OJR: The Online Journalism Review

OJR front page archive for June 2005

MSNBC.com survives, thrives despite trouble between parents

June 28, 2005

As Microsoft and NBC try to ditch their 99-year MSNBC cable deal, the bright spot is their joint Web venture, which tops the charts and sports a user-oriented redesign. The honcho of MSNBC.com tells us how they did it.

Online communities: Growing an Internet garden

June 23, 2005

Cultivating an online community is similar to growing a garden in real life. For example, you have to prepare the ground (choose the software), plant the seeds (start discussions) and even get rid of the weeds (trolls).

Chinese bloggers run the gauntlet of forced registration, censorship

June 21, 2005

Bloggers in China must register with the government, and they can't use certain words in MSN Spaces blog titles. But they have ingenuity and strength in numbers, according to a roundtable of experts.

And why not a wiki?: Blogosphere lights up over 'wikitorials'

June 16, 2005

Commentary: Rather than trashing editorial pages altogether, why not reinvigorate them with just the kind of online innovation recently suggested by the L.A. Times?

Contest gets the lowdown on what makes readers forward links

June 14, 2005

The Contagious Media Showdown sought who could create the most popular Web site in 22 days. While winners such as Forget-Me-Not Panties seem obvious now -- their winning strategies are not.

Collective power: 'Smart mobs' connect, share information on Net

June 10, 2005

Groups of like-minded people will continue to use smart technologies to stay smart, say experts at Germany's Trend Day conference. They already impact the Web -- but at what price?

When Web print stories disappear, the meaning of 'archives' fades

June 7, 2005

When an editor pulls stories due to reader complaints or fears of spreading teen suicides or helping the competition, is the site still the record of the newspaper? Ethicists and editors decry the practice.

Bosnian media face post-war reporting challenges

June 5, 2005

As Bosnia moves forward with war crimes trials, training unbiased reporters will be the key to breaking the county's wartime media propaganda cycle.

Companies subvert search results to squelch criticism

June 1, 2005

It's not illegal, but it's SEO gone bad. Companies such as Quixtar are using Google-bombing, link farms and Web spam pages to place positive sites in the top search results -- which pushes the negative ones down.