Tag: Future of Journalism

Posted inBreaking News, Media & Culture

KPLU SAVED! Deal with KUOW is off, 88.5 FM to become an independent NPR affiliate

by Andrew Villeneuve

A major vic­to­ry for media diver­si­ty and inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism has been won today with the news that Pacif­ic Luther­an Uni­ver­si­ty has agreed to sell NPR affil­i­ate KPLU to the non­prof­it group Friends of 88.5 FM, which suc­cess­ful­ly raised $7 mil­lion in the span of just a few months to keep the sta­tion inde­pen­dent. The just-announced […]

Posted inMedia & Culture

Congratulations, Friends of 88.5 FM! $7 million raised to buy KPLU from Pacific Lutheran

by Andrew Villeneuve

This is tru­ly won­der­ful news: The com­mu­ni­ty group hop­ing to pre­serve 88.5 FM as an inde­pen­dent radio sta­tion has hit its $7 mil­lion fundrais­ing goal a month ahead of sched­ule. KPLU Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Joey Cohn announced live on the air Thurs­day after­noon that near­ly 18,000 donors have raised enough mon­ey to make a bid for […]

Posted inMedia & Culture

NBC’s Brian Williams suspended for six months; Jon Stewart to leave The Daily Show

by Andrew Villeneuve

Today, some­thing remark­able hap­pened: The host of a fake news show made real news by announc­ing his depar­ture from the pro­gram he has helmed since 1999, while the host of a real news show was sus­pend­ed by his net­work for fak­ing details about his expe­ri­ence as a war zone reporter over ten years ago. Who would […]

Posted inMedia & Culture

The printed word will continue to endure

by Andrew Villeneuve

Some years ago, there began a rev­o­lu­tion which has changed the way we com­mu­ni­cate, do busi­ness, enter­tain our­selves, and get our news. That rev­o­lu­tion, the dig­i­tal media rev­o­lu­tion, is still going on today, and it has ush­ered in a new era of tran­si­tion and uncer­tain­ty. As news­pa­pers and book­stores close down or go online-only, we […]

Posted inMedia & Culture

Seattle Post-Globe calls it quits

by Andrew Villeneuve

Two and a quar­ter years after the Seat­tle Post-Intel­li­­gencer ceased print pub­li­ca­tion, one of the Web star­tups that emerged in its after­math is clos­ing down: It’s been an event­ful two years – some­times fun, some­times a moun­tain of work, but always worth­while. And now it’s time for the Post­Globe to say good­bye and thank you. […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Media & Culture, Policy Topics

U.K. police chieftain resigns as his officers arrest Murdoch confidante Rebekah Brooks

by Andrew Villeneuve

Things just got worse for for­mer News of the World edi­tor Rebekah Brooks: Rebekah Brooks has been arrest­ed by police inves­ti­gat­ing alle­ga­tions of phone hack­ing by the News of the World and alle­ga­tions that police offi­cers were bribed to leak sen­si­tive infor­ma­tion. The Met­ro­pol­i­tan police said a 43-year-old woman was arrest­ed at noon on Sunday, […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Media & Culture, Policy Topics

News of the World phone hacking scandal finally claims career of Rebekah Brooks

by Andrew Villeneuve

Rebekah Brooks, the for­mer News of the World edi­tor who was sub­se­quent­ly pro­mot­ed to a high-rank­ing posi­tion with­in News Cor­po­ra­tion, has belat­ed­ly announced her res­ig­na­tion, bow­ing to sig­nif­i­cant pres­sure from Par­lia­ment, the pub­lic, and even the com­pa­ny’s share­hold­ers: Brooks announced her deci­sion to News Inter­na­tion­al staff in Wap­ping just before 10am on Fri­day, say­ing her […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Media & Culture, Policy Topics

FBI to investigate possible wrongdoing by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good news: The Fed­er­al Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion is report­ed­ly launch­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion into pos­si­ble wrong­do­ing by Rupert Mur­doch’s News Cor­po­ra­tion, only hours after Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Peter King fol­lowed sev­er­al senior Demo­c­ra­t­ic sen­a­tors in ask­ing the Depart­ment of Jus­tice to look into the mat­ter. In response to requests from mem­bers of Con­gress and at least one […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Media & Culture, Policy Topics

News Corporation drops bid for BSkyB, citing overwhelming public opposition

by Andrew Villeneuve

Vic­to­ry! Rupert Mur­doch’s media group News Cor­po­ra­tion bowed to pres­sure from the pub­lic and par­lia­ment on Wednes­day and with­drew its bid to take full con­trol of pay-TV com­pa­ny BSkyB. All three main polit­i­cal par­ties were poised to call on News Corp to aban­don its offer in a vote in the House of Com­mons lat­er on Wednesday. […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Media & Culture, Policy Topics

Senator Jay Rockefeller wants U.S. probe of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation

by Andrew Villeneuve

U.S. Sen­a­tor Jay Rock­e­feller of West Vir­ginia, who chairs the Sen­ate’s Com­mit­tee on Com­merce, Sci­ence, and Trans­porta­tion, called today for the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to inves­ti­gate pos­si­ble wrong­do­ing by Rupert Mur­doch’s News Cor­po­ra­tion (and its many sub­sidiaries) in the Unit­ed States. Rock­e­feller is among the first elect­ed lead­ers in the Unit­ed States to weigh in on […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Media & Culture, Policy Topics

Rupert Murdoch’s empire in crisis following News of the World closure

by Andrew Villeneuve

Rupert Mur­doch’s News of the World may have print­ed its final edi­tion yes­ter­day, but the fall­out from the uneth­i­cal and like­ly ille­gal activ­i­ties of its for­mer employ­ees con­tin­ues to swell. The phone-hack­­ing scan­dal is beyond a headache for Rupert Mur­doch — it’s become a cri­sis that is threat­en­ing his entire media empire. Here’s a roundup […]

Posted inMedia & Culture

Murdochs abandon ship, announce that News of the World tabloid will shut down

by Andrew Villeneuve

The News of the World, the Rupert Mur­­doch-owned tabloid at the cen­ter of the phone-hack­­ing scan­dal that has rocked the Unit­ed King­dom, will be shut down fol­low­ing the pub­li­ca­tion of this Sun­day’s edi­tion, News Cor­po­ra­tion said today. The week­ly tabloid is accused of hack­ing into the mobile phones of crime vic­tims, celebri­ties and politi­cians. On Thursday, […]

Posted inMedia & Culture

Outrage against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp grows as phone-hacking scandal widens

by Andrew Villeneuve

When we hear the word “scan­dal” in the same sen­tence as “politi­cians” or “celebri­ties”, we’re used to assum­ing that an elect­ed offi­cial, actor, or sports star has done some­thing wrong and is being sub­ject­ed to a harsh media spot­light. But over in the Unit­ed King­dom, there’s a widen­ing scan­dal involv­ing politi­cians and celebri­ties in which […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Media & Culture

Here’s another chance to help improve our collective understanding of online activism

by Barb Kaye

Edi­tor’s Note: A few years ago, we asked read­ers to par­tic­i­pate in an online sur­vey to help researchers at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ten­nessee and Texas Tech Uni­ver­si­ty learn more about how Amer­i­cans use the Inter­net to obtain polit­i­cal infor­ma­tion. The folks who put togeth­er that sur­vey are present­ly con­duct­ing a fol­low-up, and would like NPI […]