Mediagazer: Accessibility vs. access: How the rhetoric of “rare” is changing in the age of information abundance (Maria Popova/Nieman Journalism Lab)

1:30 AM ET, August 29, 2011

Top News:

A Hurricane of Hype — Irene fell far short of the media's dire warnings even before it was downgraded. Howard Kurtz on the scaremongering by television and local officials.

Discussion: Poynter, CNN, Nation Now, Gawker, New York Magazine, Brendan's Denver Weather Blog, Gizmodo, MarketWatch, Hot Air, Inside Cable News, TVNewser and Media Nation

Matthew Lynley / VentureBeat:

Hurricane Irene mayhem chronicled via Instagram — Instagram users hunkered down in New York, New Jersey and other cities in the path of the rather menacing-looking Hurricane Irene are chronicling the mayhem through an online Instagram photo album called Instacane.

Discussion: Forbes, ZDNet, Mediaite, Speakeasy, TVNewser, Future of Journalism, Gawker and Poynter

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Hurricane Irene Knocks Down Paywalls — As the East Coast prepares for a major hurricane, Zinio is offering digital magazines free to stranded travelers and some newspapers' paywalls are coming down. — The New York Times today launched @NYTLive, a Twitter feed for breaking news surrounding major events.

John Frank / Raleigh News & Observer:
It's not glamorous to cover a hurricane

Discussion: Pat's Papers

Brian Stelter / New York Times: Hurricane Coverage Is Ratings Driver for Weather Channel

Erik Wemple:
Hurricane Irene's path: Is the Weather Channel veering off course?

Discussion: Multichannel, FishbowlDC, Guardian, TVNewser, Gawker, Gizmodo and Forbes

Arthur S. Brisbane / New York Times:

Financial News for the Rest of Us — WILL readers of The New York Times in print get less because The Times must invest to compete for readers and advertisers in the digital medium? — The DealBook business news product may offer an early indication. DealBook, which was greatly expanded last fall …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

David Carr / New York Times:

The Media Equation: Steve Jobs Saw What Media Titans Missed - Media Equation — Earlier this year, I wrote a column about the publishing industry's resistance to the terms Apple was imposing for subscriptions on the iPad. Soon after, an e-mail was followed by a phone call and Steve Jobs was on the line to straighten me out.

more at Techmeme »

Paul Carr / TechCrunch:

Now Can We All Agree That The “High Quality Web Content” Experiment Has Failed? — It's hard to imagine anything more perfect than Slate's decision to lay off its respected media critic Jack Shafer. Not perfect in a good way — I count myself amongst Shafer's legions of fans …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

New York Times:

Accounts of Chinese Bloggers Suspended, Causing Protests — BEIJING — The operators of China's most vibrant equivalent of Twitter notified each of its 200 million users Friday that several bloggers deemed to have spread unfounded rumors would have their accounts suspended for one month.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Future Journalism Project

Maria Popova / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Accessibility vs. access: How the rhetoric of “rare” is changing in the age of information abundance — A Rare Glimpse of William Burroughs' Belongings, proclaimed a recent Fast Company headline. But what does “rare” really mean these days? A photograph indexed by Google is hardly “rare …

Discussion: TeleRead

Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:

Does the press have an ethical duty to out powerful gays in tech? — The following editorial deals with topics that we believe are relevant to technology journalism. While this subject matter is uncommon at Ars, it is not unprecedented. — Do journalists have a duty to “out” so-called “closeted” gay people?

Discussion: The First Post, Felix Salmon and Kirk LaPointe's …

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

Getting More Bang For Our Bucks — Two important questions in our times of large public debt and lagging economies: Is it effective to inject public money in support of the ailing media industry? And, in order to ensure the best readers' bang for the taxpayer's buck, are some models better than others?

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

Sony TV Aims for Prime Time — CULVER CITY, Calif. — In October 2001, an exasperated Howard Stringer, the chief executive of Sony, ordered a dramatic downsizing at the company's studio here. — Moviemaking would continue apace, but the production of new television shows …

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

Google crashes TV's Edinburgh party — What did the television industry make of Eric Schmidt's MacTaggart speech? — There are three things the TV executive audience have come to expect from the annual MacTaggart lecture: the pantomime of an inter-industry dispute, an intellectual appreciation …

Discussion: Guardian