Access/Network
A Hard Day’s Crash
by Jon Garfunkel on January 23, 2008. Broadcast Access/NetworkPart 3: TimesSelectors and TimesRejectors
by Jon Garfunkel on October 19, 2007. Media Access/NetworkIn part 1, found that the number of blog references to the Top 7 Times columnists had likely dropped by 20% against their pundit peers. That’s not a bad number considering, that new data from compete.com shows that Op-Ed readership a month ago (before TimesSelect ended) was 45% of what it is today.
Meet the Punditsphere
by Jon Garfunkel on September 27, 2007. Media Access/NetworkOur interest is the influence of the New York Times columnists. Let us propose that they inhabit not just the blogosphere, but the punditsphere, comprising the top political columnists of the day. The blogosphere at large links to the much smaller punditsphere with much more concentration than the other way around. Combined, the pundits receive a fraction of the total references or links on any given day, but because the pundits individually get the most links, people pay them the most attention. It is within the punditsphere that the Times columnists compete especially for attention.
How to send news tips in Boston?
by Jon Garfunkel on September 11, 2007. Access/Network Greater BostonIn Unread Alerts, I suggest that anybody with a cell phone ought to know the contact points for their local news organizations. Finding the contact information is a different maze on each site.
Unread alerts– why not to depend on Twitter for breaking news
by Jon Garfunkel on September 11, 2007. Internet Access/NetworkIn Glenview, Illinois Saturday night, a teenager pulled a disoriented women from a car that was stuck on the railroad tracks moments before an Amtrak train barrelled into it. The only reason I heard about this was because an eyewitness, David Armano, had reported via the Twitter service, which meant that he sent via his mobile phone to his network of friends; one friend forwarded it to Doc Searls, who declared on his blog Sunday morning: "Citizen journal breaks a heroic news story."
Constructive Activism, Part VI: The Messengers
by Jon Garfunkel on May 26, 2006. Media Access/NetworkConstructive Activism, Part III: Google Ad Sensibility
by Jon Garfunkel on May 24, 2006. Media Access/NetworkEthan Zuckerman, founder of the Global Voices project and longtime blogger on Africa and development issues, had considered the use of Google AdWords for awareness campaigns in a post some 18 months ago. Several aid NGOs have been buying AdWords– ads that would show up based on a given search term– for different countries, so he wondered what it would really cost to enter this market. By getting involved with the campaign for Alaa through this series (see previous part), I set myself to find out.
Constructive Activism, Part I: Freedom Isn’t Free
by Jon Garfunkel on May 23, 2006. Internet Access/NetworkAlaa had won an award last November by Reporters Without Borders for his Manalaa.net Drupal site, an aggregator Egyptian blogs. He was participating in ongoing protests for an independent judiciary, when he was arrested along ten others; Now a mighty wind had blown across the the plains of the blogosphere to raise support for one of their own. The wind also carried seeds of activism: as a protest measure, bloggers were invited to link to the new Free Alaa website, but using the link text Egypt. Doing so, on a massive scale, was supposed to effect a googlebombing.
Encountering Rankism
by Jon Garfunkel on March 5, 2006. Culture Access/NetworkIt was eleven months ago that I published the New Gatekeepers series. I’m still learning. Just last Friday, Elisa Cooper of Berkeley, CA, posted a comment informing me about the concept of rankism, and its supporting website, Breaking Ranks. The concept Rankism has been coined by Robert Fuller, a past Professor of Physics at Columbia and President of Oberlin College. He had come to realize that all of our old scourges of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry had a common root– an -ism called rankism— but it was not until he left academia that the idea coalesced. He told Publishers Weekly: "Lacking the protection of title and status in the years after Oberlin, I experienced what it’s like to be taken for a nobody."
List in Transition — Top "Ecosystem" blogs 2003 and 2006
by Jon Garfunkel on February 22, 2006. Internet Access/NetworkBut being as I’m writing about Shirky, I thought I’d look at the ol’ bear’s list before it goes into permanent hiberation.
Negotiating for your Social Data
by Jon Garfunkel on January 30, 2006. Internet Access/NetworkThis essay defines the concept of social data within social media software systems and issues a call for users to recognize its need to be made available for public research.
…though it does have its own special power
by Jon Garfunkel on December 9, 2005. Media Access/Network"People can use it any way they want to. It has no inherent ethical or moral quality, though it does have its own special power."
I invite you to come up with a possible explanation of what "it" is:
a) Wikipedia
b) a blog
c) a Colt .45
d) the new Oral-B computerized toothbrush
e) the 82nd Airborne Division
Schooled ya: Community Journalism Still Too Static
by Jon Garfunkel on October 26, 2005. Media Access/Network
Schooled ya: Maynard’s Radio Station Needs a Boost
by Jon Garfunkel on October 26, 2005. Broadcast Access/Network MassachusettsFor community journalism, there’s no easier story to carry than the one I’m about to describe. The ol’ “Mainstream Media” broke it first. Now we would expect the blogs to enter stage front and take the case, maybe organize some advocacy journalism. Heard of made-for-TV? This one’s made-for-blogs: it’s got an underdog community media effort against an out-of-town one trying to push it out. The Maynard (MA) High School radio station is about to lose its license to a California-based religious broadcaster which has been scouring up licenses nationwide, with the FCC’s neutral approach enabling it.
The New Gatekeepers: The Corrections
by Jon Garfunkel on October 17, 2005. Media Access/NetworkTrust in Gatekeepers
by Jon Garfunkel on June 3, 2005. Media Access/NetworkLet me correct those mis-impressions which I’ve just made for myself:
The New Gatekeepers: Reactions
by Jon Garfunkel on May 25, 2005. Media Access/NetworkHere’s a summary of reactions to The New Gatekeepers series– and some brief responses back from me. Also see reactions froom delicious as well as Technorati.
February 11, 2006: The number-one ranked site for "The New Gatekeepers" is no longer this series but a thousand-word essay with that title that Tristan Louis posted last Friday. I have a lot of respect for Tristan as a guy who has contributed a lot of critical thinking and original research on Internet and media over years. And we correspond somewhat, not as much as I do with Seth, but I would have figured that he might have Googled the title, to see whether it has an active promoter of it. Dave Rogers was first to comment to Tristan’s piece, sending him the link to this series.
The New Gatekeepers, Part 8: The Future
by Jon Garfunkel on May 17, 2005. Media Access/NetworkThe New Gatekeepers, Part 7: Solutions
by Jon Garfunkel on May 16, 2005. Media Access/NetworkThe New Gatekeepers, Part 6: A Summary
by Jon Garfunkel on May 15, 2005. Media Access/NetworkPeople around the world have discovered their voices, and enjoy seeing their work published online for others to read. The tools they use are quite often blogs, and thus they call themselves bloggers. And by the bubble of blogging, the format been hyped as a panacea for solving the problems of the media, of business, or organizations. It just doesn’t follow.
The New Gatekeepers, Part 5: The Problem of Crowds
by Jon Garfunkel on April 30, 2005. Media Access/NetworkIt’s been over two weeks since the that last part of this series. This gap in time can be partly rationalized by my hoping to build up some anticipation for this next part. We’re going to look at epidemics, cascades and the problem of crowds.
The New Gatekeepers, Part 4: The Alternative
by Jon Garfunkel on April 12, 2005. Media Access/NetworkA wonderful set of coincidences happened this weekend; I decided to take a break from writing, and then a beautiful woman flew into town and we happened to met, and we decided to go out Saturday night. Pretty quickly I had to find something to go see and a restaurant to dine in. Your dividend from all of this, dear reader, is an illustration about the different circumstances where gatekeepers are necessary or not: from theater shows to dining options.
The New Gatekeepers, Part 3: Their Values
by Jon Garfunkel on April 8, 2005. Media Access/Network
There are a number of values associated with, and celebrated in, the blogosphere: Freedom. Anonymity. Immediacy. Talking. Breadth. Ego. Involvement. Serendipity. But we may view them in different light when we consider what values they displace:
The Wayward Blogs
by Jon Garfunkel on April 5, 2005. Media Access/NetworkThe New Gatekeepers, Part 2: Who They Are
by Jon Garfunkel on April 5, 2005. Media Access/NetworkSecond in the series on The New Gatekeepers.
The Tipster Network
by Jon Garfunkel on April 3, 2005. Media Access/NetworkLast month, I wrote that publications, traditional and online, have a primary responsibility to demonstrate that they are responsive to their readers, and that a majority of the questions along these lines should be concerned with how they handle tips. This month Jay Rosen recognized the problem in the midst of a PressThink discussion and spelled out some guidelines for sending in tips (e.g., “Write a post in PressThink’s major areas of interest that gets other people talking, and makes an original point or two.”) This is a good start. Here’s a longer proposal for how it can be done that meets goals of accountability and fairness.
Promoting Women Bloggers: Less Talk and More Action
by Jon Garfunkel on March 15, 2005. Internet Access/NetworkPromoting Women Bloggers: A Timeline of Relevant Discussions
by Jon Garfunkel on March 15, 2005. Media Access/NetworkHarvard BloJo Confabs: The Reviews Are In
by Jon Garfunkel on March 11, 2005. Internet Access/NetworkGarf to Graff: Take Press Room Blogging to the Next Level
by Jon Garfunkel on March 7, 2005. Media Access/Network United States

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