From “Selfies” to Breaking Tweets

The aim of this paper is to analyse the different ways in which journalists negotiate representations of their professional and personal identity on social media platforms. We argue that the differing representations of personal and professional identity on social media correspond to the professional, organisational and institutional tensions that have emerged in this new space. Using qualitative interviews with various journalists and editorial staff from Australian media organisations across television, radio, print and online publications, we indicate that journalists present their personal and professional identity on social media in three different ways. The first group create public, professional social media accounts, but also create secondary, private accounts that are only accessible to personal networks. The second group either choose, or are required by their media organisation, to only have a professional presence on social media; that is, they have public accounts that are only associated with their media organisation and display only their professional activities. The last group merge a professional and personal identity on their social media sites, showing aspects of their personal and their professional lives on publically available accounts.     

Theoretical approaches to defining the concept of the “perception of the meaning of information”

This paper sets the problem of development of information culture and advances the hypothesis about understanding of the meaning of information as its basis. Five ideas related to the problems of the paper are distinguished in the theory of understanding. The paper describes the concept of adequate and inadequate understanding the meaning of information and develops the criteria of understanding the meaning of information. The concept of the “understanding of the meaning of information” is defined.     

From “Trust Me” to “Show Me” Journalism

This study explores the potential of an online platform that encourages journalists to post the documents behind their news stories to help restore the deteriorating public trust in news media. Based on content analysis of 200 news items and 315 accompanying documents posted on DocumentCloud, findings indicate that contrary to journalists’ traditional reluctance to rely on documents, the platform succeeds in boosting massive use of documents, both by mainstream and alternative journalists. Findings show that documents serve mainly to support factual claims (in 96 percent of items) and enhance the transparency of news processes, allowing audiences’ unmediated access to raw materials, and greater capacity to evaluate information independently. However, there are no apparent signs that journalists verified the content of the document. The article suggests that DocumentCloud is a unique example of a technology that may succeed where the former technology that promised to serve as a journalistic reference system, hyperlinks, had failed. If the DocumentCloud experiment is implemented on a wider scale, it might have serious theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed here.     

From Book Culture to Amazon Consumerism: Does the Digitization of the Book Industry Lead to Commercialization?

The book market is one of the last media markets affected by digitization, so the question is whether this market follows the same patterns as other media industries before. Our study analyses if these digitization processes lead to a stronger market orientation thus commercialization of a market that traditionally has been understood as a market of cultural goods. We conduct a market analysis and a survey among authors, publishers and booksellers in Germany and Switzerland to answer this question. Our findings support the notion of an increased market orientation among publishers and booksellers. However, the tendencies towards commercialization cannot be attributed to digitization alone but might happen even without it.     

Stealing From the Rich to Entertain the Poor?: A Survey of Literature on the Ethics of Digital Piracy

The backlash against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)/Protect IP Act (PIPA) legislation brings to light a battle that has been raging between Hollywood and Silicon Valley ever since technology made it easy to illegally copy and distribute copyrighted material. Many studies have been done on digital pirates in order to create a demographic, psychological, and ethical profile of them. This article compares these studies and examines the assumption that many of them are based on; namely, that digital piracy is always unethical or criminal in today's world. It also discusses alternative delivery methods that have been used by content creators and the implications for the future.     

From the media of the periphery to peripheral media: The changing priorities of Brazil’s alternative ecology

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a new appraisal of Brazil’s alternative media. By investing in the concept of the periphery, this study draws on past literature, semistructured interviews, and data collected from across the country (n = 50) to propose a repertoire analysis of media producers’ views of the country’s popular notion of the periphery. Evidence shows that they have shown nuanced views of the periphery as a site of purpose, pluralism, and authorship. Despite crisis and turmoil, this study presents some paths that could help reorientate the priorities of alternative media research toward a closer consideration of the periphery as entity that appears much more in line with local realities and expectations than previous international debates.     

“Sharing My Bias”: We're From the Government,and We're Here to Help

This article describes reference skills as a sharable resource, particularly in light of the development of e-government and the demands it places on public services staff in libraries.     

Graphic Modernism From the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910–1935

The article briefly describes the exhibition Graphic Modernism From the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910–1935, which took place at The New York Public Library from October 5, 2007 through January 27, 2008. Works exhibited were created by Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Croatian, and Serbian artists and authors. They included monographs, serials, and posters. The exhibit was curated by the author and Steven Mansbach.     

Internal Party Bulletin or Paper of the Working Class Movement?

On 1 January 1930 the Communist Party of Great Britain's (CPGB) new daily newspaper, the Daily Worker, was published for the first time. It was heralded by the CPGB as a maturing of the British Communist movement, and an opportunity for the Party to spread its message to a much wider audience than previous weekly newspapers would allow. With leading Party members in control of the paper, the Daily Worker was very much a Party newspaper; however, the CPGB wanted it to be much more than an internal bulletin. This paper examines the attempts by the CPGB to create a newspaper that spoke both for and with the voice of the working-classes, whilst also spreading the Party's message. It will ultimately conclude that the CPGB's depiction of it as a paper ‘by the working-classes, for the working-classes’ reflected the Party's efforts at locating its own place within the working-class movement.