Bloggasm

This list is fairly anemic, but I’ve been busy this week and haven’t had much internet-surfing time. Anyway, here are some media-related links:

1. Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point is one of the first Big Idea books of the 21st century — and though it presents a number of ideas about how trends spread, the notion that most people found intriguing was the fact that a small number of “influencers” were responsible for huge trends. Well, a man named Duncan Watts has devoted his life to proving Gladwell wrong.

2. Here are some pictures of workplaces in Web 2.0 companies. My favorite is the Craigslist pics — it looks like the company is run out of an apartment.

3. Waxy caught a PR flack link spamming social networking and media sites to promote The Times (UK). Given that so many desperate get-rich-quick bloggers spam these sites every day, I was rather unperturbed after reading this news.

4. Yes, I realize that Clinton is a minority and Obama is a minority. When did it become the trend amongst journalists to try to predict how other minorities will vote for each one? First there were the blacks, then there were the Latinos. With this next minority it’s just getting ridiculous: The Jews
. Update: They’re also apparently fighting over the gays. This is beyond parody.

5. A cool profile of a niche blogger who writes about immigration issues.

6. With some of the major news magazines like Newsweek and Time, so many reporters have contributed to investigating a story that it’s almost misleading to give a byline to a single person. One Newsweek journalist talks about his own experience grappling with this problem.