Salsa Scoop

Pew: Internet Embiggens Us All

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has churned out another of its elucidating reports -- this on the Internet's importance in broadening and strengthening Americans' social networks.

As someone who met a spouse on ICQ -- to say nothing of where I draw my pay -- I'd have to say the study resonates.  But it should resonate with anyone working in politics, if last month's Annenberg study to the effect that people feel politically empowered by the Internet is anything to go by.

 

Read more...

02:00 PM Jan 31, 2006 - 0 comments permalink

The Ecology of a Column-Inch

Maybe you saw it briefly this past week, Monday or Tuesday, a smaller story on the inside pages or the unkempt corners of your RSS reader ... a lesser story in the cosmos, to be sure, but a newsworthy one with the hint of broader implications. The sort of story one reads every day, or doesn't quite get to, flashing into sight like a vehicle in the opposite lane, then gone just as quickly -- a random interlocuter bound for points unknown.

It could have been any story. This blog entry happens to be about last Tuesday's breathless headline, "US may use Guantanamo for military executions" -- front-paged on Yahoo! News for a few hours.

 

Read more...

10:00 AM Jan 30, 2006 - 0 comments permalink

The CW

 Stop Sinclair!---again. It seems like forever ago, but in 2004 advocacy groups across the country (and fledgling activists like yours truly) created websites, call-ins and ad space to stop Sinclair Broadcasting Group from airing Stolen Honor, a movie smearing Kerry right before the election. It worked. A small victory in an otherwise disappointing year.

One of the key players in the victory, StopSinclair.org, (now StartChange) is dusting off their site to protest the merging of The WB and UPN networks into the mega-network The CW. Less because they're concerned about Gilmore Girls taking away fans from Veronica Mars, but more because Sinclair Broadcasting Group would have a larger audience if they are selected to be affiliates for the new CW network. Given their track record of distorting news, this is a bad idea. 

Read more...

04:30 PM Jan 26, 2006 - 0 comments permalink

Blogging: Waste of Time or Affront to the Written Word?

If you've been weighing the pros and cons of joining the bleating, blogging herd (or trying to find a graceful way to step away from the one you so rashly started up), you might want to check Donor Power Blog's succinct evaluation of the reasons fer blogging and the reasons agin (as well as links to some kindred resources).

Let's see: "not that many people are reading blogs" ... "you're likely better off spending [time] in higher-return areas" ... "your blog is going to suck."

And this is a defense of the virtues of blogging.

 

Read more...

02:00 PM Jan 23, 2006 - 0 comments permalink

Web +3.0 to Cover; Over/Under of 47.5

Monday, and the unfamiliar smell of victory is in the air.

A good day for perspective, then. Whether waking up in Seattle or Pittsburgh to a celebratory hangover and XL ticket-gouging, or in Denver and Charlotte to "always next year," or in Las Vegas to a bad parlay and a rough trick, it's a good day to let the air out a little.

And nothing begs to have the tires deflated quite like "Web 2.0". Jeffrey Zeldman's stream-of-consciousness snapshot of the technological moment is a treatise for any state of mind.

 

Read more...

11:00 AM Jan 23, 2006 - 0 comments permalink

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190