Journalism Archives - The Silicon Underground

What is a blog used for?

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 11 May 2018 11:00:31 +0000

What is a blog used for? Well, take it from a guy who’s been blogging since 1999. It’s used for a lot of things, depending on who is running the blog. It helps to remember that ultimately, a blog is

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KSDK-TV was wrong to test Kirkwood High School’s security

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 11:00:29 +0000

Last week on Jan. 16, KSDK-TV caused Kirkwood High School to go on lockdown as part of a news story. As a security professional, a journalist, a St. Louisan, and a parent, I have more than one stake in this.

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An inside peek at a newsroom

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:10:44 +0000

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Holleman and his editors had to dodge some strange accusations this past week. These ranged from Holleman catching his editors sleeping, to amazement that his editors “allowed” him to write something they agreed with. My

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What I would say to someone starting to study journalism today

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:49:23 +0000

One of my former classmates sent out a query, asking what we’d tell someone who was thinking about studying journalism today. Predictably, a lot of people wrote “Don’t do it!” or “Newspapers aren’t hiring anyone,” or something similar. I never

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Taking a stand: Rupert Murdoch and the Chicago Sun-Times

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:15:43 +0000

Some people are ready to throw the entire journalism trade out with the week’s trash thanks to the deepening Rupert Murdoch scandal. But to some people, this wasn’t a surprise at all. In 1984, 60 journalists took a stand against

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Maybe this is the difference between US and UK journalists

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:09:44 +0000

I’ve always wondered about the difference between US and UK journalists. I’ve always noticed a difference, but never quite figured out what it was or why. This CNN editorial is good insight. There’s a certain irreverence and snarkiness in the

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Should journalists hack?

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:52:07 +0000

I experienced an interesting collection of contrasts going to journalism school in the mid 1990s. Inside the same building, we had investigative journalists who specialized in advanced use of databases and stodgy editors who missed the days of manual typewriters

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On 99-cent e-books

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:25:26 +0000

Slashdot has the story of independent writer John Locke, who writes crime novels and sells them as e-books on Amazon for 99 cents. He’s sold 350,000 copies since January, which was a 20x improvement over his sales rates when he

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On content farms

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:19:27 +0000

It looks like Google has taken action against content farms, low-quality sites that publish articles about anything and everything quickly, and try to make money from the ads. I can’t tell yet if this has really affected my traffic any–my

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Of cameras and manhandling

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:52:11 +0000

If you haven't heard, Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) is the new Internet meme.

Two younger men, claiming to be college students, approached Etheridge on the street as he left a meeting. They asked if he supported Obama's agenda. Etheridge demanded to know who they were, manhandled one of them, then finally walked away. Although he succeeded in disabling one camera, the other camera was rolling. After some editing, he became a You Tube sensation.

This is a very clear-cut case.

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