By Tracie Powell House Republican leaders Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) sat in front of a dry erase board with the hash-tag, #CommActUpdate, written in marker, to talk with former Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell (a GOP appointee) via Google Hangout about updating the 1996 Communications Act. If ever there was an oxymoron. It is also symbolic of what's wrong with Washingto ...

By Tracie Powell When it comes to blurring the lines between advertising and news content, some journalists are leading the way. In the past, news organizations worked extra hard to keep their news and advertising departments separate. But the digital age, and the increasing importance of native advertising to news gatherers' bottom line, is changing all of that. Mashable's Chief Strategy Officer, Adam Ostr ...

By Afi Scruggs Although the furor is waning over the Flint Journal’s handling of Councilmember Wantwaz Davis’ criminal past – the newspaper did not report that he is an ex-felon until the day after the election – one question remains: How will the newspaper prevent a similar lapse? Editor Marjory Raymer apologized to readers, but she has not said what the paper will do to prevent similar episodes from happe ...

Government Monitoring Is A Way of Life for Communities of Color By Tracie Powell Immigrants, Hispanics, blacks and Muslim Americans are used to living under the watchful eye of the government. It's simply a way of life, which may explain why communities of color seem to be unfazed by news reports about government spying on citizens. Or maybe they've just forgotten their history. Advocacy organizations are s ...

To Code or Not To Code. That is not the question, nor should it be, writes Mathew Ingram for Paid Content. Journalists, he said, ignore a basic working knowledge of computer programming at their own peril. "Now more than ever knowledge is power," Ingram states. "More than that, it means having an appreciation for how technology affects the way media and content are being produced, consumed and distributed — ...

By Tracie Powell Columnist, author, lawyer, investigative journalist and activist Glenn Greenwald believes when it comes to individual privacy breaches in the name of national security editors may be suffering from "NSA fatigue." But at the same time, he said, the public is more engaged than ever when it comes to these issues. Greenwald and Janine Gibson, Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, fielded questions o ...

Each year CQ Roll Call publishes a list of the 50 richest members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives; and for the past two years we've reviewed the list to determine how much of these members' largess is connected to the lucrative media and technology sectors. (For context: The 10 poorest members of congress are dairy farmers, lawyers, small business owners and lifetime public servants.) From n ...

Fast Company, the premier magazine about media and technology, put out one of those lists again. This time it's the 25 Smartest Women on Twitter. Though the list is not meant to be exhaustive, it is still severely lacking in terms of diversity. The list, featured in the magazine's "Work Smart" section, was published days after Harvard's Shorenstein Center and Neiman Journalism Lab published a report that co ...

Last week the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Free Flow of Information Act, which prohibits a federal entity from compelling certain 'covered parties' to testify or reveal confidential information and sources. Introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York), it grants privilege for 'covered parties,' with an exception for cases deemed to be critical to national security. It amounts to a federal m ...

Eleven of the 50 richest members of the U.S. Congress have ties to the growing technology and new media sector, including the top two spots on the list, according to a report published today by Roll Call. The majority of those who comprise the exclusive list derive their income from real estate holdings and trust funds or their spouse is the one with the money. Another commonality on the list is that there ...