Former student: “I remember sometimes being annoyed with all of our blogging assignments, but…”

A third alum in the last few weeks has contacted me to thank me for challenging her while a student: When I look back on my time at SHU, I remember sometimes being annoyed with all of our blogging assignments, but yet again, this is proof that the skills you taught us so a few years ago…

Journalism isn’t dying. But it’s changing WAY faster than most people understand.

Think of journalism as falling into three basic baskets: The “what” basket, the “so what” basket and the “now what” basket. The “what” basket is filled with reporting in a straightforward manner on things that happened. “There was a fire at 8th and Elm Street today. No one was injured,” and all that. The “so…

Fair use prevails as Supreme Court rejects Google Books copyright case

Fair use is a concept baked into US copyright law, and it’s a defense to copyright infringement if certain elements are met. The US Copyright Office says the defense is decided on a case-by-case basis. “The distinction between what is fair use and what is infringement in a particular case will not always be clear…

For News Outlets Squeezed From the Middle, It’s Bend or Bust

Hundreds of thousands of people on Facebook followed BuzzFeed’s live video of two people putting rubber bands around a watermelon until it burst. We should all reflect on how journalism can make the news that is truly important interesting enough to compete with exploding fruit. Traditional media companies face the increasingly daunting task of hooking…

Chess tournament in Monroeville. Two losses, two wins.

The boy’s personal best in terms of win-loss. Trophy for performance at his level. A fun Satuday. Similar:College bookstores adapting to changing times with additional servicesIn the corner of the Seton Hill Universi…AcademiaTalk with us about books! English as a minor or second major @setonhilluniversityAcademiaHow Nasty Was Nero, Really?In The New Yorker, Rebecca Reed reports…

Jimmy Maher’s Appreciation of Infocom’s Classic Sherlock Text Adventure

I learned a lot while reading this enjoyable essay by Jimmy Maher. Looked at today, however, Sherlock certainly wasn’t a bad note to go out on. Being built on the sturdy foundation of everything Infocom had learned about making text adventures to date, it’s not notably, obviously innovative, but, impressively given that it is a…

The Minecraft Generation

It’s a world of trial and error and constant discovery, stuffed with byzantine secrets, obscure text commands and hidden recipes. And it runs completely counter to most modern computing trends. Where companies like Apple and Microsoft and Google want our computers to be easy to manipulate — designing point-and-click interfaces under the assumption that it’s…

Recent SHU journo grad, upon the hiring of an even more recent SHU journo grad: “Many times she’ll say, ‘that’s why he did that to us’ ? And then be grateful.”

A couple weeks ago I posted about a recent graduate and former Setonian editor-in-chief who said that skills she wasn’t at the time exactly thrilled I made her learn in the new media journalism program helped her land her first full-time job with benefits. Today I heard from a different former editor-in-chief, who was thrilled…

Lawyers who won Happy Birthday copyright case sue over “We Shall Overcome” 

Similar:The Media Pyramid: “Any content where ideology leads to falsehood is bad for you.”You Are the Media You Eat CultureWhat the police really believe: Inside the distinctive, largely unknown ideology of Americ…“That whole thing about the bad apple? I…CultureThe Nagus (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 11) Quark is named the financial lead…Rewatching ST:DS9 In…

Lawyers who won Happy Birthday copyright case sue over “We Shall Overcome” 

“We Shall Overcome,” a song that was the “unofficial anthem to the civil rights movement,” was wrongly placed under copyright and should be put in the public domain, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court. The complaint (PDF) was filed by the same group of lawyers who succeeded at putting the world’s most famous song, Happy Birthday, into…

The geekling is 14 today.

Similar:Carolyn and her friend Travis on Twin Day at summer camp.PersonalAdvising incoming majors.Academia"The face of the last man on Earth." #alquist #rur #robots #capek #virtual #theater Gettin…AestheticsEpic Game of Thrones pun battle. Carolyn Jerz Vs. Greg KerestanHere is the transcript the girl provided…AmusingSetting up high, medium and low levels of detail for this element of…

The Bremen Town Musicians (WAOB Audio Theatre)

My daughter plays the narrator, my wife plays the cat, and my son plays the robber. A 9-minute “All for One Stories” radio play. Produced by WAOB Audio Theatre. Similar:Squirrel noisily enjoying a nut alongside the Grotto drive at Seton Hill.PersonalSesame Street had a big plot twist in November 1986My older siblings say they remember…