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After many months of fact-finding and opinion gathering, the FCC at last released its long-awaited National Broadband Plan. But will it bring better internet speeds at lower prices? Consumer advocates and the FCC's broadband chief weigh in.
Edward Tufte is perhaps the country's foremost evangelist for the clean, clear and rich presentation of complex information. The Obama administration's stimulus package is flooding the economy with 787 billion dollars for employment and public works projects. Put the two together, as Obama did earlier this month when he nominated Tufte for the stimulus advisory board with the hopes that the public will have a fighting chance of understanding where the stimulus money went and what it's doing.
With plagiarism detection software, media organizations can check articles for stolen content before they get published. However, hardly any news organizations actually use the software. The Columbia Journalism Review's Craig Silverman says that it's time for organizations to start investing in these programs to avoid future plagiarism scandals.
Slate editor-at-large Jack Shafer has been covering the plagiarism beat for some time and he's found that throughout every scandal the excuses remain the same. On the heels of two plagiarism scandals last month, he talks about a list of twelve common plagiarism excuses he calls "the dirty dozen."
Plagiarism is constantly in the news these days, as it was in 2006 when Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan's How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life was exposed as less then original. But, as we know, claims of literary plagiarism go back centuries. So why do people still get so worked up about it? Mike Pesca reflects on the past, present and future of plagiarism.
Whether it's cable, local or tabloid television, producers love to play recordings of real 911 calls whenever they can. It may make dramatic television but some state's legislators argue it's an invasion of privacy for the victims and families captured on tape. Sonny Bransfield, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, explains why his state has drafted legislation to keep the recordings private.
Darryl Pinckney is a serious writer and journalist who has been a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books for more than 30 years. He was also, for more than a year, a fiercely ardent fan of the long-running CBS soap opera "As the World Turns." How did he get hooked? Pinckney explains.
The website TVTropes.org catalogs some 20,000 plot devices and dialog conventions that show up throughout pop culture. Freelance writer Zachary Pincus-Roth explains that the wiki-structure of the site has allowed contributors to identify some bizarre and hilarious tropes.
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Highlights from Past Shows
For 10 years, music execs have waged a war against digital file sharing -- and software like Napster and websites like The Pirate Bay -- which have decimated the industry’s profits. But recently, there are signs from Europe that the battle over free music may be changing.
President Obama recently signed into law the re-authorization of three contentious provisions of the Patriot Act. Shane Harris, author of The Watchers, returns this week to discuss the implications for the future of American surveillance.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
