Mediagazer: I applaud Washington Post conversations about social media and digital publishing (Steve Buttry/The Buttry Diary)

11:35 AM ET, September 4, 2011

Top News:

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

But is it journalism? (Damnit) — Four incidents of late challenge the very notion of journalism. Michael Arrington, Henry Blodget, Wikileaks, and TV's Irene coverage each in their own way raise the question: What is journalism? And does it matter? — When Michael Arrington announced …

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

CrunchFund? Unethical Ventures? Pig Pile Partners? No Matter What You Call It, It's Business as Usual in Silicon Valley. — Of course I have something to say about the news yesterday that AOL would be a key investor in a new early-stage venture fund being started by TechCrunch's …

Discussion: New York Times, Bits, The Business Insider, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Tweetage Wasteland, ReadWriteWeb, VatorNews, Digits, Venture Capital Dispatch, Future Journalism Project, The Loop, FT Tech Hub and Betabeat

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Is journalism as we know it becoming obsolete? — There have been plenty of obituaries written for the newspaper business, most of which have a kernel of truth to them — but is journalism as we know it at risk as well? Dave Winer, a programming guru and visiting scholar at the New York University school of journalism, says it is.

Dave Winer / Scripting News:
Arrington is the future of what we used to call journalism

Discussion: AllThingsD, The Business Insider, Future of Journalism, MediaPost, @eldon, Fortune, VatorNews and Anil Dash

Business Insider:
AOL Left Arianna Huffington In The Dark About Arrington's Controversial VC Fund

Discussion: mediabistro.com, The Business Insider, MediaFile and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

The Atlantic Online:

Social Media's Slow Slog Into the Ivory Towers of Academia — Underpinning a disdain for social media in higher education is the assumption that incoming students have an inherent aptitude for new technologies — “If you took a soldier from a thousand years ago and put them on a battlefield …

Erik Wemple:

Jack Shafer on ‘reproducible’ journalism — On this “web extra” of Howard Kurtz's CNN show, “Reliable Sources,” Jack Shafer calls the host “a slow-moving target that bleeds profusely when hit.” — That was a joke, of course, but the session yields a couple of quotable moments.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and FishbowlDC

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Dish Said to Plan Blockbuster Rival to Netflix — Dish Network Corp. (DISH), the second largest U.S. satellite-TV provider, will introduce a Blockbuster streaming-movie service to compete with Netflix Inc. (NFLX) next month, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, GigaOM, Electronista, The Wrap, CNET News, Deadline.com and Engadget

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

I applaud Washington Post conversations about social media and digital publishing — Update: I'm going to re-use (and expand) on a line I used today in a private email exchange about the Washington Post Digital Publishing Guidelines: The Post's 2009 social media policy was like a red light to Post journalists using social media.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Washington Post and Mediactive

Peter Preston / Guardian:

Newspaper magazines still matter; they deliver women readers — As the Observer magazine reaches 45, there's life - and money - in supplements in the digital age — The actual birthday - 45 years of the Observer Magazine - falls on Tuesday (though a “Not to be Sold Separately” exhibition celebrated it weeks ago).

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Introducing Journo Ipsum, for all your nonsense-about-the-future-of- news textual needs — Anyone who's spent much time hanging around the publishing or design worlds knows about lorem ipsum, the classic Latin placeholder text used to dummy up prose filler in a layout.

Discussion: 10,000 Words and Future of Journalism

James Ball / Guardian:

Why I felt I had to turn my back on WikiLeaks — Former staffer tells how dismay mounted during his three months with the whistleblowing group — I joined WikiLeaks last November as a staffer for a three-month stint. Culture shock came just a few days in, when Julian Assange gathered core staff …

Discussion: McClatchy Washington Bureau, Tom Watson, Future of Journalism and Adweek

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Social media editor role expands to include fighting misinformation during breaking news — The buzzwords for social media editors at news outlets are conversation, curation and collaboration. But when using Twitter and its ilk to collect and disseminate news in real-time, another word is becoming just as important: corroboration.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Who gets Starz digital rights now? Probably no one — Starz dropped a bomb on Netflix Thursday, announcing to the world that it was ending negotiations for a renewal of their deal and pulling its content from the streaming service next March. That's led many to speculate about who might pick up those rights when they lapse.

Discussion: Company Town, Future of Journalism, Digits and Techland

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:
How the Starz-Netflix Divorce Will Remake Video

Discussion: The Next Web and Between the Lines Blog, Thanks:tcarmody

Amy Chozick / Wall Street Journal:

Hollywood's TV Factory — A surprising number of TV's most popular shows, from CBS's ‘The Big Bang Theory’ to NBC's ‘The Voice,’ come from one source. Backstage at the busiest studio in America. — “Casablanca” was shot at the Warner Bros. studio lot here, as were “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Million Dollar Baby.”

Discussion: Company Town and Stop Big Media News

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

Phone hacking: 34-year-old man arrested — Unnamed man arrested by officers from the Met police's Operation Weeting team in connection with phone hacking and perverting the course of justice — Today's arrest is the 15th by the Met police's Operation Weeting phone hacking investigation

Discussion: Guardian and Press Gazette