Mediagazer: Japan Says Efforts to Contact Islamic State About Hostages Have Failed (Martin Fackler/New York Times)

8:10 AM ET, January 22, 2015

Top News:

Why White House used Medium for State of the Union: “We're trying to find audiences where they are” — Medium editor on SOTU coup: ‘People are already here’ — Newish publishing platform Medium scored a coup yesterday evening when the White House published President Obama's prepared State …

Discussion: On Point with Tom Ashbrook, @andybechtel, @dangillmor, @kreissdaniel, @lisenstromberg and @ryan

Nathaniel Lubin / White House Blog:
State of the Union online: over 1.2M views of White House live stream, 400K views of transcript on Medium

Discussion: @whitehouse, @jtsthehill, White House.gov Blog, Washington Post, USA Today and CNNMoney.com

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
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Todd Spangler / Variety:

Super Bowl Ads: NBC Turns to Tumblr to Post Spots After They Air on TV — NBC Sports has launched a new Super Bowl page on Yahoo's Tumblr that the programmer will use to feature Super Bowl XLIX's TV ads immediately after they air on NBC on Sunday, Feb. 1. — The new NBC Sports Tumblr page …

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Tim Peterson / AdAge:
Facebook enabling advertisers to target people posting on Super Bowl topics in near real time

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Ian Black / Guardian:

Planned flogging of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi postponed again — Medical assessment shows Badawi - who received 50 lashings on 9 January - unfit to face punishment — Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was due to be lashed 50 times on Friday. — Raif Badawi, the Saudi blogger whose public flogging …

Discussion: Sky News

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Viacom Beats Privacy Lawsuit Targeting Disclosures of Kids' Video Viewing History — The judge rejects the $5 million claim against Viacom and Google, finding the ways in which Nick.com supposedly identifies its users to third parties to be speculative. — According to a survey of 2000 adults …

Discussion: New Jersey Online, Reuters and The Seattle Times

Benhuh / Medium:

Facebook Hoaxsters and Satirists, Bring Your A-Game to Cheezburger — In defense of having fun at the expense of the ignorant. — On the surface, Facebook's anti-hoax campaign seems like a good thing. I can't remember the number of times I facepalmed at watching genuine outrage …

Discussion: @somecody, @randfish, @benhuh and NPR

John McDermott / Digiday:
Facebook's opaque hoax fix lacks human verification, and could let users work en masse to suppress news

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Martin Fackler / New York Times:

Japan Says Efforts to Contact Islamic State About Hostages Have Failed — TOKYO — Officials here said Thursday that they were trying every possible avenue to reach the Islamic State militants who have threatened to kill two Japanese hostages but had so far failed to make contact …

Discussion: NY Daily News, Telegraph, International Business Times, News24, NBC News, New York Times, Reuters and NBC News

Paul Rosania / The Twitter Blog:

Twitter rolls out “While you were away” feature to iOS users, coming soon to Android and web — While you were away... Today we're introducing something new to your home timeline: a recap of some of the top Tweets you might have missed from accounts you follow.

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Camilla Turner / Telegraph:

The Sun brings back its topless Page 3 model under headline “Clarifications and corrections” — The Sun brings back page 3 - Telegraph — The Sun have printed a topless model on Page 3, ending days of speculation that the feature was dead. The newspaper has tweeted out a picture …

Discussion: @thesunnewspaper, @danbarker, @willmchoebag, @emilybell, @mediaguido, @profanityswan, @p_mcpartlin, @annacod, @angelheartnight, Hit & Run, @nathangamester, @telegraphnews and Guido Fawkes

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC News executives discuss pitfalls of broadcasting Islamic State video — Democracy Day live stream of morning editorial meeting provides insight into judgments taken on stories including the Sun ending topless Page 3 models and airing of Isis videos — Senior BBC News executives including …

Debra Kamin / Variety:

The Islamic State Plans TV Channel, According to Reports — According to reports in both Israeli and international media this week, the Islamic State has a 24-hour television channel in the works. — The station, which if launched will take Isis' well-polished propaganda machine to an entirely new level …

Discussion: @moneyries, Washington Post and NEWS.com.au

Paul Farrell / Guardian:

Journalists reporting on asylum seekers referred to Australian police — Exclusive: Journalists covering the Australian government's asylum seeker policies are repeatedly reported to federal police in bid to uncover sources — Journalists reporting on the federal government's asylum-seeker policies …

Discussion: Guardian, @ramblesofpower, @tara_moss, @hrp_org, @mrchristianread, @themurdochtimes and @hippopeteamus

Lynne O'Donnell / Associated Press:

Attacks on journalists threaten media freedom in Afghanistan — KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — When Afghan journalist Hussain Sirat's car disappeared in late December, he assumed it was simply theft, until a man called to say that he had the vehicle, and a gun with which he planned to kill him.

Discussion: Human Rights Watch, Voice of America, Stars & Stripes, Los Angeles Times, GULF DAILY NEWS, BBC, International News Network and DW.DE

Marc Graser / Variety:

Relativity Media Invests in Digital Publisher Say Media, Angela Courtin Joins Board — Expanding its in-house marketing capabilities, Relativity Media has made an investment in Say Media and will use the firm to promote its films and TV shows, music, fashion, sports and branded entertainment divisions.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck.com