Stuff.
News: A media review – Part 2
I’m continuing yesterday’s campaign to review the online news sources I’ve bookmarked, with an emphasis on their target topics, and their value for reading.
Today I’ve written about:
- The Global Mail
- The Nation
- Nieman Reports
- PR Watch
- Quartz
- Nb. There are a couple more links I’ve frequented which I’d like to review (i.e. cbf atm).
- Nb. There are a few other targets within my bookmarks that deserve my opinion (i.e. that have seemed to be of interest but which I’ve not scoped nor chosen to read for interest, yet).
The Global Mail
This is one that has received frequent traffic from my browser, as it’s been my go-to site for maintaining a minimum awareness of Australian news. It very much is a national news service, and limits its focus to mostly political (including big business) themes.
Instead of offering a selection of recent articles, to provide a feel for this online journal, I’ll mention some of the features that are representative of the tags/categories by which it achieves its journalistic focus: Powerhouse (parliamentary analysis – including a service/app called “Party Lines” that visualizes the frequency of mentions of selected words per party over time, and displays the context of each mention within a selected timespan [http://partylines.theglobalmail.org/]; Long Odds (Australian gambling industry and its social impact); How Not to Win a War (Sri Lanka); The Town that Wouldn’t Disappear (Coal industry and its social impact), etc.
I value TGM for its independent journalism, and for its focus (although the counter side to this is a particular myopia, which is treated obviously by referral to other news services).
The Nation
This is probably the most famous left-wing, counter-mainstream (although some would argue that it is in a mainstream of its own genre) US news service. The online version of TN offers both classic news pieces and editorial-like blogs. (It also has some of the other traditional offerings of print, including arts reviews, and a widespread focus).
I won’t bother providing examples here, although it bears repeating that this is a US publication, and its emphasis is very much on US-centric stories. This includes what, from an international perspective, is an unduly emphasized American politics, and events that concern the political divide (e.g. foreign and economic policy). Despite these limitations, it’s useful as a non-stereotypical news perspective (cf. NBC, CNN, ahem, Fox) on the largest economy and military power in the contemporary world.
Nieman Reports
This is another US print publication’s online parallel. It’s reasonable to make comparisons with the Australian ACIJ, given that both have some form of focus on their respective nation’s journalism. Practically speaking, the majority of the content at the NR website is found through their electronic copies of their print journal, within which the content can vary significantly, partly due to the current events that surround their publications, and partly just to do with chance interests/focus stories that inevitably vary when selecting for a quarterly print cycle.
Consider as an example, the Spring 2013 edition, that centres itself around the journalistic circumstances of the (so-called) Boston (marathon) bombing. There are pieces relating to Twitter, algorithmic curation of data mined from social media, citizen journalism, etc. But this is not to imply that the bombing was all that edition concerned. And a random selection of just a few article-subjects from literally dozens of titles, includes: use of metaphors in descriptions of the American fiscal challenge; various pieces about the “future of journalism”, taking various angles; various pieces about “watchdog journalism”, including pieces are far-ranging as its role in South Korea, to its role in the democratic process.
I don’t consider NR to be a current affairs journal, but neither is does it produce academic reports (e.g. along the lines of the Afghanistan Analysis Network). It lies somewhere in between those poles, and my preference is to browse it for pieces I feel are of general interest, (comparable perhaps to my attitude to scientific journals, whose articles do have a temporal fixture but are relevant along a much broader scale).
PR Watch
This is another US-based meta-news service, in this case reviewing and critiquing the infiltration of political (i.e. of a parliamentary nature) and economic (i.e. corporate and business) ideas (whether these are ideas believed by their creators, or ideas they wish others to believe) into the space of the (broadly construed) public discourse. Note that PRW is associated with the CMD (centre for media and democracy), of which I’m a fan.
All the usual caveats of a US organization apply, most especially a US-myopia.
Before providing some example headlines, I’d mention that a common target for their stories (and being one that I value) is ALEC (viz. exposing what they do in clear sight albeit without a word mentioned by the common media, with whom they are no doubt in bed). The following are taken from recent “New” (i.e. the category, nb. which doesn’t cover everything they produce, contrasting for example with “Op-ed”):
- ALEC’s “Nuclear Option” to Kill the Affordable Care Act.
- Tracie Sharp: Bursar of Mystery Money and “IKEA Model” Materials to Stink Tanks = Regarding the secretive financing of mass-produced right-wing “think-tanks”.
- WI Club for Growth, Target of Walker Recall Probe, at Center of Dark Money Web = Regarding investigation into wide-ranging campaign finance violations by Republican members.
Quartz
I’ve tended to describe Quartz as an international economics-focused news service, noting that their articles tend to be quite detailed (even “academic”, at least utilizing ideas from the discipline of economics with which I’m unfamiliar) and covering topics that are rarely dealt with elsewhere (i.e. within my personal range of awareness, which is admittedly especially limited here).
I’ll skip to a presentation of some example pieces:
- The remote capital of the Kingdom of Bhutan wants to transform itself into an electric car “hot spot”.
- A cricket tournament is saving the Australian newspaper industry.
- Here is our best approximation of where the world’s tax havens are.
They categorize their stories by categories (called “obsessions”), that include: Energy shocks, China’s transition, Mobile Web, Abenomics, Bitcoin, etc. (nb. there are under 20 in total).
This is one of those news entities that due to their focus (and being as it is one that I rarely indulge) I only visit when the planets align just-so and I’m in the mood. What it offers me, more than anything (noting that some entries are beyond my willingness to study and form of commerce) is a perspective onto a perspective (what can be messily described as “the view gained by people who read Quartz”, a set I’d haphazard as coinciding with those interested with global economic trends and those that captain the ships of the globalized high seas of economy [e.g. politicians, CEOs]).
