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.

###

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

From the 1 for All website – 

“The Free to Tweet competition on Dec. 15, 2011, encouraged students 14-22 to celebrate the First Amendment though social media. Most participants tweeted their messages, while others e-mailed, or tweeted with links to essays, videos, photos or graphics.”

Twenty-two students from the US will each receive $5,000 scholarships to continue their high school or college education.

Read the full post and the list of winners on the 1 for All website

By Joe Mandese on MediaPost, March 14 – 

“Advertising executives -– both marketers and their agency representatives -– continue to increase their optimism toward digital media options, and are beginning to swing toward it as more of a “branding” than a performance “option,” but there are some significant disconnects between the way they look at various digital media silos. While agency executives tend to be far more bullish on the overall use of digital media, marketers are much more optimistic about budgeting for social media.”

Read the full post on MediaPost

By Mark Hachman on PCMag, March 8 – 

“Facebook threw its hat into the ring of curated newsfeeds on Thursday, offering a new “Interest Lists” feature that will allow Facebook users to subscribe to interesting, topical content.

For example, users who want to keep up with the 2012 presidential candidates can subscribe to a list of updates from the candidates themselves, and the political news outlets that follow them, such as MSNBC, CNN, and Fox.”

Read the full article on PCMag

By JENNIFER PRESTON on New York Times, Feb. 29, 2012 – 

When Anne Klein shut down its designer line in 2008, Eileen McMaster was among the fashion professionals there who found themselves without jobs. After years of working long hours, she took some time off, turning her attention to improving her health, becoming a Pilates instructor and wellness consultant along the way.

Now, with signs that the struggling economy is slightly improving, she is looking to get back into the fashion industry. To help strengthen her position in the job market, she returned to the classroom last year to develop expertise in social media that she can layer on top of her deep marketing and corporate communications experience.

“I didn’t have the social media savvy in the way I do in other areas of marketing,” said Ms. McMaster, 44, of North Babylon, N.Y., who signed up for the social media marketing boot camp online courses at Mediabistro.com. “When I left fashion, social media wasn’t even something we were doing in the industry. Fast-forward four years, and if you are a brand and you are not on social media, you are missing a huge audience.”

Read the full article on the New York Times website

Press Release from GlassesOff™, Feb. 23, 2012 – 

Data from a recent study published in Scientific Reports, demonstrated the utility of a new technology product to help people overcome the natural effect of aging on vision (often referred to as presbyopia). In the study, all subjects who required reading glasses to read newspaper font size became glasses-free following three months of use with GlassesOff™, a non-invasive, pure software solution that targets brain performance rather than lens aging.

“The improvement in visual performance of the study participants was achieved without changing the optical characteristics of the eye, which may be encouraging to those who have to use reading glasses,” said the researchers at the School of Optometry and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, at the University of California, Berkeley. “The results suggest that the aging brain retains enough plasticity to overcome the lens’s natural biological changes that occur with age, and potentially help improve the quality of life of an aging population that needs to use reading glasses to do simple tasks such as reading a newspaper, restaurant menu, or viewing incoming caller IDs on a mobile phone.”

The study showed that following training with the GlassesOff technology, near visual ability  (expressed as the minimum angle of resolution) – improved from an average of 2.44 arc minute to 1.56 arc minute, gaining an effective reduction of 8.6 years in the age of their eyes. Importantly, after training with GlassesOff two-to-three times per week over a period of three months visual ability was demonstrated to improve regardless of the age of the subject. Further, all subjects whose near vision abilities did not allow them to read standard newspaper-sized fonts without reading-glasses, were able to read freely following GlassesOff use. Finally, average reading speed increased by 17 words per minute saving about 9 minutes when reading a 2,000-word article at a minimal font size.

“These published results further validate the growing body of scientific data supporting the efficacy of GlassesOff as a non-invasive solution that may eliminate the need to wear reading glasses for hundreds of millions of people,” said Nimrod Madar, CEO of Ucansi, the innovator of GlassesOff™. “We anticipate making GlassesOff available on the iOS platform – compatible with iPhones, iPods and iPads – mid-year, and soon after on the android platform.”

About the Study

The study investigated the use of GlassesOff in 30 subjects tested and defined as presbyopic (14 females and 16 males, average age of 51) with no neurological conditions at the School of Optometry and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. All active subjects used the GlassesOff protocol two-to-three times weekly over a period of approximately three months.  In order to assess the effects of the training, subjects underwent pre- and post-tests for visual acuity, reading speed, contrast detection and contrast discrimination, as well as tests of lens accommodation, pupil size and depth of focus.  An additional 10 subjects served as controls: three tested and defined as presbyopic subjects, participating in pre-and post-testing roughly 2 months apart, with no intervening training; and seven young subjects (average age of 23) with normal or corrected-to-normal vision in both eyes, which were a young control group. The study was approved by the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects of the University of California, Berkeley. The publication is currently available on-line at: www.nature.com/scientificreports 

ABOUT GLASSESOFF™

GlassesOff™ is a product of Ucansi, Inc., a company developing next-generation software applications for vision improvement. GlassesOff™ was developed specifically as a non-invasive solution for “aging eye.” Aging eye is the inevitable natural deterioration in visual ability that affects most people by the age of 40 and practically everyone by the age of 50, making it difficult to see near objects clearly without the aid of reading glasses. The GlassesOff product is based on scientific breakthroughs in the area of eye-brain functions. GlassesOff is scheduled for launch in 2012 on the iOS platform, including iPhone, iPod and iPad, followed by an Android version.

By BEN BAJARIN on TIME, Feb. 21 – 

“It may be difficult to imagine a world where human beings are even more connected than we are now. Yet the reality is that when it comes to connectivity, we’re barely scratching the surface in terms of where we’ll be in the future.

Many anticipate that this growth will be largely driven by mobile-connected devices like smart phones and tablets. To understand the scope of where we are heading with mobile computing, consider this data from a recent Cisco report:

• The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world’s population in 2012
• There will be over 10 billion mobile-connected devices in 2016
• Monthly global mobile-data traffic will surpass 10 exabytes per month in 2016
• Over 100 million smart-phone users will each consume more than 1 GB of data per month in 2012
• Global mobile-data traffic will increase eighteenfold between now and 2016
• Mobile-network connection speeds will increase ninefold by 2016
• Two-thirds of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2016

Read more on the TIME’s website

By Robert Andrews on PaidContent, Feb. 17 –

“In a reversal of today’s content publishing model, print magazines pretty soon could start looking a lot like their app equivalents.

“The next redesign of our titles will see them redesigned with our tablet versions in mind,” magazine publisher Future’s tablet editor-in-chief Mike Goldsmith told an industry forum this month.

As publishers extend their print titles to iPad, they can choose either to repurpose the paper originals, which can seem lazy and ill-suited to the touch screen, or to custom-produce interactive apps with a native interface in mind, which is expensive.”

Read the full post on PaidContent

By Mathew Ingram on Gigaom, Feb. 13 –

“In the not-so-distant past, news generally tended to travel in a few well-worn paths. It was reported by a newspaper, it appeared on television at noon or 6 p.m. or it was mentioned on a drive-time radio show — and those involved usually had plenty of time to report it and produce it. The arrival of CNN and 24-hour news changed all of that, however, and Twitter and Facebook have changed it again: Now the news is just as likely to appear in a tweet or to be posted as a status update by someone who is directly involved in the event.”

Read the full post on Gigaom

 From Nieman Reports Blog, Feb. 8 – 

“Our magazine turns 65 this month so we turn back to our very first issue, published in February 1947. If you wonder whether the state of journalism was any less dire in those days, look no farther than our Page One headline: “What’s Wrong With the Newspaper Reader.” In the piece, Newsweek reporter William J. Miller, NF ’41, opens with an image of navel-gazing newsmen that still rings true today:

“Whenever two or more newspapermen get together the talk sooner or later turns to the sad state of the nation’s press, and what should be done about it.”

The full text of the article is available as a pdf.”

By Nat Ives on AdAge, February 7 –

Magazines’ paid circulation continues to slip, victim of a persistent undertow at newsstands that seems to be regaining strength.

Magazines’ average paid and verified circulation in the second half of 2011 fell 1% from the half a year earlier, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ latest roundup of publishers’ circulation reports.

Subscriptions increased 0.7%, but that wasn’t enough to overcome a 10% drop in single-copy sales, according to the audit bureau’s figures.

Newsstand sales fell 9.2% in the first half of 2011, by comparison, 7.3% in the second half of 2010 and 5.6% in the first half of 2010.”

View the full post on AdAge

By: Jason Del Rey on AdAge, Jan 31, 2012 – 

“New Yorker Editor David Remnick says his long-form publication continues to invest in web staff and digital-exclusive content. But he still sees the digital extensions as complementary to the core print product, not a replacement — at least not anytime soon.

Asked in an onstage interview at All Things D’s media conference whether he believes the New Yorker will still publish a print magazine 20 years from now, Mr. Remnick answered, ‘I do.’”

Read the full post on AdAge.

By Jeff Roberts on PaidContent, Jan. 28 –

“Why does Twitter get involved in so many interesting lawsuits? In its short life, the company has kicked up legal hornet nests involving everything from stalking to satire.

While technology companies always outgrow the laws that govern them, Twitter’s 140-character message system is proving to be particularly disruptive. At the same time, the microblog has been more aggressive in defending free speech than established companies like Facebook and Google.

Here are five examples that show how Twitter’s unique platform is creating a new set of media rules that are forcing the law to play catch up.” …

Read the list on PaidContent

By  A. Adam Glenn on MediaShift, Jan. 26 –

“As debris from the firewall that once separated journalism from the business of journalism continues to fly, a new educational landscape is developing, one that supports and trains those straddling the line.

American University is the latest to add to that, expecting soon to launch a full-fledged graduate degree in news entrepreneurship.

The faculty at the Washington, D.C.-based AU’s School of Communications has OK’d a new 10-course, 20-month Master’s in Media Entrepreneurship, and expects formal approval from the university this spring. Kickoff would be next fall.”

Read the full post on MediaShift

By  Howard Owens on HowardOwens.com (Jan. 25) –

“For no particular reason, I found myself looking at Google Analytics and decided to open the calendar all the way back to 2007.

I discovered that the most popular post I’ve written in that time (and probably since I started blogging in 2002) is “Ten Things Journalists Can Do to Reinvent Journalism,” published Feb. 16, 2008. It’s been viewed more than 40,000 times.  If I go back month-by-month since 2008, it is consistently among the top 10 posts for each month.

So, I just re-read it, and I found, not surprising, given nearly four more years of experience, I don’t agree with everything it says.”

Read Owens’ new list on his blog here

By Craig Silverman on Poynter, Jan. 23 –

“At around 9 p.m. on Saturday night, the AP newsroom was abuzz with reports on Twitter and elsewhere that former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had died. AP associate managing editor Ted Anthony had been tracking the story of Paterno’s health since the afternoon, and he sent an email to roughly a dozen AP supervisors to make sure no one jumped the gun and declared Paterno dead.”

Read the full post on Poynter

By Daniel Victor, Jan. 23 on Poynter – 

“The Onward State tweet that erroneously reported Joe Paterno’s death Saturday night and led to an avalanche of false reports in other outlets was based on the work of two student reporters: One was snookered by a false email, and one overstated his knowledge of the events, according to the site’s co-founder.

A third student, Managing Editor Devon Edwards, decided to pull the trigger on the tweet. Edwards resigned Saturday night.

The independent, online-only, student-run site is an agile and highly collaborative organization with a staff of 30-50, including eight editors. Each story is run through two editors, and major decisions are hashed out among editors and reporters through Yammer, an internal messaging system.

The fateful tweet was no snap decision. The site has a complex editorial process that’s designed for the Web and has earned praise for its vision — but like any editorial process, it can easily be disrupted by bad reporting and pressure-packed situations.

“I’d have to say that this event … taught me how ego can be a very toxic thing for a news organization,” said Davis Shaver, who co-founded the site as a Penn State freshman in 2008. ‘Ego to act like you know something you don’t, ego to want to be the first person to break it.’

Read the full post on Poynter’s website

Creative Commons: Prasan

Alicia Eler recently wrote on the RWW site that connected consumers prefer using websites and mobile websites to apps. She said:

“Welcome to the connected consumer. This person most likely has a tablet and smartphone, and is constantly connected to their friends via Facebook. Today, more than 60% of 25-34 year-olds (Gen-Y) own a smartphone. One in three online consumers will buy a tablet by 2014. That’s a lot to digest at once, right? A new survey from Zmagsinvestigates the connected consumer and their digital habits.

Only 4% of these consumers use branded apps. Eighty-seven percent prefer to use websites and mobile sites. This is good news for the so-called tablet commerce revolution (can a consumer movement be rightly called a “revolution”? I shudder), which suggests that tablet owners are using tablet-optimized websites like Amazon.com. But this connected consumer is not a Gen-Y. She is…wait for it…a 40-something-year-old woman.”

You can read the full post on Read Write Web here.

Although these statistics don’t refer to news website directly, 87% is a very high majority of consumers who prefer websites to apps.

Question: Do you think a higher percentage of news readers prefer sites to apps as well? 

By Katy Culver on Poynter, Jan. 13, 2012 – 

“A friend and fellow educator sent a shock through my system last week. He told me he was so frustrated by rude and distracted behavior on digital devices in his journalism labs that he imposes a ban on laptops, tablets and cell phones turned on during class.

Not known for subtlety, I asked, ‘Are you insane?’

The interaction led to a productive conversation about digital distractions and effective teaching practices in a connected age. Somewhere in the combination of our approaches and their devices is a sweet spot that can move learning forward.”

Read the full post on Poynter.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Jan. 12, 2012 | The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), a nonprofit, academic organization of more than 3,600 journalism and mass communication educators, students, and media professionals, is committed to “defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice and a better informed public.”

AEJMC would like to respond to the October 27, 2011 Federal Communications Commission Order on Reconsideration and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in connection with “the Matter of Standardized and Enhanced Disclosure Requirements for Television Broadcast Licensee Public Interest Obligations.”

AEJMC supports the FCC’s important proposed rule change because this would bring closer to reality broadcasters’ transparency in fulfilling their “public-interest obligations” to communities.  The rule change would exponentially expand the public’s access to the broadcasters’ “public-inspection files,” now on paper, by requiring them to make them available online.  AEJMC applauds the FCC for its overdue effort to “modernize the way television broadcasters inform the public about how they are serving their communities.”

As Steven Waldman, the lead author of the FCC report titled “Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age,” cogently noted in his Columbia Journalism Review article of December 29, 2011, the proposed FCC rule change mandating online access will impose little additional burden to broadcasters, since broadcasters are already required to assemble these materials.

From journalism and mass communication educators’ perspective, AEJMC believes that putting these political files online would enable educators and researchers to better teach and research how the public-owned airwaves have been used for political advertising.  Equally important, investigating the broadcasters’ “pay for play” arrangements would be much easier if these records are included in online public files.

AEJMC disagrees with broadcasters that the proposed FCC disclosure regulations could create problems for them in terms of additional cost and manpower from compliance with the regulations.  Their objections seem to be more transparency-averse than cost-motivated.  For putting the public inspection data online at the FCC would entail little additional cost for the broadcasters.

Professor Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, director of the University of Nebraska-Omaha School of Communication, who for more than twenty years has been sending students in his Media Regulation and Freedom course to inspect local public files, recently said, “Some operations are downright hostile about the current obligation of public inspection during regular office hours.”

In conclusion, AEJMC urges the FCC to err on the side of more transparency, not less, on the part of broadcasters’ obligations for public-file inspections.  This is all the more compelling than ever, given that off-line information about the broadcasters’ records for operating TV and radio stations for the “public interest, convenience, and necessity” is more often a case of “practical obscurity.”  This should no longer be allowed in the Internet era.  The media transparency proposal of the FCC would be one effective way to tackle the physical inertia inherent in the files in the broadcasters’ file cabinets.

To leave a comment about the proposed rule change on the FCC site, go here: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display?z=yx8a4 (Enter proceeding number 00-168)

AEJMC Contact Information: Contact Linda Steiner, President, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2011-2012
Email: lsteiner@jmail.umd.edu
Phone: 301-405-2426

About PAC
The AEJMC President’s Advisory Council allows the association’s president to weigh in on important issues that are central to the association’s mission. A three-member subcommittee of the Standing Committee of Professional Freedom and Responsibility helps inform and advise the president of important issues.

About AEJMC
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. The Association’s mission is to advance education, foster scholarly research, cultivate better professional practice and promote the free flow of communication.

By Jeff Sonderman on Poynter, Jan. 9, 2012 – 

“One-third of tablet and smartphone owners in a Nielsen survey said they had downloaded a news app within the past 30 days, and 19 percent had paid for one. The chart below shows survey results for news and other categories.”

Image credit: Nielsen

Read the full post on Poynter

By Eric Schonfeld on TechCrunch, Jan. 8, 2011 – 

“At this point, video is just a regular part of the web. But how is it gaining on regular TV watching. Just in terms of audience reach, Nielsen estimates that almost 145 million people watch video online in the U.S., compared to about 290 million who watch traditional TV. So the penetration of online video is already about half of the overall TV-watching population.

Yet for all the video people watch on the web, it is still a tiny fraction of how much they watch on TV in terms of time spent. In a report put out yesterday on the State of the Media summarizing 2011 data, Nielsen estimates Americans spend an average of 32 hours and 47 minutes a week watching traditional TV. They only spend an average of 3 hours and 58 minutes a week on the Internet, and only 27 minutes a week watching video online. All those billions of videos watched online still only represent 1.4 percent of the time spent watching traditional TV.”

Read the full article on TechCrunch

By Eric Alterman on CJR, Jan/Feb 2012 –

“Ironically — and apparently somehow below the radar of most journalists in America — the profession was recently blessed with what could have been, and still might be, the most effective propaganda vehicle for the societal significance of journalism I could imagine. His name is Mikael Blomkvist, and the paunchy, forty-year-old, lady-killing, black-coffee-and-bourbon swizzling, cigarette-smoking, crusading, feminist, Swedish journalist just happens to be the hero of perhaps the best-selling book series in the world.”

Read the full article on the Columbia Journalism Review website.

The FCC is currently accepting opinions on a proposed rule change that would require TV broadcasters to post political advertising information from their network on their website. Currently, broadcasters are only required to have a physical file documenting the advertising that politicians have paid for on their channel. The new ruling would require this information to be posted online for everyone to access.

The deadline for comments is January 17.

Comment on the proposed rule change here:  http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/display?z=xkixg  (Enter proceeding number 00-168)

View current comments here: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment_search/input?z=gjx0v  (Enter proceeding number 00-168)

Creative Commons: Prasan

This post was originally posted on the AEJMC Small Programs Interest Group blog by Margo Wilson. Reposted with permission.

One of the first times I knew I really was in trouble as a new journalism professor was in August 2003 at the Association for Education and Journalism and Mass Communications conference in Kansas City, Mo. I had been feeling a bit cocky after surviving my first year on the tenure track after a 20-year tenure as a newspaper reporter and editor at places ranging from the Spruce Grove Star, near Edmonton, Alberta, to the Los Angeles Times. At the AEJMC conference, I was intrigued by the array of panels on multimedia, and I attended many.

The one I recall most was by a panel of speakers from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. They reported on their first year of offering a converged journalism curriculum, and I distinctly remember them saying words to the effect of: “Be careful if you’re still on the tenure track. Your student evaluations are going to suffer.” In a paper later published in the Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, three USC researchers wrote about surveys of students enrolled in those first converged classes. The students graded the converged curriculum as of “C” quality. When asked whether they would recommend the converged program as it then existed, those students ranked the program overall as “Poor,” with “Extremely Poor” their most frequent response (Castaneda, Murphy, & Hether, 2005, pp. 65-66).

Gulp. And that was USC and they have oodles of money, time, and well-trained staff. What was little old I going to do? I buried my head in grading, committee work, and my own writing for another two years. There was no pressure from the English Department in which I teach to get on the digital bandwagon. My sole journalism colleague was pursuing other interests and not digitally concerned. I taught myself how to use Microsoft Publisher. I learned how to use Blackboard. I tried to ignore most things digital. But I couldn’t. Many of my friends at the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers were being laid off as the papers tried to adjust to the Internet revolution. One of my co-workers who survived at the Times morphed into a graveyard shift web editor. The newspaper business that I had left three years previously was changing rapidly.

I invited the managing editor of one of the local Pennsylvania papers to speak to my feature writing class.

“What are you doing to prepare students to work online?” she asked.

“Nothing,” some of my students blurted.

I had to do something.

During Summer 2005, I attended a two-week “multimodal” English composition workshop at Michigan Technological University, taught by Cynthia Selfe, a leading technological guru in composition studies. Selfe and her colleagues introduced me to digital audio recording, digital video shooting and editing, and HTML, among other things, and oh, it was painful.

“When you came in, I thought, ‘Oh, that poor woman,’” Selfe later told me. Talk about an ego-deflating experience. There was no easy way I could transfer much of what I had learned at the workshop into the classes I was teaching in the fall. So, I didn’t.

But gradually, I enrolled in more workshops and online classes. The current count is 40. I bought my own equipment and attended the Summer 2008 multimedia workshop for journalism professors at the University of South Carolina’s Newsplex. I started experimenting with class blogs and requiring my writing students to take photos. I moved my editing class’s newsletter from Microsoft Publisher to InDesign (and now it’s on Issuu). During the summer of 2009, I did an “internship” at the Observer-Reporter newspaper in Washington, Pa., where I worked a little bit on the website but mostly shot and edited 15 videos. I gained a little confidence.

Meanwhile, I had drafted the protocol syllabus for a new “Multimedia Journalism”class. I pushed it through my department and the university’s Curriculum Committee. I persuaded the university administrators to upgrade our computer lab with spiffy Macs, new software, cameras, and audio recorders. I had all the fixings for a multimedia party. Now it was up to me to deliver the guests, uh, students, and make sure they had a good time, err, learned something. I taught my first multimedia journalism class in Fall 2010.

Was teaching multimedia journalism stressful? You bet.

We created a class blog and individual blogs, shot photos, and created Powerpoints, Soundslides projects with audio, and videos. From one day to the next, I was working at the edge of my knowledge, trying to stay one step ahead of the students. Our lab’s new projection system wasn’t ready until a month after class started. I had to improvise with a laptop and portable projector or an old-fashioned overhead projector until then. After the projector was installed, it needed constant adjustments. I’d call the Help Desk during class and my students would just roll their eyes and snicker.

But the projector was just one of my problems. Two students “forgot” to return their somewhat pricey cameras after dropping the class. One finally agreed to hand over the camera, and we met, late one night in a parking lot, à la Deep Throat. The other sneaked the camera into our department just hours before I was planning to file a police report and a few days after the dean of students contacted her.

How were my student evaluations? Mixed. They ranged from “Perhaps have a professor who know [sic] what they [sic] are doing teach the class next time it is offered” to “The class was fun and gave new experiences to students.” I guess if I had asked the students to grade the course, the grades might have averaged out to a “C.”

Since last fall, I’ve had a chance to look at some of the literature about the stress of teaching with technology. If nothing else, this reading has been therapeutic, reassuring me I’m not alone in my anxiety about teaching with technology and, especially, about teaching multimedia journalism.

Several articles about journalism professors’ stress over technology were published in theJournalism Educator in 2003. One article discussed a telephone survey of AEJMC faculty to determine the extent to which technology plays a role in the instructors’ feelings of exhaustion. The conclusion was that “technology-related stressors… mattered more than course load, tenure status, rank or gender” in contributing to exhaustion (Beam, Kim, & Voakes, p. 347). The study called for more technical support and for more technology training of faculty. Another article described how women, in general, are more stressed out. It discussed a UCLA study in which young women who were using computers as much as their male colleagues were half as confident about their computer skills (Ogan & Chung, pp. 355-356). Women just don’t have as much confidence about their digital prowess. Still another study found that older, female professors with heavy teaching loads, whose classes were predominantly skills classes, were among the most stressed (Voakes, Beam, & Ogan, pp. 329-330). Hmmm, a perfect description of me.

Other articles discussed the feeling among faculty who teach with technology that they are “perpetual novices,” which means that in order to keep a stiff upper lip, they need to have “strong self-efficacy” (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010, p. 261). Leggget and Persichitte described 50 years of obstacles in implementing technology as “blood, sweat, and TEARS,” in which “TEARS” stands for “lack of time,” “expertise,” “access,” “resources,” and “support” (as cited in Mandefrot, 2001, Claims and Counterclaims section, para. 9). Commenting on their study of a community college, a school noted for its integration of technology into the curriculum and its emphasis on learner-centered instruction, Owen and Demb (2004) discussed how using technology “changes the fundamental teaching paradigm from teacher-centered to learner-centered instruction” (p. 636) and how the “transformational change associated with technology is even more disruptive for faculty than change without technology” (p. 658). They added that “Coupled with the unsettling nature of transformational change, which challenges assumptions, roles, values, and norms, [technology] participants experience a disturbing lack of control and the result is a situation full of both personal and institutional tensions” (p. 658). Owen and Demb, like many other writers, also mentioned how faculty become frustrated with the amount of time needed to prepare to teach with technology (pp. 662-663).

And yet, professors haven’t thrown in the towel on teaching with technology. That includes me. Last spring, while teaching feature writing, I had the students make a class blog and an individual blog. In the fall, in a reporting class, we’re going to try mobile journalism, using laptops and phones, to write stories that may be “livestreamed” to a class blog. I’m still exploring this. Wish me luck.

I never feel any better than a novice with each further step I take into the digital world. Everything is always new. In Lev Vygotzky’s terms, I’m continually operating in the “zone of proximal development” (University of North Carolina School of Education, n.d., “Zone of Proximal Development”). And it’s uncomfortable, scary, and lonely out here in the zone.

My university gives lots of awards, and in 2010, a woman from my department won the university’s technology award after getting certified in “digital storytelling” and incorporating digital storytelling into one of her composition classes. That was the spur I needed to apply for the award this past year. Somehow, I won. At the awards luncheon, each winner was to speak briefly. When it was my turn, my voice trembled and then the tears started to flow. The tears caught me by surprise. As are many of my experiences with technology, it was embarrassing. I blubbered on about how, even after winning the award, I still feel like a digital idiot. And I do. I thanked at least some of the people who’ve helped me along the way. And there have been many. Our IT department and administration have been supportive. I’m still not totally sure why I cried.

As a journalist, I’ve covered traffic accidents and suicides, fires, and political brawls. My house has been pelted with eggs by people angry about the stories I’ve written. My stories have led to people getting fired for unethical conduct. Journalists are tough. Journalists don’t cry. But I did. If you can do technology plus journalism, then you are one tough cookie. I crumbled.

Yet, despite the blood, sweat, and TEARS, I do believe journalism professors must infuse their teaching with technology. I’m committed to improving my technology skills enough so I can focus more on the content in my classes and less on the machinery.

I continue to be one of just a handful of professors in my department who are seriously wrestling with technology. For my journalism students, if it’s going to be, it’s up to me. And yet, as my student pointed out in his or her evaluation, it would be helpful to the students if they had a professor who knew what she is doing. I know the journalism. It’s the technology that is so much more elusive. Still, I soldier on. It’s my job. But it’s more than that. Making a video that’s true to journalism and interesting to watch can be fun and rewarding. Designing a blog or website that’s user-friendly, visually attractive, and journalistically attuned can be a kick.

When I won the university’s technology award, I also won a cool, new Ipad. I pray to the gods and goddesses of journalism and technology that it doesn’t take me months to learn how to use it.

Margo Wilson is an associate professor and chairs the English department at California University of Pennsylvania.

References

Beam, R. A., Kim, E., & Voakes, P. S. (Winter 2003). Technology-induced stressors, job satisfaction and workplace exhaustion among journalism and mass communication faculty.Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 335-351.

Castaneda, L., Murphy, S., & Hether, H. J. (Spring 2005). Teaching print, broadcast, and online journalism concurrently: A case study assessing a convergence curriculum.Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 57-70.

Ertmer, P. A. & Ottenbreit-Leftwich A. T. (2010). Teacher technology change: How knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and culture intersect. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42, 255-284.

Mandefrot, K. (2001). An embarrassment of technology. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 33 (5), 1-34.

Ogan, C. & Chung, D. (Winter 2003). Stressed out! A national study of women and men journalism and mass communication faculty, their use of technology, and levels of professional and personal stress. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 352-368.

Owen, P. S. & Demb, A. (2004). Change dynamics and leadership in technology implementation. The Journal of Higher Education. 75(6), 636-666.

University of North Carolina School of Education. (n.d.) Zone of proximal development. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/5075.

Voakes, P. S., Beam, R. A., & Ogan, C. (Winter 2003). The impact of technological change on journalism education: A survey of faculty and administrators. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 318-334.

By Stan Schroeder on Mashable, Jan 3, 2012 – 

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the world’s most popular browser, but it and Mozilla’s Firefox lost a lot of market share to Google’s Chrome in 2011, which is now firmly in second place.

According to StatCounter’s 2011 data, Internet Explorer currently has a 39% market share, Chrome is at 27%, while Firefox holds 25% of the market.

Safari and Opera follow with 6% and 2% market share, respectively.

Read the full post on Mashable.

By MICHAEL POWELL on Nytimes.com, Jan 3, 2012 –

“In late November, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, ordered every precinct in his domain to read a statement. Officers, the commissioner said, must ‘respect the public’s right to know about these events and the media’s right of access to report.’

Any officer who “unreasonably interferes” with reporters or blocks photographers will be subject to disciplinary actions.

These are fine words. Of course, his words followed on the heels of a few days in mid-November when the police arrested, punched, kicked and used metal barriers to ram reporters and photographers covering the Occupy Wall Street protests.”

Read the full article on the New York Times website.

From the Sidney Hillman Foundation website – 

The Sidney Hillman Foundation is now accepting nominations and submissions for the 2012 Hillman Prizes that honor investigative journalism and commentary in service of the common good. The 2012 prizes will be given for work produced, published, broadcast, or exhibited in 2011.

This year’s categories are as follows:

1. Book (bound volumes and ebooks)

2. Newspaper Journalism (story or series/in print or online) 


3. Magazine Journalism (story or series/in print or online) 


4. Broadcast Journalism (story or series/at least 40 minutes in total length) Open to television, web TV, radio, podcast, and documentary film.

5. Web Journalism (publication/story or series/multimedia media project) Open to blogs, computer-assisted reporting, new investigative tools, mapping, crowd sourcing, and other multimedia media projects. Entries should feature a substantial text component.

6. Photojournalism (for a series of still photos, no single images) Entries in this category must include still photos, either alone, or as part of a multimedia package. For example, the winning entry of the 2011 Hillman Prize for Photojournalism featured still photos and web video.

7. Opinion Journalism (any medium) Includes all types of advocacy, opinion, and analysis, normally short-form and/or frequent, regardless of medium. Open to newspaper and magazine columnists, TV and radio presenters, podcasters, blogs, and bloggers.

If you are unsure about which category your work fits into, just go ahead and submit, and the foundation will determine the best category for it.

Winners will be announced in April 2012. Each winner is awarded travel to New York City to receive a $5,000 prize and a certificate designed by New Yorker cartoonist, Edward Sorel, at our awards ceremony and cocktail reception to be held Tuesday May 1, 2012.

Find out more information on the Hillman Foundation website.

By Robert Steiner on MediaShift, Dec. 15, 2011 – 

“After 25 years in and around journalism, my understanding of media changed with one table in the “2009 State of the News Media Report” by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. Time Magazine and Newsweek each saw ad pages drop 19 percent in 2008, it said, while Motortrend gained 24 percent and Car and Driver increased 4 percent. If two auto magazines could grow their business in the very year that Chrysler and GM were headed towards bankruptcy, then specialized coverage had to be the most exciting place for a career in journalism.”

Read the full post on MediaShift

Photo Credit: Valley Library

Social Media, the Classroom and the First Amendment, written by Melissa Wantz, and published by the First Amendment Center and Knight Foundation, takes a fresh look at how America’s schools can enhance learning through the use of emerging and interactive media.

This guide is designed to give teachers the tools and ideas they need to engage students using social media and existing curricula. The guide was inspired by the recent Knight Foundation study “Future of the First Amendment 2011” written by Dr. Kenneth Dautrich. The Knight study – based on a survey of 12,090 high school students and 900 high school teachers — indicates that students who are most active in social media also have the best sense of First Amendment principles. That suggests that Twitter, Facebook and other social media can play an important supplemental role in the classroom.

We are indebted to Knight Foundation for its support and the funding of this teachers guide. Knight Foundation, along with the First Amendment Center, Newseum, American Society of News Editors and McCormick Foundation are also the core founders of 1 for All, an unprecedented national campaign on behalf of the First Amendment (http://1forAll.us).

1 for All is the collaborative effort of educators, artists, journalists, lawyers, librarians and many more who believe that the American public would benefit from a greater understanding of the First Amendment and the need to protect all voices, views and faiths.

Read the full post and get the PDF

By Meranda Watling on 10,000 Words, Dec. 14 – 

“Student journalists should know by now, you likely won’t start out earning an enormous salary. And that money will seem even scarcer if you’ve got student loans to pay back. So Thursday is your chance to both support the First Amendment — that’s the one with freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which I really hope you already knew — and to potentially earn a $5,000 scholarship. It’s as easy as exercising your right to tweet — by tweeting about why you love that right (or any of the others in that near sacred amendment). For those who’ve gone through other scholarship competitions, that’s a scholarship essay of 140 characters instead of 1,400 words or so. And with 22 available awards, your odds may be better than many national winner-take-all competitions.”

Read the full post on 10,000 Words for more information about the scholarship