Top News:
Justin McCurry / Guardian:
Hopes raised for release of Japanese journalist held by Isis — Jordan may be willing to free convicted suicide bomber in return for release of Kenji Goto and Jordanian pilot, says report — Jordan may be willing to free a convicted suicide bomber in return for the release of a Japanese journalist …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Associated Press, International Business Times, @ninastrochlic, Guardian and NBC News
RELATED:
Yuri Kageyama / Associated Press:
Japan Turns to ‘I Am Kenji’ Facebook Page on Hostage Crisis — TOKYO (AP) — The plight of freelance journalist Kenji Goto, taken captive by Islamic State group militants, has gripped Japan, and the people's hopes for his safety are now on Facebook with a simple, unifying plea: “I am Kenji.”
Discussion:
International Business Times, BBC, ABC News, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, Associated Press, Reuters, NBC News and The Straits Times
Jinen Kamdar / The Twitter Blog:
Twitter starts rolling out group Direct Messaging, 30-second video capture and sharing — Now on Twitter: group Direct Messages and mobile video camera — A few months ago, we mentioned some features coming soon, and today we're excited to start rolling out two of them: group messaging and a new mobile video experience.
Discussion:
Guardian, LostRemote, Re/code, Gigaom, The Wrap, MacRumors, Pocket-lint, TIME, Electronista, ReadWrite, TechCrunch, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, Tubefilter, Telegraph, Variety, The Content Strategist, Wall Street Journal, VideoNuze Analysis, New York Times, Re/code, Marketing Land, @sladurantaye, 9to5Mac, @lauramaycoope, @karencivil, The Verge, Engadget, The Next Web, Refinery29, The Week, MacStories and Gizmodo UK
Trevor Timm / Guardian:
The war on leaks has gone way too far when journalists' emails are under surveillance — The US government's demands for the private emails of WikiLeaks staffers is outrageous. Disliking Julian Assange is a disgraceful reason anyone to stay silent — he outrageous legal attack on WikiLeaks …
Discussion:
@emilybell, Boing Boing, @biellacoleman, @trevortimm, Techdirt and PandoDaily
RELATED:
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Not a Very P.C. Thing to Say — How the language police are perverting liberalism. — Not a Very P.C. Thing to Say — How the language police are perverting liberalism. — Around 2 a.m. on December 12, four students approached the apartment of Omar Mahmood, a Muslim student …
Discussion:
Hit & Run, The Federalist, @maxblumenthal, @chsommers, @normative, @saletan, @amandapalmer, @delong, @kevingfox, @rustyk5, @adamweinstein, @jonathanshainin, @mobute, @poniewozik, @bigmeaninternet, @jonathanshainin, @antderosa, @mcurryfelidae07, @aherman2006, @tomscocca, @rustyk5, @loly2k, @jillfilipovic, @bmichael, @rustyk5, @shaneferro, @moorehn, @shaneferro, @ryanchittum, @morninggloria, @hamiltonnolan, @rustyk5, @karenkho, @becketadams, @tomscocca and @jujueyeball
Tom LoBianco / Indianapolis Star:
Governor of Indiana plans to launch state-run, taxpayer-funded news service to compete with other media — Pence state-run news outlet will compete with media — Gov. Mike Pence is starting a state-run news service that will provide pre-written news stories to Indiana news outlets …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Poynter, @tomlobianco, @ourright2know, @crewcrew, @wibcraysteele, Raw Story, @davidsirota, Talking Points Memo, @heycori, @indynewsie, @simonmaloy, @carrieritchie, @jonfine, @spj_tweets, Mediaite, Hit & Run, @ericbradner, Politico, @ktumulty, @laurenstarky, @amoswtlcindy, @jdawsey1, @buzzfeedben, @ethanklapper, @tomlobianco and JIMROMENESKO.COM
Mark Sweney / Guardian:
London Live local television station to cut third of staff — Evgeny Lebedev's channel to re-invest savings made from around 20 people going from news and current affairs teams into programming content — Evgeny Lebedev's struggling London TV station is to cut 20 jobs, around a third of its staff …
Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
Village Voice Owner Ponders M&A Options — Voice Media Group, owner of 11 alternative weeklies including the Village Voice, said Tuesday it was exploring “new strategies” including the possible sale of its publications or acquisition of other titles. — The company said it had hired merger …
NPR Visuals:
How NPR created a passive TV app to display voting results at election night parties — Putting Radio On The Televison — For election night 2014, we wanted to do something different. — We guessed that the dedicated wonks — the ones who want to drill down into detailed data and maps …
Discussion:
@brianboyer
Brant Houston / The American University in Cairo:
Investigative journalists build new networks and partnerships, but funding challenges remain — WATCHDOGS UNLEASHED — It was February 2009 when veteran investigative journalist Laura Frank lost her job with the closure of the Rocky Mountain News, a newspaper that had served Denver for 150 years.
Investigative News Network:
Reporters Committee Partners With INN As A Media Law Resource For Nonprofit News Organizations — The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has partnered with the Investigative News Network to provide its more than 100 non-profit news organization members with First Amendment …
Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:
Employees Organizing Push to Unionize Politico — Employees at Politico are organizing a push to unionize the news outlet, amid recent shakeups at the inside-the-Beltway publication. — The effort is being led by Mike Elk, a Politico labor reporter and a strident proponent of unions who started at the outlet last year.
Discussion:
@emmaroller, Mediaite, The Daily Caller and The Daily Caller
Bloomberg:
France seeks to sanction web companies as hate-speech accomplices if they host extremist messages — France Seeks to Sanction Web Companies for Posts Pushing Terror — The French government is stepping up the pressure on Google Inc. (GOOGL) and Facebook Inc. (FB) to help in the struggle against terrorist groups.
Discussion:
VentureBeat and The Verge
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
YouTube's Offer To Musicians Isn't As Bad As Some Believe, But YouTube Should Still Change Its Policies — Last summer, there was some kerfuffle about YouTube allegedly threatening to kick musicians off of YouTube if they didn't agree to license their music to the subscription service it was building.
Discussion:
Guardian, PandoDaily and Engadget
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Vox Media produces social-only content to be ready for any Facebook moves and to extend reach — Why Vox Media makes content just for social media — Facebook may not be sharing native video revenue with publishers yet. But when it does, Vox Media wants to be ready.
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