Newspapers Gaining Consumers Through Tablets

A new PEW study suggests that newspapers are drawing tablet users to their products.

"Tablet users are more likely to pay for content than general news consumers," said Julie Moos in her article about CNN and USA Today gaining new readers.

The phone survey of 1,159 tablet users showed that a new audience of tablet users are being drawn to newspapers.

"Of the 894 respondents who read news on their tablets weekly, 40 percent said they are getting news from newspapers that they did not rely on as a source before," continued Moos.

New technology like the tablet is thought to be killing off newspaper companies, but as seen here it is actually helping them by providing them more consumers.

10 percent of the tablet users in the survey said they get news from USA Today on their tablets and they did not use that source for news before. 10 percent said the same thing about CNN.

The survey also showed that the tablet users were also using other types of media like cable TV channels and online sources now with their tablets when they weren't using those sources before.

19 percent of the users now watch a new cable TV news station, and 18 percent use a new online news source.

The tablet has opened a window for consumers to get their news in a new way.

Photo via Creative Commons

Norris Steps Down from NPR

Journalists must remain objective at all times. Without it, we would lose our credibility and trust from the public.

Identifying conflicts of interest isn't difficult. A football player can't cover the homecoming football game, student body president can't report on the latest developments in student government and a fraternity president can't write a story about Greek week.

The Huffington Post reported that Michele Norris of NPR's 'All Things Considered' will step down from her hosting duties while her husband joins the Obama campaign.

Norris made the only decision she could in her situation. As journalists, we must remain objective and unbiased in order to maintain our credibility.

While it is unlikely that Norris would have interviewed her own husband, he is still a part of the Obama team. For instance, a sports reporters should not cover a game if their spouse is a player on the team.

Reporters who are in these situations need to separate their personal and professional lives. The balance may come down to, as in Norris's case, choosing a spouse over work. Ultimately, this decision may seem unfair, but it was necessary for Norris to maintain her credibility for her journalistic. future.

Photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

A Few Spelling Variations

Let's face it: it's highly embarrassing to be caught spelling somebody's name wrong. Especially when you know or talk about someone often enough that you should have figured it out. For all of the media's focus on accuracy and fact-checking, though, they sure managed to screw up a very important name: Ghaddafi. Or, sorry, Qaddafi; Gadhafi; or was it Kaddafi?

Why can't anyone agree on how to spell the dead dictator's name? According to Poynter.org, in 1986 a syndicated columnist named Cecil Adams found at least nine different spellings for the name, the most exotic and confusing spelling jointly attributed to the Library of Congress and the Middle East Studies Association: Qadhdhafi.

To be fair, part of the problem is translating Arabic script into the English alphabet. Adams explained that there are several sounds in the name that don't have an exact English counterpart, and for a while, the Libyan leader wasn't concerned enough to straighten anything out. However, in May of 1986, the colonel made his feelings known when he responded to a letter from second graders at Maxfield Magnet School in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While he signed his name to his response in Arabic script, under it was typed "Moammar El-Gadhafi". News organizations announced they would make the switch as soon as the signature was made public.

Well, most of them didn't. This debate has gone to live on past his death, and it's a wonder that the media didn't simply check their facts from the start.

Photo/Bryan Mason at creativecommons.org