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Wikipedia: the gift that keeps on giving…
It seems that even television is not safe from Wikipedia spotters. A Syrian blog points to some smooth script re-purposing over at Al Jazeera English on their series A Question of Arab Unity. ALJAZ“Nasser and his fellow officers assured Britain that it would respect British citizens and property in Egypt, limiting the possibility of intervention…
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What makes a news story massive?
I am quite the fan of Duncan Watts’ ideas on the unpredictably of trends. They get another outing at Fast Company: “If society is ready to embrace a trend, almost anyone can start one–and if it isn’t, then almost no one can,” Watts concludes. To succeed with a new product, it’s less a matter of…
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Censoring Arab journalists
A Middle Eastern journalist friend recently had an opportunity to sit round a table with a senior political figure from the region. He asked the man a fair, but critical question. The politician brushed it aside. When the meeting ended, the politician sought him out for a quiet word, along the lines of: Your owners…
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Government-funded journalism
I just ran into Michael Arrington, who although he is a tech journo, still has an eye for a story. He was in a Davos session led by Jeff Jarvis when Columbia President Lee Bollinger piped up about government-funded journalism: When the business model of “real journalism” fails, what should society do in response? When…