“I’ve got to own up to my mistake, which is that ultimately it’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules. You know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes.”
President Obama, commenting on his mistake in running Tom Daschle for a post in his Administration.
Wow! When was the last time you heard a prominent politician saying something like that — and meaning it?
Andrew Currah has written a thoughtful piece in the Guardian based on his report, What’s Happening to Our News? which he wrote as a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute in Oxford.
As more news consumers migrate online, the clickstream is likely to assume an even more important role. In the future, it has the capacity to not only transform the nature and breadth of the news agenda – but also to redefine well-established values.
In an effort to boost hits and advertising, publishers are already in danger of diluting their brand by allowing it to become the digital equivalent of a windsock – given shape by the prevailing direction of the clickstream rather than by a core of long-term editorial values.
The basic logic of a webcentric strategy is to maximise the size of the audience around the news, for as long as possible. But a rush to generate clicks may in fact erode the distinctiveness of the brand and its connection to a specific audience. By anchoring their brand identities in softer content, news publishers risk losing traffic to specialised sites that provide showbusiness and sports news more effectively – and also to advertisers who are increasingly demanding engaged, rather than transitory, eyeballs.
So what should news publishers be doing? A more viable strategy may be for them to identify and follow ‘editorial isolines’ – points of consistent editorial judgment that would establish them as digital "anchors", rather than digital windsocks. In practice, that would entail a strategic focus on certain kinds of coverage, and audiences reflecting existing editorial and brand values.
The report (available as a pdf download) is worth reading in full.
Interesting WSJ.com piece.
Internet games, gambling and other forms of online entertainment have seen significant surges in use in the several months since the economic downturn deepened. Social-networking services like Facebook, blogs and discussion forums — all well-known time sinks even during good times — are also seeing strong growth. Some purveyors of online entertainment say business has never been so good for them.
Robert Kraut, a professor of social psychology and human computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, says games and other forms of entertainment can provide escape for people steeped in anxieties about the economy. “There’s evidence these distractions have a psychological benefit because they prevent a downward spiral of rumination,” says Dr. Kraut.
Photographed this morning in a country churchyard. Click on image for larger size, or here for Flickr version.
From Thomas Friedman at Davos.
DAVOS, Switzerland — In its own unpredictable way, the Davos World Economic Forum usually serves as a crude barometer of the latest mood or mania on the world stage. This year did not disappoint. What has struck me is the quiet urgency that infused so many panel discussions and private conversations here between investors, politicians and social activists. To put it crudely: Everyone is looking for the guy — the guy who can tell you exactly what ails the world’s financial system, exactly how we get out of this mess and exactly what you should be doing to protect your savings.
But here’s what’s really scary: The guy isn’t here. He’s left the building. Elvis has left the mountain. Get used to it.
What do I mean? First, if it is not apparent to you yet, it will be soon: There is no magic bullet for this economic crisis, no magic bailout package, no magic stimulus. We have woven such a tangled financial mess with subprime mortgages wrapped in complex bonds and derivatives, pumped up with leverage, and then globalized to the far corners of the earth that, much as we want to think this will soon be over, that is highly unlikely.
We are going to have to learn to live with a lot more uncertainty for a lot longer than our generation has ever experienced…
Q: What is the capital of Iceland?
A: $25
Tim Weber’s report from the Davos discussion.
The threat of cybercrime is rising sharply, experts have warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
They called for a new system to tackle well-organised gangs of cybercriminals.
Online theft costs $1 trillion a year, the number of attacks is rising sharply and too many people do not know how to protect themselves, they said.
The internet was vulnerable, they said, but as it was now part of society's central nervous system, attacks could threaten whole economies.
The past year had seen “more vulnerabilities, more cybercrime, more malicious software than ever before”, more than had been seen in the past five years combined, one of the experts reported.
But does that really put “the internet at risk?”, was the topic of session at the annual Davos meeting.
It’s snowing — for the first time in years. The world is suddenly white — and quiet. Rush-hour traffic through the village has virtually disappeared. The children’s schools are closed for the day. (Yes, it’s Britain.) Looking out of the window late last night I was suddenly transported back to the 1970s, when a friend and I were driving back from Vienna and had left the city rather late — certainly too late to make it to Munich. As night came on it began to snow heavily and we left the autobahn and went looking for a village. We came on a small hamlet with an inn straight out of a fairy tale. Funny gothic lettering on the front, golden light spilling out through its windows. We parked and went in. It was warm, bright, hospitable. A few villagers were drinking and talking. We asked if we could have a room for the night, and an evening meal. Of course. We ate quietly (Weiner schnitzel, naturlich, washed down with beer) and turned in for the night, sleeping soundly under warm duvets covered in white covers.
In the morning, everything was eerily quiet. We had breakfast and then took our bags out to the car. The snow was up to the top of the tyres. But on the roads life went on. Business as usual (unlike Britain). We examined the map and found that we were near Berchtesgaden. “Let’s go and see where Hitler’s house was”, said my companion. We set off. It had stopped snowing. The road became steeper. About half-way up we passed a huge building that looked a bit like a country club. A sign proclaimed it as a US Forces R&R centre. My friend (who had been a Vietnam war draft dodger and hated everything American) made a rude gesture and shouted some obscenities out of the window.
Eventually we reached Obersalzburg, the spot where the Berghof — Hitler’s mountain retreat with the famous balcony — had stood. It was now just a cleared area with some remains of buildings — and a hut selling souvenirs. But the stupendous vista of the mountains remained. A party of middle-aged Germans arrived in a coach. They had a tour guide, who took them round the site, pausing from time to time at particular locations and speaking to them in a serious tone of voice. They listened intently. My companion opined that they were listening not just intently but reverently. He went very quiet. And all the way home — through Germany and past all the US bases that then littered the countryside — he never again uttered an anti-American sentiment.
