In a makeover that took shape in late spring, according to head brass, Fox29 has revamped its news approach, with a brighter look, a harder edge (some call it editorializing), ramped-up audience outreach (some call it pandering), and a new stress on commentary and discussion that makes it look somewhat more like 24/7 cable news. But a range of viewers and journalists interviewed for this story say they're uneasy about the degree to which it encourages reporters like Keeley to mix viewpoint with reportage.

A humorous commercial for a Newsday ap for the iphone.

Students use social media in their daily lives, with Facebook an almost permanent fixture on the computer screen. Yet they tend not to think about social media as part of their professional toolkit as journalists. This post looks at how J schools are trying to incorporate social media in the curriculum.

The nastiness index keeps on rising, and all of us are getting sullied in the process. Media outlets, which once merely chronicled this era of hyper-partisanship, now seem to be both the purveyors and often the targets of ugly attacks.

New York magazine's Web site nymag.com has linked up with Foursquare, becoming the latest in a rash of traditional media companies to hook up with the location-based social networking service.

New kid on the block MainStreetConnect, launched in March, has set-up nine sites and is growing rapidly. The company will assemble teams of local journalists to run the sites as franchises, creating a network of independent sites. 

A definition and defense of blogging and citizen journalism.

Poynter will cultivate and incubate new entrepreneurial media models in the digital space; deepen its understanding of how citizens are consuming news in the digital era; create case studies that analyze and help the public understand the workings of the nontraditional news sector, known as the Fifth Estate, and train those nontraditional journalism practitioners in a variety of journalism areas, including ethics and accuracy.  Poynter, a school dedicated to serving journalism in the interest of democracy, aspires through this project to influence -- for the good of a democratic society -- the news values that are emerging among those who are contributing news and information to this rapidly changing media landscape.

 my head, the Fifth Estate includes the Fourth Estate, the idea and value of a professional press corps as a way of informing and engaging the populace, and holding the powerful accountable. This vision of a Fifth Estate sees the Fourth Estate as necessary but insufficient for democratic life. The Fifth Estate could express what Jay Rosen has described as a "pro-am" model for the future of news, a frame that sees that the freedoms and responsibilities of the First Amendment empower not just a professional caste of news gatherers and distributors, but potentially every citizen.

Consumption of news, information and entertainment has radically changed since 2000. Lee Rainie, the Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, presented the latest data and trends today at the Newhouse School's M.O.B. ("Monetizing Online Business") Conference. Here is his presentation, packed with interesting details.

Explore the emerging realms of digital territory where news and information reside-or will soon.

The one member from each group that will be asking questions of the panel should post ten questions here. Your questions should be based on the elements of journalism and attempt to explore whether the changes will be a positive development in the way citizens get their news.

The one person in each group who will be part of the panel should post a statement of why your form of delivering the news is a positive thing (based on the elements of journalism).

Survey of news media consumption.

Tim Armstrong , CEO of AOL, said he believes the next phase of the Internet is about content. And he told the audience at D8 that AOL is working on the "future of journalism."