Mediagazer: The newsonomics of signature content (Ken Doctor/Nieman Journalism Lab)

8:10 PM ET, January 22, 2012

Top News:

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

How false reports of Joe Paterno's death were spread and debunked — News spread quickly Saturday evening that former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had died. Except, he hadn't. — Here is an account of how it happened. — We have made it easy to comment on posts …

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

False Paterno death reports highlight journalists' hunger for glory — As many people are now aware, on Saturday evening, a student news organization at Penn State reported that former football coach Joe Paterno had died. The information was picked up by CBS Sports and other major news outlets, and it spread quickly on Twitter.

Discussion: Onward State, Eye On College Football, Bleacher Report, Forbes, College Media Matters, eye-on-college-football …, @breakingnews and LA Observed

Davis Shaver / Onward State:

What Happened Last Night — Last night was one of the worst moments of my entire life. But before I can explain what happened, you need to know a bit about Onward State. Onward State is a community news site, and that means that most decisions are made in a collaborative environment.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, PC Magazine, College Media Matters and ShortFormBlog

Scott Carroll / @scottyknoxville:

The managing editor of Onward State, Penn State student paper that initially reported Paterno died, has stepped down. http://www.facebook.com/...

Discussion: Poynter, Onward State and Gothamist

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought — Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News …

Discussion: The Wrap, Hillicon Valley, Fox News, rbr.com, TorrentFreak, parislemon, @beschizza, @wllegal, @gaberivera, @jonhenke, @joshconstine, Forbes, The Greenroom, @cshirky, Public Knowledge, Telegraph and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Clay Shirky:
Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood

Discussion: ZDNet, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, O'Reilly Radar, Hillicon Valley, A VC, Future of Journalism, The Rumpus.net, MediaShift and Marco.org, more at Techmeme »

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Europe Says It Won't Adopt ‘Bad’ Digital Policy Like SOPA

Discussion: Mediaite, Future of Journalism, GigaOM, @senatorreid, @senatorreid, Policy Blog, Senate Democrats, Mashable!, ZDNet, Hillicon Valley, Washington Post, Uncrunched, The Next Web, TechCrunch, L.A. Times Tech Blog, The Verge, CNET and Guardian

Dan Gillmor / Guardian:
The struggle against Sopa and Pipa is not over

Discussion: Mashable!, TeleRead, Gothamist, FlowingData and paidContent

Ginger Gibson / The Politico:

Newt Gingrich and the press: Secret pals — It's a regular feature of the 2012 GOP presidential debates — that moment when Newt Gingrich takes a deep breath, then proceeds to rip the insipid moderator and the conflict-and scandal-mongering press. — His latest exercise …

Discussion: Naked Politics, Poynter, Media Decoder, Erik Wemple and Online NewsHour

Marc Fisher / Washington Post:
Polarized news market has altered the political process in South Carolina primary

Discussion: Charles Apple, Future of Journalism and FishbowlDC

Erika Fry / CJR:
What I Saw at the South Carolina Debate

Discussion: Mediaite, ZDNet, TVNewser, Forbes, The New Yorker Blog, Hit & Run, Associated Press, B&C, The Politico, Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel

Arthur S. Brisbane / New York Times:

Keeping Them Honest — AS election season rhetoric heats up, so does the demand for aggressive examination of candidates' claims. — This is not new. The “fact-checking” movement, shorthand for news organizations' rebuttal of factual claims, has been building for years.

Discussion: Naked Politics and Erik Wemple

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Megaupload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music Over Viral Video (Exclusive) — Amid a criminal case that forced the shutdown of Megaupload, the company has dismissed UMG from a lawsuit over a video that showed many stars endorsing the site. But that doesn't mean the case is over.

Discussion: Electronista, The Next Web, The Verge and WebProNews

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of signature content — What's your signature content? — Quick: If somebody buttonholed you in an elevator, a school play, or a bar, and said, “Why should I pay you for that?” — what do you tell them? — Each passing week, it seems we're further into the age of signature content.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Forbes

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Publisher Terry McGraw on Steve Jobs and Digital Textbooks: “This Was His Vision” — After Apple's big education presentation yesterday, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw chatted with a gaggle of reporters, and explained things like the logic behind $15 digital textbooks.

Discussion: O'Reilly Radar, The Loop, Beyond Search, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Electronista, Techland and CNET

Somini Sengupta / Bits:

A Move to Investigate the Investigators in WikiLeaks Case — This much is known: In its hunt for information about three people it believes to be associated with the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks, the Justice Department has sought to extract details about them and their communications on Twitter.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Conal Urquhart / Guardian:

Johann Hari leaves the Independent after plagiarism storm — Columnist will not return to newspaper after being accused of using material from other writers without giving them credit — Johann Hari, the journalist at the Independent who was suspended for plagiarism, has announced that he will not return to the newspaper.