina U. As Case Closes? [Bama Producer Blog]
• ECU, former student media advisor settle [NBC 17]
• ECU, former student media director reach financial settlement [Student Press Law Center]

The FCC is set to vote tomorrow on whether or not TV stations will have to post political ad information online. To get the word out about this, Bill Moyers asked journalism professors and students to visit local television stations and gather information on political ad funding. Moyers recently posted on his site:

“Two intrepid journalism students from Kent State — Megan Closser and Shanice Dunning — took me up on my challenge to visit their local TV stations and uncover data behind the political ads they run. Naturally, they took their cameras, but faced a surprising amount of resistance to using them.”

You can view the request Moyers made on his show below. You can also view the video Kent State students made about their trip to four local television station here: http://billmoyers.com/2012/04/24/ohio-journalism-students-answer-call-to-uncover-political-ad-data/

By Katy Culver on Poynter, April 20 – 

My students were recently on spring break, but that didn’t slow them in their march to improve my teaching through social media.

At one point, a student in my intro course tweeted:

He highlighted an ethics case I’d completely missed — NBC’s investigation of some clearly problematic editing of audio from the Trayvon Martin shooting.

At first I said, “Geez, how did I miss that?”

Then I thought, “Thank God for social media.”

Read the full post on Poynter

We are conducting research on attitudes toward plagiarism, replicating, in part, a research survey that was conducted and paper that was published more than 25 years ago by assistant professor Jerry Chaney and associate professor Tom Duncan of Ball State University’s Department of Journalism. The article was published in Journalism Educator, Summer 1985, pp. 13-16.

Specifically, this survey will measure the change in attitudes toward plagiarism, if any, over the past 25 years. The survey is being sent to professors in the journalism field as well as to editors of daily and weekly newspapers in the United States and Canada.

The survey is completely anonymous. You will be identified only as a professor in the academic realm or an editor in the professional one.  You can click on this link to take the survey, which will take about 5  to 10 minutes:

https://iup.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0dmFcje95yoI4Bu

If the link does not work, try one or both of the following:

1) Make sure there are no spaces at the end of the typed link; or

2) Copy and paste the link into your browser.

This study has been examined by Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects. Since the survey does not identify the participants except by broad category, the research has been determined not to fall under the  purview of the Board.

If you would like a summary of the survey results when compiled, please send an email to David Loomis at doloomis@iup.edu, or to Pat Heilman at pheilman@iup.edu.  Thank you for your participation.

David O. Loomis, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Journalism, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Patricia I. Heilman, Ph.D., Professor of Journalism, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

By Matt Creamer on AdAge, April 16 – 

That I live in a city (New York) where 54% of residents are car-free means chances are good that I don’t own a vehicle. The odds increase with my address in Manhattan, a borough where by some counts about 75% go without wheels, and positively soar in my parking spot-desolate ZIP code.

The author sees lots of TV ads for cars — in Manhattan.

So it’s a safe bet that all the auto ads dominating commercial pods I see nightly aren’t safe bets at all. Despite being nowhere near a sales funnel that might eventually deposit me behind the wheel, I am besieged by car and car-related pitches. I see Lincoln pitchman John Slattery more often than I see my friends, and the Jay-Z flourish announcing that Chrysler 300 spot loops endlessly in my mind. Don’t even get me started on Progressive ‘s Flo and the Geico Gecko.

Read the full post on AdAge

By Katherine Bygrave Howe on Bloomberg,  April 13 –

We remember the Titanic for its epic technological hubris. But the ship’s sinking also marks the moment when a more modest technology, the wireless radio, began to transform the shipping industry.

As an example of the Progressive-era faith in technology, the Titanic is hard to equal. In addition to its sumptuous interior, the ship was able to churn across the ocean at a staggering 22.5 knots. It was also outfitted with the most sophisticated wireless-telegraph technology available, with a range of nearly 1,000 miles.

While the speed was central to the ship’s operation, the wireless radio was considered a novelty.

Read the full article on Bloomberg

By Jillian C. York on MediaShift, April 11 –

“In its six years of existence, Twitter has staked out a position as the most free speech-friendly social network. Its utility in the uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa is unmatched, its usage by activists and journalists alike to spread news and galvanize the public unprecedented.

As Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recently boasted at the Guardian Changing Media Summit, Twitter is “the free speech wing of the free speech party.”

But at the same time, some governments — in both not-so-democratic and democratic societies — have not taken such a positive view of Twitter and freedom of expression. Instead, they’ve threatened, arrested and prosecuted their citizens for what they express in 140 characters or less.”

Read the full post on MediaShift

AAUP’s annual salary report for college faculty is now available.

View the report: A Very Slow Recovery: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2011–12

Or view the press release on the AAUP website.

From the FlackCheck.org website – 

“Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org is a video-based counterpart to APPC’s award-winning program FactCheck.org. FlackCheck.org uses parody and humor to debunk false political advertising, poke fun at extreme language, and hold the media accountable for their reporting on political campaigns.”

Go to FlackCheck.org 

By Rupal Parekh on AdAge, April 2 –

Last month, digital executives from Hearst’s 20 or so titles were summoned for an important meeting at the company’s Manhattan headquarters.

The pressing subject was Pinterest, how all Hearst’s magazines are using it, and how they could leverage the platform. Attendees also spent a fair bit of time examining competitors’ “pinning” strategies.

“It’s a really big initiative for us within the digital department at Hearst,” said Keith Pollock, editorial director of Elle.com.

 

Read the full post on AdAge

By Everette E. Dennis, Dean and CEO, Northwestern University in Qatar (Huffington Post, April 2) – 

One year after the bloody civil war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi began, it is clear that the transition to a functional democracy in Libya is still a long way off. Libya under Gaddafi’s iron fist had no independent political, civil society, commercial, or media institutions to speak of, and remains a blank slate on which an uncertain future will be written. But it is important to keep an eye on the country’s progress, for its path towards developing viable institutions is instructive to other countries of the so-called “Arab spring.”

Read the full article on the Huffington Post website

By Sonia Paul on Mashable, March 27 – 

“Following in the footsteps of Storify, a new free, open-source online timeline tool is innovating storytelling on the web.

Timeline, created by Zach Wise, a multimedia journalist and journalism professor, was developed in partnership with the Knight News Innovation Lab at Northwestern University, where Wise teaches. The interactive tool allows users to generate timelines on the web by curating content from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, Google Maps and SoundCloud.”

Read the full post on Mashable’s website

By Herbert Lowe on Poynter, March 26 – 

“As journalist in residence and a graduate student in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University in Milwaukee, I seek chances to match coursework with reporting and academic pursuits. This week’s assignment in my Humanistic Theories and Methods of Media Studies grad class required me to conduct a semi-structured interview – in which a list of questions must be asked and answered in order – before follow-up quizzing may occur.”

Read the transcript from the interview on Poynter’s website

From the Imagewest Press Release, February 28 –

Imagewest Takes Gold at Louie Awards

Imagewest work recognized by the Advertising Federation of Louisville

Bowling Green, Ky., February 28, 2012—Imagewest snagged four awards at the Advertising Federation of Louisville’s Annual Louie Awards in the Student Louie Awards category. The Louie Awards are comparable to the Oscars in the advertising industry. This is the first year Imagewest has won any Louie Awards.

Imagewest is a student-run, advertising and public relations agency on Western Kentucky University’s campus. Imagewest won the following awards:

1. Gold Louie for Mixed Media Campaign: Semester at Sea Campaign
2. Silver Louie for Sales Promotion, Packaging: Bark Twain Product Display andPackaging
3. Silver Louie for Non-Traditional Advertising: 7 Deadly Sins Fortune Cookies
4. Silver Louie for Elements of Advertising, Logo: Institute for Civil War Studies Logo

“It was an extremely rewarding experience to see my students awarded for their work,” said Heather Garcia, director and full-time staff member. “They all work exceptionally hard and are so passionate about what they do, so it was exciting to see that their hard work and time commitments were recognized. Winning a Louie is huge, so I’m proud that we can say we won four!”

The 38th Annual Louie Awards took place on Friday, February 24, 2012 at the Galt House in Louisville, Ky. The Louies are the creative competition for the advertising industry, and they showcase the best work in the area. Winning a Louie is the first step in the three- tiered national ADDY creative competition, sponsored by the American Advertising Federation, which will be held at the AAF national conference in June. Imagewest’s Semester at Sea Campaign will be entered in the next step, the district competition.

“It’s very cool to be able to say that pieces I helped work on as an intern were recognized by noted professionals in the industry. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment and really showcases the great work we do at Imagewest. Evenbetter, it has helped me land a job for when I graduate this May!” said Jane Wood, public relations coordinator from the Imagewest spring 2011 team.

The submitted work was completed primarily during the spring 2011 and fall 2011 semesters.

Interns for the spring 2011 semester included: Kelley Boothe (Georgetown, Ky.), Steven Charny (Louisville, Ky.), Ryan Franklin (Louisville, Ky.), Kelly Haight (Bowling Green, Ky.), Tea Lacic (Bowling Green, Ky.), Caitlin Pike (LaGrange, Ky.), Sarah Pope (Louisville, Ky.), Stephanie Romano (Louisville, Ky.), Alan Schneller (Oakland, Ky.), Jane Wood (Bowling Green, Ky.), and Justin Wuetcher (Goshen, Ky.).

Interns for the fall 2011 semester included: Eric Brodzinski (Noblesville, Ind.), Michelle Child (Taylor Mill, Ky.), Kayla Cruse (Upton, Ky.), Megan Dunlevy (Louisville, Ky.), Bethany Hubartt (Indianapolis, Ind.), Paige Johnson (Bowling Green, Ky.), Tony King (Lousiville, Ky.), Jackelyn Mead (Hendersonville, Tenn.), Veronica Newman (Hopkinsville, Ky.), Alan Schneller (Oakland, Ky.), and Kayla Spelling (Covington, Ky.).

Interns for the spring 2012 semester include: Kenn Glenn (Greenville, Ky.), Ashley Henson (Elizabethtown, Ky.), Rachael King (Owensboro, Ky.), Justin Lawson (Elizabethtown, Ky.), Taylor Moad (Louisville, Ky.), Catherine Montano (Louisville, Ky.), Dalton Rowe (Winchester, Ky.), Tom Schatzinger (Smithfield, Ky.), Jake Stephenson (Louisville, Ky.), Jessica Troccoli (Old Hickory, Tenn.), Katherine Wade (Paducah, Ky.), and Ross Whitaker (Taylorsville, Ky.).

For further information, contact Heather Garcia at 270-745-8915, via e-mail at heather.garcia@wku.edu, or log on to www.wkuimagewest.com.

About Imagewest
Imagewest is a student-run advertising and public relations agency that provides students with real-world agency experience on a local, national and international level. Imagewest allows students to further develop their skills and enhance their portfolio, giving them a competitive edge as they enter the workforce. Imagewest operates year-round and during the summer, the agency travels to work with clients abroad. The agency offers a variety of services such as graphic and web design, media relations and publicity, event planning, large scale printing, consulting, strategic planning, conducting research including the use of an in-house focus group facility and much more.

Imagewest began in January 2004 and is located on Western Kentucky University’s campus in the Mass Media and Technology Hall room 331. Any revenues that are generated will go directly back into Imagewest to cover expenses such as equipment, scholarships and educational travel. It is part of WKU’s School of Journalism and Broadcasting’s Center for 21st Century Media Program of Distinction, which is approved and funded by Kentucky’s Council on Post-Secondary Education Regional Excellence Trust Fund.

About The Advertising Federation of Louisville
The Advertising Federation of Louisville (“AdFed”) represents Louisville’s $1 billion advertising industry. The AdFed supports the professional enhancement of all advertising and communications professionals in the Louisville area through informational, educational, social, and community programs. Originally incorporated on January 30, 1908, today’s AdFed is the area’s oldest membership organization for marketing, advertising, and other communications professionals. Members come from all areas of advertising, including agencies, independent professionals, media firms, marketing and research companies, client companies, trade organizations, and community services. The American Advertising Federation has named The Advertising Federation of Louisville Club of the Year seven times in the last decade.

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From the Pew Research Center – 

“A mounting body of evidence finds that the spread of mobile technology is adding to news consumption, strengthening the appeal of traditional news brands and even boosting reading of long-form journalism. But the evidence also shows that technology companies are strengthening their grip on who profits, according to the 2012 State of the News Media report by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.”

 

Read the full report on the Pew Research website

By Patrick May on Mercury News, March 18 – 

“Smartphone in hand, you tap into your local app store. You click on a nifty tool that promises to massage your belly and pat your head at the same time. But just as you’re about to download it, you decide to click on that little Terms of Service icon. And you’re hit with a phone-book-sized data dump of not-so-fine fine print.

On top of all the privacy battles already under way across the Internet, the boom in mobile apps has ramped things up even more, with waves of service terms and security policies at every new download.”

Read the full article on Mercury News