[The publishing power of the Internet has opened up new possibilities for NGOs seeking to spread their messages. But is this new access changing the kinds of messages NGOs create, or is it reinforcing old paradigms? Natalie Fenton of Goldsmiths, University of London, examines how the online landscape has changed NGO communications. This is the [...]

[I've asked our nonprofit blogger extraordinaire Jim Barnett to respond to some of the ideas we've been exploring in our NGOs and the News series, cosponsored with Penn's Center for Global Communication Studies. Here's Jim's first take. —Josh]
Back in the 1980s, before they began full-blown advertising campaigns aimed directly at consumers, prescription drug companies used [...]

More knowledge is a good thing, especially when it comes from top-flight research institutions. But the launch of Futurity, a nonprofit news service specializing in science and medicine, underscores what Dan Gillmor describes as the challenge of the “almost journalist.”
Futurity was created by universities frustrated by the disappearance of newspaper reporters and column inches dedicated [...]