The 2015 World Press Freedom Index highlights the worldwide deterioration in freedom of information in 2014. Beset by wars, the growing threat from non-state operatives, violence during demonstrations and the economic crisis, media freedom is in retreat on all five continents.

The Internet has given us many glorious things: streaming movies, multiplayer games, real-time information and videos of cats playing the piano. It has also offered up some less edifying creations: web-borne viruses, cybercrime and Charles C. Johnson.

livestreaming has come into its own as a raw alternative to cable news’ slick packaging and personality-driven coverage

I love this cutaway view of Washington DC’s Evening Star Building, drawn in 1922. The building is on the National Register as a Historic Landmark and was formerly the office of The Washington Star newspaper.

Many of the people who read this article will do so because Greg Marra, 26, a Facebook engineer, calculated that it was the kind of thing they might enjoy

You would think that with all this information at my fingertips I would have known exactly what was happening on the ground. That I, like everyone else, could see how each side contributed to the escalating violence in Ferguson.

Nope. Not even close.

If you are a journalist at a print publication, your job is in danger. Period. Time to do something about it

Logically, you would expect there to be more work available now than there has ever been. Surely, with more content being required, more people are needed to create it. So why is the news industry making massive cuts and laying off staff in record numbers?

“They are ahead of us in building impressive support systems for digital journalists, and that gap will grow unless we quickly improve our capabilities,” the report warns. “Meanwhile, our journalism advantage is shrinking as more of these upstarts expand their newsrooms.”
“We are not moving with enough urgency,” it says.