The 2009 report is the 6th in a 6-year series beginning in 2003. It analyzes 9 major media sectors across 5 areas: audience, economics, newsroom investment, ownership and digital journalism. Its analysis is based on ‘aggregating as much publicly available data as possible,” and PEJ’s own extensive content analyses. At 180,000 words, or 700 plus printed pages, and dozens of charts it is mammoth. Go figure: that’s over one million words during the 6-year project! The online edition allows us true stat-addicts to sift the data and create our own multi-variable charts. Cool, huh?

So…what is the ‘state of the news media?’ PEJ concludes that the 6th annual report “is also the bleakest.” While equal numbers of news seekers still seem to value the practices and values of traditional journalism, they are increasingly abandoning legacy media as sources of traditional news, and migrating to ‘on demand,’ online platforms. These online platforms deliver news when audiences want it, in formats they want. These formats include wi-fi, mobile, social networking sites, blogs, video, microblogs, RSS and e-mails. News audiences now “hunt and gather what they want when they want it.” Additionally, many of these news seekers then share, or repurpose the content through the very same platforms they initially hunted.

Thus, the crisis is less about audience size, and more about audience migration, and the resulting shifts in platform revenue from legacy media to online media. The gains in online platform revenue are nowhere equal to the losses in legacy media revenue. PEJ describes it is as the “decoupling …of advertising from news.” Add to this today’s economic collapse, which has “at least doubled the revenue losses”, caused by the migration of audiences from legacy media and you start to appreciate the depth of the crisis.

So what are the media habits of these online news hunters and gatherers that are precipitating such change? PEJ concludes that while those that use the Internet has remained relatively constant for the last several years at 70% to 75% of the country’s population, they increasingly ‘hunt and gather’ for news more frequently and for longer periods of time.

Nielsen's ranking of the top 10 news sites.

Moreover, online platforms seem to be more popular sources of news when compared to most traditional news sources. According to a Pew Research Center survey (August 2008) 37% of the total Internet users go online for news at least 3 times a week, compared to the 29% that watch network nightly news and the 22% that watch network morning shows. Another PRC survey (December 2008) found 40% relied on online sources for national and international news compared to 35% that relied on newspapers. Where do they seek their online news? PEJ reports the top 5 most popular news sites in 2008 according to Nielsen Online are MSNBC, Yahoo! News, CNN, AOL News and The New York Times.

As to the future of legacy media, PEJ concludes, “There are growing doubts…about whether the generation in charge has the vision and boldness to reinvent the industry.” I agree. The skills necessary for traditional journalism don’t readily translate into online entrepreneurship. The future of legacy media is tied to their ability to forge increased collaborations with innovative online partners. And that…means more excitement for us stat addicts! Stay tuned.

Dr. Richard Ganahl is a professor in mass communications at Bloomsburg University, PA. His column GANAHL ON MEDIA is an occasional column about media issues. Ganahl is a former media manager, publisher, entrepreneur and consultant. He is co-editor with Dr. Louisa Ha of the award-winning Webcasting Worldwide (2007), and the founding faculty advisor of BU Now, a multi-media, student-managed media blog site. You can email him at rganahl@bloomu.edu.

It is very easy to get your computer connected to the wireless network. You must first configure your computer by following steps that can be found at: http://library.bloomu.edu/wireless/ and then you need to connect to the network BloomU. Students, faculty, and staff must connect to the BloomU network using their network user ID and password (the same user ID  and password used when signing onto a computer).

If you experience issues when connecting to the wireless network, go to the troubleshoot page: http://library.bloomu.edu/wireless/troubleshooting/

That will take you through common problems, but if problems persist, call the Technology Support Services help desk at 389-HELP (4357).

Get your computer connected so you can be on the Quad for the next day with nice weather!

thinking about constructing his or her fall schedule.  Starting on March 23, a handful

of students kick off the process by claiming the first seats for the fall semester.  While

some might be going to their adviser for help in the process, others might seek the

advice from a popular resource on the web called Rate My Professors.

At this Web site, students have the opportunity to switch roles with their

professors as they grade them on their teaching performance.

The evaluation process is simple:

After the student finds his college or university, he can pick out professors

through an alphabetized list or by way of their departments.  When a professor is

selected, the students can either leave a comment of his own or just read what others

have written.

These reviews usually go one of two ways: They can become

recommendation letters from a student that wants to promote a great professor.  On the

other hand these reviews can also take shape as a red flag, warning all other students

about a professor to stay away from.

While the comments are sometimes all that are

necessary in the review, there are other ways to document your opinions.

For the student who needs a quick evaluation without reading through pages of

comments, there’s a numeric grading scale comprised of two important factors.  One

category represents the professor’s teaching quality, while the other deals with the level

of difficulty or lack of.  Both categories are based on a scale from zero

to five, with five being the goal.  Racking up a five in both categories is no easy feat and

the professor who achieves such a goal must be doing something right.

A third column  just shows the number of people who leave a comment for a professor.  A

lot of comments doesn’t always mean they’re all good, so don’t be misled by numbers in

this column.

But perhaps the most useless, yet comical tool on this Web site, is the

“hotness” evaluation. Yes, there is a category where students can anonymously admit if they find their

professors attractive.  This scale however, is not numeric like the others, but is indicated

by placing a pepper next to the name of a professor deemed attractive by a student.

While the pepper reminds us that this sight is not entirely serious, Rate My Professor can

still be a valuable tool for the average college student.  The question becomes: How much

of an effect does this Web site have on college students as well as the professors they are

evaluating?

Some students use this site religiously when it comes time to

selecting their classes, while other students find the Web site useless.  One anonymous

student said, “I have the site open along with my STINF account when I’m picking out

my classes.” While this student’s dedication to the site is very clear, others seem to

fall somewhere in the middle.  Students like Jessie Lilley, a nursing major, have limited

options when it comes to course selection.  Lilley said the site gives her a some input.

“The site is a cool way for me to take some control back, because I feel like I have none when it comes to the classes I know I need to take,” Lilley said.

For students like Lilley, Rate My Professor provides a little freedom in the regimented world of class selection, or for majors that are very specifically mapped out.

Most students, regardless of whether they use the site, seem to have little problem with its existance, but professors’ opinions seem split.

Bloomsburg professor Dr. Richard Ganahl of the Mass Communications Department said the site “isn’t 100 percent accurate, but I think it has

some truth to it.”

Ganahl admitted that he has seen his page on the Web site and after

reading some of the comments, he changed some things about the way he taught his

classes.  In this aspect, the site can be viewed as a multifaceted tool for students and

teachers alike.  Not only is the site a way for students to evaluate their

professors, it can also provide information to professors who might use it to adapt their teaching methods.

But not all professors see it that way. This dispute is very clearly represented in video backlash online called Professors Strike Back.  In these videos, professors have a chance to defend themselves or speak out about certain comments that were made about them on Rate My Professor.

Overall, it’s pretty clear that Rate My Professor has

made quite an impact on college life for both students and professors.

photo courtesy of ratemyprofessors.com

Admission is $5 and pizza will be provided.

For more information, contact Brandon McKenzi at bcmckenz@bloomu.edu.

You can find detailed and very easy-to-follow instructions on how to correctly set up your computer to connect by clicking here. Note that if you have Windows XP, you will need to manually set up your connection, it will not do it automatically.

Here is the current coverage status of each building
Columbia: Full Coverage
Elwell: Full Coverage
Luzerne: Partial Coverage
Lycoming: Partial Coverage
Mt. Olympus Apt.: None
Montgomery Place Apts.: Partial Coverage
Montour: Partial Coverage
Northumberland: Partial
Schuylkill: Partial

I would never use these programs on this network, because it is monitored.  Although there may be ways to sneak, I never would want to be banned from this network.  And just tonight, my friend told me about a whole new program named Ruckus.

Ruckus is a program that you download from the popular site, www.ruckus.com.  The sign-up procedure is as follows:  Put in your university e-mail address, and create a password, then you download the program.  I have started to download full albums such as Nickelback’s newest album, Blue-Collar Comedy Tour, and Dane Cook’s album named Retaliation.  These files don’t come cheap – but they do on Ruckus.  You can be assured that you will not be charged a single penny for downloading anything on this site.  It is completely free for you.

How can this be legal?  Universities such as Clemson and others joined Ruckus as well as a few other multimedia groups/companies.  This allows Ruckus to be legally free because these companies are who produce these albums.  Ruckus is a way to deter students from downloading illegal content for free, instead downloading legal content for free.

So next time you want to go out to buy an album, make sure to look on Ruckus first – you may save yourself money because you are a college student.

image courtesy of www.likecool.com

In a world where electronics and technology have taken control and altered our entire culture, is it really outrageous that there is now such a thing as an electronic cigarette?

The E-Cigarette, the new alternative to that controversial little nicotine stick, is a small rod, a bit longer than a regular cigarette, that looks almost identical to its counterpart.

But can it be called a counterpart? The E-Cig does not contain or release any tobacco.  Instead, it embodies a small cartridge full of liquid.  The liquid, which is mainly nicotine, can come in many different flavors or scents.  When an individual inhales from the rod, a microprocessor in the mouth-piece activates a nebulizer.  This nebulizer releases vaporized nicotine as the person inhales.  The tip of the “cigarette” is an LED light that lights up whenever a drag is taken, making the E-Cig resemble a plain old cigarette even more.  The electronic cigarette runs on a rechargeable battery with charges ranging from one day to a week or more at a time.

When purchasing nicotine cartridges, users have many choices available.  Different flavors are an option as well as different levels of nicotine.  There are even cartridges that contain very low or no nicotine at all.  Which is why many health enthusiasts are agreeing that this cigarette is a healthy way to feed those addictions while quitting at the same time.  You can lower or raise the dosage as you please.

The electronic cigarette is raising questions though; it rides under the radar when it comes to certain smoking bans.  Many bans focus on tobacco, which the E-Cig does not contain. Questions are also surfacing because this new technology is also still undergoing studies.  Many officials are denying if the electronic cigarette is safer than old-school cigs because too little peer-to-peer testing has been done.

Every country seems to have their version of the electronic cigarette, but it is still too soon to tell whether it is a safe way to cut down on the smoke, or just another controversy for us adults to fight about.

Check out a version of the electronic cigarette at www.minicigarette.net