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News of the movement for June 5, 2012 |
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Forget he said/she said. In mainstream media, it's more like he said/he said. 4th Estate's new study of 2012 election-year coverage shows that major American newspapers and TV news programs feature up to seven times as many quotes from men than women. This is true even when "women's issues" are the subject. Times-Picayune Citizens' Group Aims to Stop Publication Changes at Newspaper More than 70 business and civic leaders and organizations have joined together to express frustration at a recently announced plan to reduce print publication of the Times-Picayune. Calling itself the Times-Picayune Citizens' Group, the body said in a press release issued today that its purpose is to "ensure the continuation of the delivery of a high-quality, seven-day-a-week newspaper, with access to the entire community." Journalists Killed Around the World, Visualized Taking the Guardian's data on journalists' deaths, interactive designer Julian Koschwitz has created an art installation. Hopi High Connects with Community Through Airwaves Many schools in Arizona have journalism courses. Some even give their kids the chance to be heard on the airwaves in radio or television. But students at Hopi High School in Keams Canyon probably reach more people. "Hopi Community Radio is the largest public Native American radio station in the continental U.S. in terms of its reach," said journalism teacher Stan Bindell of the 69,000-watt station. In five days, GOOD went from being a media darling to the media's latest jerk when the company laid off most of its editorial staff. Just what happened to the do-gooder publication is still pretty murky. In Thailand, Moderate Comments or Go to Jail For 20 days in 2010, a user comment, later deemed by Thai officials as offensive to the king, was posted to a message board on the Thai news website Prachatai. Last week, Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the Prachatai webmaster who failed to delete that comment in a timely fashion, was fined and given an eight-month suspended prison sentence. It could have been worse: Premchaiporn faced up to 20 years in prison for failing to quickly delete 10 such user comments.
The United Nations Could Seize the Internet, U.S. Officials Warn Several emerging countries are rallying behind a campaign to have the International Telecom Union, the U.N.'s global standards body for telecom, declare the Internet a global telecom system, U.S. officials said in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Led by China, Russia, India and now Egypt, which recently launched its own proposal, such a move would allow state-owned telephone networks to expand into VoIP. It would also give them the opportunity to charge fees for Internet service -- and put the Internet at the mercy of international politics. Civil Society Is Key to the Debate on International Control Over the Internet Civil society will be the critical player in a policy debate that has dominated recent tech news -- whether the International Telecom Union will be given the power by its member states to regulate Internet access and the Internet itself. Despite the fact that the U.S. government and U.S. industry have vocally opposed this outcome, it is U.S. civil society that has the biggest role to play to ensure that the Internet continues to be open and decentralized. Russian Internet Policy at Odds with That of Western Countries Nearly all Western Internet users believe in the general principles of information sharing that date back to the Enlightenment-era values of freedom of expression. Or, expressed more succinctly in the 20th century: Information wants to be free. But, says Keir Giles, a veteran Russia analyst, the Kremlin doesn't quite see things the same way. Talk of Tiananmen Muzzled on Chinese Web China's Internet monitors have unleashed a broad clampdown on online discussion of the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, restricting even discussion of the nation's main stock market when the Shanghai Composite Index fell by 64.89 points -- a number that made for an eerie allusion to the sensitive date: June 4, 1989.
Isolationist No More: The Internet Goes to Washington The launch of a new think tank call DisCo that wants to educate Congress about disruptive technologies is just one of several new efforts proposed by the Internet and startup community to get their voices heard. No longer will the conversation between Silicon Valley and D.C. rely solely on big tech firms like Amazon, Google, Facebook and others. The Internet upstarts are hoping they can disrupt politics too. Pre-Paid iPhone Parade: Can the Networks Cope? Cricket Communications will become the first pre-paid wireless operator to sell an iPhone later this month, and Sprint's subsidiary Boost Mobile is rumored to follow in the fall. If the pre-paid iPhone matches the success of its post-paid brethren, the wireless operators may be in for a data tsunami unlike anything they've experienced so far. Canada on Track to Pass 100 Percent Wireless Penetration Rate Canadians' growing love affair with mobile devices is putting the country on track to achieving a wireless penetration rate that exceeds 100 percent in about three years. As airlines try to persuade passengers to pay for Internet access at cruising altitudes, more airports and hotels are offering it free on the ground. Half of the busiest airports in the United States now have free Wi-Fi, teaming with AT&T in a service that will give travelers 40 minutes of free Wi-Fi in exchange for viewing a 30-second advertisement. That type of sponsored access is one way airports are balancing consumer pressure for free access to Facebook, Twitter and email accounts with the cost of providing a bigger pipe for growing data needs.
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A bureaucratic process might ruin our chance of getting the information we need to make informed choices this election season. Tell the Office of Management and Budget: Don't let bureaucracy stand in the way. Clean elections require media transparency.
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