1997, the year broadband arrived

Digging through some old files recently, I came across a column I wrote for the Baltimore Business Journal 22 years ago. It described how our cable TV and internet provider had installed fiber-optic cable in the neighborhood. This new distribution channel transformed a clunky dialup internet service into a lightning fast information source. The hyperbole […]

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Where the jobs are for graduates in journalism

“The new journalism specialties”. The graphic shows that 56% of the Spanish journalists surveyed work in media that have community managers, and 30% employ data and traffic analysts. Click to enlarge the graphic. Where will the jobs be for graduates in journalism and communication? The results of a survey of journalists in Spain give some […]

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Why digital networks are ruling the world

For the last few years, the name Manuel Castells kept popping up in things I read about digital media, social networks, and mass communications. He is a Spanish sociologist who spent much of his career at UC Berkeley. Recently I have been reading his “The Rise of the Network Society,” the first of three volumes […]

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Professors of The Book, students of The Smartphone

The Internet is a revolutionary tool of communication. Because of that, teachers of communication have to face up to the possibility that our models for teaching and learning are becoming less effective and relevant. Like many of my teaching colleagues, I have complained that students don’t read. Well, they do read, but in a different […]

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