Mediactive
Mediactive is both a book and website created for content creators and consumers, which aims to help them understand and utilize media effectively and responsibly in the digital age.
The book encourages consumers to be media literate and think critically about information they find by analyzing the credibility of sources and seeking out a range of sources outside their comfort zone, avoiding the “echo-chamber”. It also suggests principles that content creators should abide by, including being thorough, accurate, fair and transparent.
Overall, Mediactive is a useful guide for navigating an evolving media. Its scope is fairly broad, covering topics like assessing online sources, branding, utilizing social media, and even new legal and ethical issues being raised in digital media. The book is also accompanied by a blog discussing current issues and controversies.
In addition to its own content, Mediactive’s site also offers information about resources such as the Center for Media Literacy and Just
Think, as well as tools for creating and consuming content.
Georgia’s Soggy Summer May Set Record
After a soggy first half of 2013, Georgia may see record rainfall this year.
According to the National Weather Service, Georgia’s rainfall for the year so far is 44 inches, already surpassing the total rainfall for 2012.
The record for rainfall in Georgia was set in 1948 at 71 inches. About 42 inches fell in the first six months of that year.
With almost no rainless weekends this summer and some 4th of July celebrations being cancelled due to the weather, many have felt the effects of the downpours, including Georgia State University Students.
Lillian Teffere, a GSU student, said, “It’s difficult if I need to go in, like, different places on campus. If the buses take too long and I have to wait it kind of sucks to be stuck in the rain”.“
Kimberly Wong, another GSU student, said that she was definitely more likely to skip class or arrive late during the rainy weather, but she also found an upside to the rain.
Wong said, “I don’t really notice it that much because I work a lot and my work is indoors and usually when it rains lots of people come in to my work more often.”
The persistent rain could also cause delays on downtown construction projects, such as the Atlanta Streetcar.
The National Weather Service predicts rain for the rest of this week.
GSU Expects Record Number of Freshman
Georgia State University is set for a record number of freshman this fall semester.
The University has 13,000 freshman applicants, nearly 200 more than in 2011, and expects to accept about 3,100 of them.
Dr. Timothy Renick, Vice President of Academic Programs, attributed the growth to the success of programs like the football team and marching band, as well as increased national attention for the school. Renick said he expects incoming student’s experiences will be similar to those five or six years ago, as the university will be adjusting for the increasing population.
Renick said, “We may need to schedule more courses. We need to expand everything in order to grow.”
Students have expressed concern over the changes more students could mean for their classes.
Lauren Herron, a Georgia State nursing student, said “Professors are going to talk down the information…the discussions are going to change because the incoming freshmen will not have the same experience as us in college.”
The University’s enrollment numbers will be available after registration for the fall semester ends.
Newslink
Newslink.org is a news resource site that allows users to search for local, national, and international news sources.
Rather than being a news producer or content aggregator, Newslink’s main function is to aide users in finding content producers in print, radio, and television. Although some news is aggregated on the front page, this function seems limited.
The site’s format resembles a database more than a a site meant to host content and draw audiences in. For that reason, the site may be less user friendly than a site like Time.com.
However, users who want to find a specific publication or simply sample news from other places will find the site very useful. It allows searches by medium and location, as well as by the type of publication. The list of linked sources is fairly comprehensive, offering everything from daily metro news to campus papers.
While all the links and search optimizations may look a little overwhelming, the site’s design is actually clean and simple. The majority of the site’s content is the links, typically listed alphabetically. The rest consists of a banner with a logo and links to databases by their specific medium, as well as a single frame ad.
While Newslink may not be useful for audiences looking to find their daily local news, it can certainly aid those who want to find specific news sources around the world.
Another publication goes digital
The American Journalism Review announced that the magazine is ending its print edition.
The publication, produced by the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, will only be publishing its content online, after revamping their website.
Lucy A. Dalglish, Merrill College Dean, said that publishing was definitely trending towards digital.
Dalglish said, “It no longer made financial sense for the award-winning AJR to continue producing a print magazine because most AJR readers accessed content on the Web.” Dalglish also said that philanthropic support for magazines devoted to media criticism had been steadily declining.
The 36-year-old publication, which focuses on issues in American journalism, also said it would be refocusing to feature more student produced content.
Dalglish said, “Now students will have the ability to write and produce multimedia content for another outstanding college-sponsored publication, as will faculty from Merrill College, the University of Maryland and beyond.”
Like their larger, mass audience oriented counterparts, scholarly and industry oriented publications are finding that they need to make the switch to digital to survive. For publications like the AJR, which may have a more limited readership, publishing their content online seems to be the natural progression.
Digital journalism in Pakistan
Pakistani journalists and bloggers gathered for a series of panels on emerging forms of journalism.
The panelists discussed the Pakistani media’s effort to converge with digital journalism, as well as citizen and data journalism, and their impact on global media.
Privacy, Ethics, and Google Glass
Google Glass is proving to be very useful for citizen journalists, but it’s also raising questions about privacy in the digital age.
A documentary filmmaker made history this past 4th of July by recording a boardwalk brawl and the subsequent arrest. Technology communities believe this is the first time a public arrest has been recorded using Google Glass.
Chris Barrett, a documentary filmmaker who had intended to record fireworks at the pier, said that being barely noticeable and having his hands free made recording the incident much easier and safer.
Such technology has exciting and troubling implications for the future. If Google Glass becomes a commercial success, it has the potential to change the digital landscape as drastically as smartphones have.
It will likely be a boon to journalists and filmmakers, allowing them to discreetly capture footage with ease. But how will we change, as individuals and as a society, when we know that any person in public with Google Glass can record and gather information on us instantly?
Mobile news content is catching on
The number of people accessing news content through tablets is on the rise, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.
The report found that 50 percent of U.S. adults own a smartphone or tablet, and 66 percent of those users get news through their devices.
The report also suggested that owning a tablet is linked to increased news engagement, as 41 percent of tablet owners reported spending more than an hour a day accessing news content through their devices. It also found that a majority of tablet users read in-depth articles on their devices.
The report’s findings all point to a shift in the way news is being consumed. As tablets become increasingly common in households, media organizations have to offer content that is viable on multiple platforms. Some of the possibilities of these new platforms have already developed, like newspapers monetizing apps, but I’m curious to see what the long term implications of this shift will be.
Source:http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/news-media/mobile-news-journalism-tech-future#
Downtown construction for the streetcar continues
Georgia State commuters can expect more traffic downtown as construction for the Atlanta Streetcar Project increases.
Construction for the project is currently taking place on Luckie Street, Edgewood Avenue, Auburn Avenue, and several other streets around the Georgia State campus. According to the city, all of Luckie Street will be closed until the end of July.
The project is expected to cost $69 million and is being funded by the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, MARTA, and federal funding.
The streetcar will run in a loop from Andrew Young International Blvd. to Jackson Street and will offer transit to Centennial Olympic Park, the World of Coca-Cola, and other popular attractions.
While the streetcar will serve the Georgia State area, students have expressed mixed feelings about the project.
Elizabeth Wilkes, a Georgia State senior, said, “It makes my commute back to my apartment a lot longer. It doesn’t seem like its added anything to the infrastructure of MARTA…but I’ll probably try it.”
Dante Sul, a Georgia State junior, said, “I might use it, but if I’m around campus I’ll probably just use MARTA.”
The streetcar is expected to be ready for operation by May.
Too many journalists, not enough jobs
Some experts say journalism schools are getting too big, while the industry is getting smaller.
Adrian Monck, director and head of communications and media for the World Economic Forum, criticized schools for encouraging too many students into a field with not enough job openings.
While there are around 50,000 journalism students in the U.K., Monck estimated there are only about 300 entry-level jobs in mainstream media.
Jeffrey Dvorkin, director of the University of Toronto’s journalism program, also blasted schools for not developing their curriculum for the digital age.
“The professoriate is old compared with the state of the media culture now. People came into the journalism academia just before the digital disruption in the newsroom. As a result they are still teaching a curriculum valued in the 1990s but not now”, Dvorkin said.
Monck and Dvorkin seem to be echoing the sentiments of many others who teach journalism: there simply aren’t many jobs, and the skills that they teach today might be irrelevant tomorrow.
Source:http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2013062712141750
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