Category: Storytelling

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What is the Google Free Economy?

Today I posted the third installment of my investigative news analysis series “What Does the ‘Google Free Economy’ Cost You?”, which is being crowdfunded through Byline: “Obituary for the Fourth Estate, Part 1“. The headline derives from a subhead in the first story, which I share here, below the fold.

During the editing, I nearly broke up Part 1 in two to make a third. The first of the pair recaps how the Google Free Economy illuminated a path for new media companies as the Fourth Estate lost its way. Part 2 will look at the rise of social media and how it has fundamentally shifted authority from a small number of editors and reporters to the audience of news consumers. The initial concepts build from my groundbreaking, but largely ignored, June 2009 analysis “Iran and the Internet Democracy“. 

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Please Support My Google Exposé

My mind is divided about Google, or is that Alphabet now? On one hand, I see the company as among the most innovative ever. I highly value many of Google’s products and they enable me to work more efficiently and to accomplish much more in far less time. On another hand, the search and services operation’s business model is hugely disruptive to people like me that generate content that is primarily consumed online. My profession is in shambles, with the “Google free economy” as the primary wrecking ball.

Overnight, I started an investigative report that will, in the early stages, primarily focus on how the information giant’s business disrupts the news media and some other content producers. “What Does the ‘Google Free Economy’ Cost You?” is crowdfunding through Byline. Should I achieve my modest milestone goal—$250 over 40 days—another milestone would follow with larger goal, and the reporting will expand into additional areas of concern, such as privacy or even how Google could influence the outcome of the U.S. 2016 Presidential election. 

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Flickr a Day 237: ‘Free Ride’

Take pictures of your kids that look like the photostream of Amanda Tipton and you will make a memory book they will cherish as adults. Her art delights so much that picking one pick is misery. I could choose a dozen breathlessly. Self-titled “Free Ride” takes the Day for composition, perspective, candor, and as demonstration the importance of having the camera with you and using it!

“No he has never done this before and no I didn’t ask him to; lol”, she says. “But because I didn’t want my camera to melt in the hot car I happened to have it in the store with me. Of course, I probably looked like the worst mom ever snapping pictures before I told him to get up; haha”. I say best mom ever. Amanda captured the moment on July 18, 2012, using Nikon D700. Vitals: f/2.2, ISO 720, 1/250, 35mm.