Dear C4SS Supporters, This is a new feature designed to keep you up-to-date with what we’re up to here at C4SS. This report will not be as in-depth as the monthly report, but it will feature some key numbers such as: number of pickups, and number of submissions to date. It’ll also function as sort…

Welcome to Missing Comma, the new, official C4SS Media Coordinator blog. Thomas Knapp stepped down as Media Coordinator for the Center for a Stateless Society last week, leaving the job to me. He has been a force to be reckoned with here for the past five years, and his work has taken the Center from…

Ho saputo del terribile attacco agli impiegati di Charlie Hebdo da mia madre. Guardava i sottotitoli in televisione, telefono in mano, e cercava di mettersi in contatto con mio padre, che in quel momento era in viaggio in Europa. Ho sentito un’ondata di panico; è scomparsa la sensazione di essere completamente estraneo agli eventi. Mio…

I was first made aware of the horrific attack on Charlie Hebdo employees by my mother. She was watching the rolling news coverage, phone in hand, trying to contact my father who was travelling on the Eurostar at the time. A wave of panic rushed through me; the sense of being far removed from such…

L’attacco deplorevole contro il giornale satirico Charlie Hebdo, in cui dei terroristi hanno ucciso dodici persone e ferito altre undici, ha provocato diverse reazioni tra il pubblico, i media più sensibili e i capi di stato che pensano di trarne profitto politico. Nel panico generale, l’islamofobia è riemersa (per via delle ragioni religiose dell’attacco) e…

Words can hardly convey the grief and disgust felt at Wednesday’s executions of the editor, cartoonists, and others — 10 people in all — at France’s satirical weekly magazine,Charlie Hebdo. Two policemen also were killed, and 11 other people were wounded by the three fanatics who reportedly declared they were avenging the prophet Muhammad, founder of…

The deplorable attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in which terrorists killed 12 and wounded 11, incited several reactions from the public, the sensitized media, and heads of state who hope to extract political gain from the matter. Amidst the generalized panic, Islamophobia has risen once again (due to the religious motivations of the attack) and…

This morning, there are twelve people who are dead who should not be. Nine journalists, a maintenance worker and two police officers were killed at the Paris headquarters of French satire newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday. Eleven more were injured; four are still in critical condition as of this writing. Here is a list of the…

Welcome to 2015! This is Missing Comma, a media criticism and analysis blog project graciously hosted by the Center for a Stateless Society. As with last year, our continuing mission is to understand how various forms of informational media – mainly the news – interact with individuals, and vice versa. Our goal: lay down the…

It’s been about two weeks since Gamergate came to a head and I’m still trying to sort out all that happened. Lots of what I saw and read (and a lot of what people told me in conversation) suggest situations worth exploring in greater detail, and when I am able, I’ll do that here. These…

Cathy Reisenwitz announced last week that she was quitting full-time libertarian commentary to pursue a career in sales. She wrote in her blog post announcing this move that, “I want to learn to connect better. And getting successful at sales will require humility and constant feedback, and self-improvement is so incredibly important to building a…

If you’ve ever doubted that journalism is a powerful tool for undermining the state, first off, you’ve probably not been following the NSA leaks and second, this week US government officials shook in their boots so hard over some new leaks that they spoiled the Associated Press’s scoop on them. This is hardly a new practice, but I…

A week ago, we put a call out on Twitter and Facebook, as well as here at the blog, to gauge reactions to a prospective comment policy change that included “safe spaces” language. A couple of prominent figures, as well as ordinary readers, took the time to respond. On Facebook, Sharon Presley from the Association…

A long, long time ago in 2007, Alysia Santo wrote an article for the Columbia Journalism Review on the incorporation of data security into journalism classes. Since then, we’ve had the Wikileaks debacle, Snowden’s leaks and Manning’s leaks, leading to worldwide state crackdown on journalism: “I spoke with a number of journalism schools, to see…

Radio is one of those things that most people just don’t get enthusiastic about. Sure, it’s nice to have on in the background when you’re driving, but the days of gathering around the radio for the latest news, radio dramas and presidential addresses pretty much ended with the introduction of TV. Radio gave a voice…

Hi, all! My name is Juliana; I’m taking over Missing Comma for Trevor at the moment — big thank-you to Trevor for reading all of my agitated Facebook statuses about the media — but will most likely be sticking around when he’s back. I’m a journalism student at Marist College, a staunch advocate of press…

The American Journalism Review reported last week that journalists’ wages were falling behind the national average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While reporters’ wages increased from $40,000 to around $44,000 in the period between 2003 and 2013, the rest of the country rose from $36,000 to over $46,000 in the same time span….

So, this is pretty exciting. As of today, C4SS podcasts is a thing! You can grab the RSS feed here, and very soon we will have confirmation from iTunes and Stitcher Radio that we’ve been added to their sites as well. So why podcasts? Don’t y’all have YouTube? The Center does indeed have a YouTube…

C4SS Media presents Trevor Hultner‘s “Missing Comma: ‘Pass It! Consequences Be Damned!’” read by James Tuttle and edited by Nick Ford. Through their definition of who gets to be a journalist, they’re not. They are making sure that the outlets that crave the most access – the major networks, public radio, major newspapers – are the only…

What happens when the New York Police Department – famous for its racial profiling, Stop and Frisk, spying on Muslims, ripping people’s testicles out and beating up and groping protesters – tries to use Twitter to improve its public relations image? Well, people who have been stop-and-frisked, racially profiled, spied on, beat up and groped…