This week, men are being sent to their deaths. Yep, there was more than one, but most people are talking about just one man. Troy Davis. This man, convicted of killing an off-duty police officer, has had multiple stays of execution. But today he was supposed to go to his death – as the jury and courts decided he should. Now, I’ve said it before, so I’ll simply reiterate – I’m... 

The thing that changes for me over the summer is an increase in television watching. I basically go from watching a maximum of an hour a day of hulu to watching a couple of hours of normal tv. That’s a big increase. Being in Sydney for a good portion of this summer, it was like being a kid in a candy store as far as tv was concerned. Ads were everywhere. As usual, some were fantastic; most were... 

IVF is a topic that most people are lucky enough not to have to encounter. You know what it is, but not the details of it, and hopefully you’ll never have to experience what emotions and physical invasions are involved in it. It’s easy to say you have a view on IVF if you’ve never had to use it. I’m a lucky, lucky woman. I never had any problems at all with fertility, but my... 

The difference between a natural hazard and a disaster comes from the effect it has on people. More and more everyday people are turning to social media to find out what is going on within their area and community of friends as well as their traditional information sources such as mainstream media. Through the work we’re doing at Project EPIC at the University of Colorado at Boulder, we are... 

Years ago in the middle of Sydney a pub and church played duelling billboards. A good natured, often humorous exchange where the priest of St Barnabas Anglican church on Parramatta Road and Broadway and the publican of the Broadway Hotel played off each other – respectfully. Sydneysiders knew to look for the billboards each week, and a book was even created celebrating the most memorable billboards.... 

There are stacks of flaws in proposed business models for traditional journalism as it attempts to move into a new sphere. All of them are cloaked with a decent dose of assumptions – that people prefer traditional media, that people will pay for content, that they are the only entities producing good ‘quality’ journalism. So on and so forth. None of the models offer any kind of real... 

I’m pretty tired of the women in tech ‘debate’. Why? Because I think we fail to appreciate how women are demonstrating their tech involvement in a space they are creating themselves. Women are in tech, in huge numbers – they’re just not seen unless they are in traditional tech roles that involve a cubicle and 9-5 work day, and that shows how limited the debate really... 

“It’s a horror movie right there on my tv. And it’s shocking me right out of my brain.” Horror movie… Skyhooks. Charlie has decided he wants to watch the news on television. This is a pretty big deal for us, because nobody else in the house watches television news at all. Ever. When I was young, Roger Climpson on Channel Seven was our standard 6pm news broadcast and I’d... 

The earthquake in Christchurch this week saw mass media pick apart a city like the vultures they have too often become. The beautiful city and its people had suffered an incredible event, but they needed support to tell their stories – not “professional journalists” coming in to tell them with an extreme horror movie agenda, often using these people and their experience  as an excuse... 

Yesterday I received an email through the Aussie Mum Bloggers network, inviting me (and every other Aussie mum blogger) to write a post here on Mediamum.net about how to get the best value out of $20 at K-Mart. If I did it, and sent the link in, I would be in the running to be one of 20 people to win… a $20 K-mart giftcard! K-mart's offering a carrot. You deserve better. Now, I know that... 

I was delighted to have presented at the Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology conference at the University of Colorado yesterday. This was my second year at this conference, and it was incredibly well attended. As usual, some of the best moments came in the smaller discussions and conversations had over the lunch break. In Australia, the curriculum in K-12 includes aspects of Media Literacy.... 

The ongoing antics of Nestle as it continually trips itself up in all forms of social media (Facebook, viral Greenpeace videos) have led me to ask if some companies should just stay out altogether. Even Satan or Lex Luthor would have a better time on social media than Nestle. There are legions of people wanting to embrace evil. Nestle Killer-Asesino Facebook page, one of many opened in response to... 

The web is all about transparency (dirty secrets), so here you go. I’m standing up. “My name is Jo.” (Now you say, “Hi Jo.”) “On Sunday I signed up for a subscription to the print version of The Denver Post.” I’ll wait if you need to read that again, because I realise that coming from me … it’s hard to comprehend. Background (excuse): I was... 

Dear SXSW attendees: I know you’re all excited. You’re going to spend a whole heap of time being all geeky and fun, and drinking and stuff. Talking about startups, design, innovation, music… ooh I’ll bet you’re all tingly. My husband is one of you. He’s kid-at-Christmas excited. He loves Texas and had a ball there last year. As a startup geek guy, he can’t... 

An American woman named Angie Jackson has decided it was a good idea to share her experience of aborting her pregnancy with the world, via YouTube and Twitter. A mother of a four-year-old who goes to the trouble of outlining the reasons why she decided on an abortion with RU486, Angie says her social media posts are her attempt to “demistify” the process, and let everyone know that for... 

When Max leaped across from Sydney to join us for three weeks in January, we took lots of pictures. As mums do. I promised myself I’d get them organised, and create a nice montage. As mums do. Now we’re halfway through February, and the planned montage didn’t happen because other things got in the way. As they do. Max enjoying the view. I decided I was being too much of a perfectionist.... 

While many people align technology adoption and use with age, the facts show it’s not all that easy to stereotype the creators of content in the online media. Today’s Pew Report on Teens and Social Media amplifies a very real issue in the US. Our teens and young adults are engaging in “new” media, but on a very limited level. The majority of them are not creating new content. In... 

Some mainstream media have incorporated the fantastic ability of the web to allow reader comments to stream live. Apparently, the misguided professional believes this is a wonderful way of operating public journalism, which seems to be so popular right now. Really, we’re demonstrating our real connections with our audience. Unfortunately, when reader comments are opened on every story, and allowed... 

As I predicted right here on Mediamum.net in March 2009 when the Rocky Mountain News folded, Colorado’s the Denver Post is now also in trouble. Its owners are asking for bankruptcy protection. They’re still not humble. I’m hearing professional journalists and academics in journalism blame all sorts of things for this situation: 1. Falling ad revenues (you know, that’s a failure... 

As more bloggers, blogs and readers enter our universe, companies begin to more fully recognise the power of their voices. These companies approach us all with opportunities to “work together” and it can be tough to navigate that landscape. Take a step back. Look at your blog with a reader’s eye. Just as you were taught in school the difference between writing in active voice and... 

In The Sydney Morning Herald’s role as gatekeeper/the fourth estate, those paying for its content deserve a standard of professionalism that is better than those it does not pay for. Is a t-shirt necessary to tell the difference between professional journalists and citizens? You can buy this one at www.zazzle.com. That’s the idea, anyway. The Sydney Morning Herald, however, doesn’t... 

The Islam and the Media conference, held by the Center for Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder (January 7-10) was a huge success in bringing together leaders in thought and practise on religion and media. But you wouldn’t know it if you’d been watching mainstream media. At a time in our history that international front pages and lead stories are obsessively... 

Ah the miracle of medicine, look how much you’ve done for women and babies. Birthing in the Western World is no longer fraught with danger, thanks to your hand. Or is it? Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net The oh-so convenient Christmas miracle story splashed internationally across mass media headlines of a Coloradan woman and her baby dying through childbirth and then “inexplicably”... 

“Twitter’s a fad.” “The young kids use Twitter because they don’t want to have a real conversation.” “Twitter is destroying society.” “How do you know they’re real?” “I really don’t care that much about what you’re doing all day.” I’ve heard it all. From all types of people. The only people who truly understand... 

Usually, I don’t consciously pay for content. I say ‘consciously’ because if I click on a link and there’s a paywall, I won’t do it. I also don’t subscribe to any newspapers or magazines (online or in ‘dead tree’ format). Basically, the quality of the content I’m seeing doesn’t make me want to pay for more of it. Mr Murdoch does have the... 

I have a great amount of data from the recent NestleFamily twitterstorm. Luckily, I was able to see the storm coming. As a few of the attendees began tweeting about meeting up a few days prior to the start of #NestleFamily, I could see that there was going to be some fallout. My interest had been piqued a few months earlier with the Nestle “What’s for Dinner” junket that received...