Blog tidbits

When magazines become a relic of the past, will we need instructions on how to use them? (H/t Andrea)

The Story of Stuff website presents environmental issues in short videos, like this one on bottled water. (H/t Susannah)

Data caps will crimp content producers/consumers.(H/t TJ)

Kickstarter helps creatives raise funds online for their projects.(H/t TJ)

Online outlet battles to keep press pass

Reporters Committee for a Free Press reports on the S.F. Sentinel, an online outlet, and its threatened lawsuit against S.F. police. (Written by I.C. student. H/t Melissa Gattine)

Google and Yahoo in China

Google agreed last June to quit automatically switching its users in China to Google's uncensored Hong Kong search site. But there's a tab users can click to be switched. Is it safe to hit that tab?

AFTER Yahoo provided info to China's government that led to the imprisoning of two Chinese dissidents in 2002 and 2004, the families of the victims sued Yahoo. As a result, Yahoo announced in 2008 that it was establishing a fund for people jailed in China for posting human rights views online. Empty gesture?

Web and wireless censorship

The media reform group Free Press highlights media corporations caught censoring web or cellphone traffic.

Inner City Press, a monitor of Wall Street and the United Nations, temporarily is delisted from Google News. The de-listing happened soon after Matt Lee of Inner City Press questioned Google's commitment to free expression.

In 2007, consumer rights groups mobilized to tell the Federal Communications Commission: "No More Media Consolidation." CommonCause was blocked from placing an anti-consolidation ad on My Space, which Rupert Murdoch had bought in 2005. The banned ad featured a photo of Murdoch and the caption: "This is the face of Big Media." Is it "My Space" or "Murdoch's space"?

Will Pay Walls Around News Content Work?

No, says Arianna Huffington in May 2009 U.S. Senate testimony. And here's "Life After the Pay Wall" nightmare scenario from Advertising Age.

And is the New York Times asking too high of a price? (H/t Andrea B)

New stuff learned from students

Cute cartoon on famous bloggers
(H/t Evie)

New online outlet aimed at college women. (H/t Carly)

Women Musicians Building Community/Following...

...through Facebook, reports Laura Sydell for NPR.

Talking Points Memo

Ten months after appearing in Ithaca, TPM announced major expansion. Even today, TPM asks its well-informed-readership for research help...and gets it. (On google, I saw the link asking the world for examples of rightwingers saying Palin as president would be a step down.)

Harassment of indy journalists

Since the 1960s when the FBI and local police engaged in violence and harassment against "underground weeklies," repression against dissenting U.S. outlets has greatly deceased. But it has not fully ended, as in Minnesota during the 2008 Republican convention.

Or as in Alaska, during last year's election. An online reporter was handcuffed and detained for asking questions of the Alaska Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller. The reporter -- a well-known journalist in the area and founder of Alaska Dispatch -- was handcuffed by Miller's security personnel after a dispute over his questioning of the candidate about his role as a former part-time city attorney. Here's Alaska Dispatch's version of the detention. The critical reporting on Miller's past -- and this heavy-handed incident -- contributed to Miller's defeat in the November election.

Margaret Sanger proves that media heroes...

...are sometimes flawed. This critique accuses her of flirting with racist (eugenics-based) arguments in support of birth control.