STUNNING LOOK AT TRAGEDY

Photojournalist James Nachtwey brings home the tragedy in Dafur in a three-part photo essay at Time magazine's online site.

Nachtwey has been bearing witness to famines, wars and other horrors for the past 30 years and the power of his journalism tells those stories with grace and humanity. Go see.

SOURCE: Melissa Lyttle at A Photo a Day.

11:28:34 PM    

10 THINGS ABOUT THE 'NET

According to a new study from the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future has identified ten significant trends that it claims "vividly illustrate how the Internet affects America."

The report's 10 Trends (some in their words, some paraphrased):

1. The old divide between those who have Internet access and those who don't has almost closed; the new divide is broadband vs. dail-up.

2. Internet users "steal" their online time from TV: more time on-line, less time on the couch.

3. Most users trust information on the Web sites they visit regularly, and on pages created by established media and the government.  The information that users don't trust is on Web sites posted by individuals.

4. In 2001, Internet users bought online about 11 times a year each; now they buy about 30 times a year.

5. The "Geek-Nerd" perception of the internet Is dead

6. Concerns over privacy and security remain high

7. The Internet has become the most important source of current information for users — the primary place they go for research, general information, hobbies, entertainment listings, travel, health, and investments. The "always-on" function of broadband has accelerated this importance.

8. The benefits — and brawbacks — of the internet for children are still coming into focus.

9. E-mail is still the single most important reason people go online.  E-mail is a tremendous convenience, and for most users, it is a free service with enormous benefits.  E-mail opens opportunities to communicate more often and with a much broader circle of people than we ever reach by telephone or by mail.

10. Just as the arrival of the Internet created a flood of social change, the proliferation of broadband technology as a method of accessing the Internet is beginning to cause its own revolution.  Broadband is changing entirely our relationship with the Internet at home — how often we go online, how long we stay online, and what we do online.  Simply, modem use is disruptive; broadband use is integrative. Already we are seeing that broadband users spend more time online than users who connect to the Internet by modem, and that the tasks people undertake online vary based on their method of access.

SOURCE: Bertrand Pecquerie at Editorsweblog. org.

11:02:04 PM    

¿HABLAN ESPAÑOL?

If so, La Tercera from Santiago, Chile, has some nice multimedia reporting at its Web site. I don't or read Spanish, but I did find Victor Tabja Salgado's photo slide show (with music) Camino a la extinción, impressive and moving.

SOURCE: Joe Weiss at Interactive Narratives.

10:36:09 PM    

WHERE THE ADS ARE

According to unmediated.org, demand for advertising is falling in old media and rising for on-line.

MediaPost's ongoing survey of media demand indicates demand for all media is down 7 points in September over September 2003. However, in that sea of apparent discontent, online stands out as the shining star with demand increasing 12 points during the same time period. The biggest losers are network TV and newspapers.

Overall, online advertising totals are small compared to big. mainstream media, but the trend appears clear. Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that Mitsibushi will increase its online advertising spending to as much as $6 million this year. Writing about the growth in online advertising, the WSJ reports:

Online ad spending climbed 20% last year to $7.2 billion. Yahoo Inc.'s ad revenue surged 84% last year. Analysts estimate revenues were up threefold at the closely held search titan Google, which doesn't disclose results. Forrester Research Inc., a market-research firm, estimates Web-ad spending will grow as much as 23% in 2004.

10:20:55 PM    

WRITING FOR REAL FOLKS

Today's B.C. Derby coverage in the Vancouver Sun is, apparently, only for hard-core horse racing fans, even though it's the first "refer" on the front page and the lead story in the Sports section.

How else do you explain writing like this:

...picked out by the successful Jim Penney-Kay and Bryson Cooper training triumvirate based in Seattle which claimed the Florida-bred for $62,500 at Holly wood Park in June.

...and...

After a winning run in the Seattle Slew, followed by an allowance score and a runner-up role...

...and...

...she said they were fortunate to claim Flamethrowintexan when they did, since he was still eligible for some allowance conditions.

I vaguely understand the concept of claiming horses but I have no idea what "allowance scores" and "allowance conditions" are. Nor does writer Dennis Feser explain or tell me why those are significant. There's a lot more of this stuff in the article.

The B.C. Derby may be a good story, but I can't tell. Instead of fighting my way through the jargon, I gave up on it. And that's what happens when you write for the insider and the institution and not for the reader.

9:35:09 AM