Internet

Airline and Online Lobbying on U.S. "Card Check" Bill

In the battle over the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to join a union, "both the U.S.

The Bleak State of the News Media

"Newspaper ad revenues have fallen 23% in the last two years. ... By our calculations, nearly one out of every five journalists working for newspapers in 2001 is now gone, and 2009 may be the worst year yet," reads the summary of the "State of the News Media 2009" report. In local television, "revenues fell by 7% in an election year -- something unheard of -- and ratings are now falling or are flat across the schedule." News "audience migration to the Internet is now accelerating," but "online ad revenue to news websites now appears to be flattening; in newspapers it is declining. ...

Oil Industry Advisor Comes Out of His Shell

The oil company Shell -- which is heavily invested in Alberta's tar sands, an especially dirty and greenhouse gas-intensive source of oil -- has launched a blog about climate change issues. It's "the first time a major oil company has used social media to make a public policy case," reports Siobhan Hughes.

Congresspedia Has a New Home at OpenCongress

Congresspedia, the CMD citizen journalism project that has thrived inside SourceWatch since 2006, is no longer. Its funder the Sunlight Foundation decided to merge Congresspedia into their OpenCongress project. Much of Congresspedia's content will remain in some form inside SourceWatch but CMD's staff of editors will no longer be regularly updating the articles. CMD is proud to have created what quickly became the best and most extensive 'wiki' website on the US Congress. Our development of Congresspedia led directly to the creation of our growing number of other SourceWatch portals on issues including the tobacco industry, the coal industry, climate change, front groups, global corporations, and the nuclear power industry. We wish the website formerly known as Congresspedia well in its new incarnation at OpenCongress.

Shut Up and Take Your Medicine

PR Firms Pay for Video Play Online

Fake news isn't just for TV newscasts anymore. "The Web's evolving ability to tap niche audiences is expanding the scope of guaranteed placement," or paying to place PR videos. "For our Web distribution, we guarantee placement on major news sites, including Google News [and] MSN," explained PR executive Doug Simon.

Wooing the World via the Web

"We've barely scratched the surface as to what we can use to communicate with people around the world," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told department staffers, arguing for greater and more innovative use of the Internet.

The Plot to Kill Google

Google, the powerful online search service, is coming under attack from enemies including Microsoft and AT&T, report Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelstein.

Stealth Campaign for Stealth Fighter Jets

From PreserveRaptorJobs.comPreserveRaptorJobs.com is "a one-page site that urges visitors to write President Obama in support" of the F-22 Raptor, a $340 million stealth

Debating the Ban on Domestic Propaganda

"I want to make sure that we strengthen prohibitions against domestic covert propaganda campaigns aimed essentially at breaking down the Constitutional barriers between who controls policy and who makes war," stressed Representative Paul Hodes. "It's an important point, given the recent history."

Rep. Hodes was speaking at a conference on public diplomacy, held in Washington, DC on January 13. Public diplomacy is a catch-all term for the various ways in which the United States promotes itself to international audiences (as opposed to "regular" diplomacy, which targets foreign governments). These include international media, like the Voice of America; cultural and educational exchanges, such as the Fulbright Program; and a wide range of information activities, including foreign press centers, speaking events and publications. As the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy notes, the term "was developed partly to distance overseas governmental information activities from the term propaganda, which had acquired pejorative connotations."

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