Mediagazer: Sony Paralyzed By Computer Hacker Attack With Ominous Message (Mike Fleming/Deadline)

10:45 PM ET, November 24, 2014

Top News:

News organizations can rebuild by working with Facebook and Twitter, while creating their own distribution systems — How to rebuild journalism — I read Emily Bell's speech and her piece in the Guardian over the weekend. They fairly well reflect what you hear from journalism pundits these days.

Discussion: Guardian, @cdixon, @semil, @paujwill, @jayrosen_nyu, @vivian, @mackmary, @kellieriordan, KBIA, @jeffjarvis and @bryfitz

Mike Fleming / Deadline:

Sony Paralyzed By Computer Hacker Attack With Ominous Message — UPDATE: While it seems that a world-leading tech company would be the last to be brought down by a hacker, this Sony thing is serious. I've come across a still photo of the hacked message that appeared on screens, posted by a site called business2community.com.

Discussion: Business 2 Community, Hollywood Reporter, Gawker, The Next Web, Variety, Geek.com, Engadget, Electronista, Business Insider, @alishagrauso and The Verge

Frances Perraudin / Guardian:

Vine shifts from comedy clips to a valid journalistic tool — Channel 4's Alex Thomson filmed Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone and shared the short videos on Twitter — Just before Channel 4 News's chief correspondent Alex Thomson set off on a reporting assignment to Ebola-hit Sierra Leone earlier this month …

Glenn Peoples / Billboard:

Amazon Prime Music Debuts First Exclusive Content — Amazon has made exclusive video a component of Prime Instant Video streaming service, its answer to Netflix. Now the company is doing the same with music — sort of. Amazon quietly debuted last week its first exclusive music release …

Discussion: Paste

Mark Di Stefano / BuzzFeed:

Australia's ABC cutting 400 jobs by using skills audits of journalists in competitive pools — The ABC Just Became “A Sick Version Of The Hunger Games” — Journalists given four weeks to achieve a higher “score” and keep jobs. — SYDNEY - Australian Broadcasting Corporation management came under fire …

Discussion: Crikey, BBC, The Age, @marcfennell, @jason_a_w and Guardian

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Deception? Price gouging? Subscription scam? Top magazine titles won't say a thing — In mid-October, I wrote about the New York Times offer to refund overpayments to customers who fell for an unauthorized third-party renewal solicitation. The Times also warned subscribers in print and via e-mail not to fall for the scam.

East Bay Ray / The New York Observer:

The Dead Kennedys' East Bay Ray says YouTube is taking too big a cut from artists — Dead Kennedys' East Bay Explains How YouTube Is Stealing From Musicians — YouTube (owned by Google Inc.) is a remarkable platform for the sharing of videos and music by both fans and creators.

Jason Koebler / Motherboard:

Heavy Censorship in Pakistan Shows Why the Next Arab Spring Won't Be on Facebook — If you tried to access the Facebook page of one of Pakistan's most popular bands, Laal, between June 5 and 7th, you were out of luck: Facebook blocked the band's page within the country after receiving a censorship request from the government.

Discussion: @mckrees, @derektmead, @jason_koebler and @adrjeffries, Thanks:@rossneumann

Rachel Zarrell / BuzzFeed:

Comedians launch parody of This American Life's successful podcast Serial — The Ridiculous “Serial” Parody Is Only Getting Better — “Hi this is Sarah Koenig, I'm trying to figure out where you were for a 20-minute window as a high school student 15 years ago?” — If not, WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

Erin Keane / Salon:

Entertainment journalists failed to hold Bill Cosby to account for decades — What I wish I'd asked Bill Cosby: How I learned that entertainment journalists can play hardball too — I know the template — because I followed it — Two years ago, I worked for my local public radio station's news division …

Discussion: New York Times and TODAY

Andrew Smith / Guardian:

‘There were hundreds of us crying out for help’: the afterlife of the whistleblower — Whistleblowers speak out because they feel they have to, often at great personal cost. But years later, do they think it was worth it? — In his former life, Dr Raj Mattu was an internationally recognised cardiologist.

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:

How a virus demanding a bitcoin ransom almost destroyed a public radio station's archives — It was the first Saturday in November when Patrick Neelin, the lead engineer at the University of Missouri's public radio station KBIA, got an emergency call from the station's programming director.

Discussion: @kbia_engineer