Where are the Women? (Niche media makes up for mainstream)

While watching the news media crumble, you have to ask yourself, what are the casualties? There are many public ones — the out-of-work reporters, the corporate-merger leftovers of the weaker papers giving up their name to a bigger one, and in some cases, a slimmer paper.
But what about the other side? [...]

Mr Craigslist talks philanthropy, politics

Just announcing my latest U.S. News piece out, all about Mr Craigslist:
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is a self-confessed sci-fi “nerd,” but he has some very real ideas about changing politics and philanthropy, mainly through strong online participation. The humble entrepreneur (who now works in customer service for Craigslist.org) said at a conference this summer that [...]

Gaffin “goes boom” with UniversalHub

Boston blogging extraordinaire Adam Gaffin started the now-omnipresent Universal Hub as a way to connect the writers and photographers of the Hub. Now the project has grown into a regular source for news not covered by the big media of the area and a destination for many bloggers. Now he has about 3,500 to [...]

Net Reporting riskier as Yahoo!, Microsoft turn in bloggers

Blogging and online journalism has become the most dangerous section of media to be working in. At least 56 online journalists are jailed around the world.
That issues has been compounding as Yahoo!, Microsoft and other companies make money by helping governments hinder their citizens’ access to the Web. Worse, they  turn in bloggers and Internet-based [...]

Twitter, tweet… t-what?

There has been a lot of “tweeting” going on out there. News organizations do it, regular old schmoes do it. And now there is already (four years since Twitter’s beginning) a Twitter-holics group. The tweet (singular of “twitter”) is a 140-character message sent out into the world much like a blog post. The twitter posts [...]

2nd war-resister seeks asylum in Germany

Another soldier is seeking a way out of the war in Iraq.
Like the Vietnam war, many soldiers are unconvinced of the veracity of the wars purpose in Iraq especially. Unlike the 1970s, today’s soldiers can more easily find support and legal help from citizen advocacy groups online.
It is unlikely Shepherd and the more than 5,000 [...]

How We Were Blind-Folded and BRANDED (and what’s being done about it)

By Candice Novak
Consumerism is old hat, but the fast-paced and predatory nature of modern ads is relatively new. We see more ads per day per capita then in any other country, and it was recently recorded that children view at least 100 ads per day. In a time when brands define our character and Google [...]

Ad-free childhood, adulthood, Internet

By Candice Novak
There are some
progressive programs working towards an ad-free childhood (less product-placement in Saturday morning cartoons, more brand-free bibs). And the merit of such projects are gaining backing from the scientific and mental health community.
Oh, yeah — and parents are realizing there’s something wrong when they can’t find one pair of pampers at Target [...]

The Future of Internet Taxation

Just announcing my latest article out in U.S.News & World Report, on a topic that hasn’t gotten a lot of mainstream in-depth media coverage: Internet taxation. I have the usual reporter’s complaints: they cut it down a lot and don’t offer much in the way of visuals — but it is a topic that needs [...]