While local TV news was the main source for staples such as weather, traffic and breaking news, the internet was the preferred resource for finding more specific information, according to the survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project.

Local news and information is filtered best via community, perhaps even more so in the digital age. People continue to show faith in community, whether learning news via word-of-mouth at the supermarket or via local sources and neighbors on Facebook and Twitter. Fifty-five percent said they get their local news via word of mouth at least once a week compared to 74 percent for television, 51 percent for radio, 50 percent for the local newspaper, 47 percent for the Internet, and 9 percent for a printed community newsletter.

Read the rest of my post and check out the full survey at KCET’s The Public Note blog.

Here’s the story and video from ABC7. WSJ, NYT, Reuters, and Fast Company are already on it. Video and press assets can be found here. Some other goodies:
* Carmageddon promo
* Carmageddon Resistance

Let me know if you have any questions or if you’d like to get in touch with anyone at Waze!

Waze’s Citizen Traffic Connects Broadcast Media with Drivers on the Road

KABC-TV begins using real-time crowdsourced traffic data as content direct from its audience on the road 

(LOS ANGELES & PALO ALTO, Calif.) July 5, 2011 — Waze, the mobile social traffic and navigation app, is announcing today a partnership with KABC-TV in Los Angeles, Southern California’s most watched-television station. Waze is empowering the station to connect with its community of local drivers on the road for instant access to real-time traffic information and breaking news where it otherwise may not have reporters on the scene. Using Waze’s live map of users on the road, the station will be able to provide Los Angeles citizens up-to-the-minute road reports during the July 15^th weekend closure of the 405 freeway based on live feedback, incidents, and updates from Waze’s community of Los Angeles drivers. The closing 10 mile stretch is used by roughly 500,000 Los Angeles drivers on any given weekend. The “carmageddon”, as locals have dubbed it, is part of a $1bn highway improvement campaign that isn’t expected to be finished until 2013.

“There’s no question the upcoming closure of the 405 Freeway is going to seriously impact drivers in Southern California,” said Cheryl Fair, vice president and news director for KABC-TV.  “We have a responsibility to our viewers to provide real-time information, and Waze plays a big part in helping us do that. Not only can the Waze app help drivers find alternate routes, but what’s really exciting to us is how it enables our viewers to play an active part in easing the traffic congestion. While viewers use the app to get where they need to go, they’re simultaneously providing information to help their fellow drivers.”

Broadcast Media Warpath

Waze’s citizen traffic is being adopted by broadcast media around the globe, most notably in use by Channel 2, Israel’s largest news network where drivers volunteer to be called in by the station to report on live-traffic information from the ground. Stateside, Waze has also working with WBHH-TV in Southwest Florida, which has supplemented its traditional traffic feed with Waze’s citizen traffic from commuters on the road. However, this most recent partnership with KABC-TV marks the company’s first large scale media distribution in the U.S.

Milestones

The partnership coincides with Waze’s recent milestone of 4.5 million drivers in its community. The company’s growth rate is accelerating rapidly, more than doubling its active user base since its last announcement of 2 million drivers and $25MM in B-round funding last December. Waze also officially launched its service in Spain and the U.K last month, increasing its global reach and support to drivers in Western Europe.

“The use of crowdsourced traffic by major media is a huge validation of our community-based infrastructure,” said Noam Bardin, CEO of Waze. “Consumers embrace sharing information where it’s relevant and where they see real value in return. We’re happy to see that real-time traffic information is an offer they can’t refuse.”

Founded in 2009, Waze has since grown to become the world’s largest and fastest-growing community of connected drivers, reaching more than 4.5 million users in over 45 countries, worldwide. Waze is available on the Apple AppStore, the Android Market Place, the Nokia Ovi Store, RIM’s App World and Windows Market or download from m.Waze.com. To learn more about Waze online, visit www.Waze.com or follow us on Twitter at @Waze.

About Waze

Waze is a free community-based traffic and navigation app that uses real-time road reports from drivers nearby to save commuting time and improve everyday driving. Way more than just another free navigation app, Waze’s social layer is what sets it apart – giving drivers the power to work together to report and receive the most relevant traffic information available at any given moment. Plus, it actually makes commuting a whole lotta fun!

About KABC-TV

KABC-TV is the #1 rated television station in the Los Angeles area and the home of ABC7 Eyewitness News, the most watched local news coverage in LA with over 45 hours of live local news each week.  KABC-TV is also the west coast flagship of the ABC television network.

Attention-starved real estate tycoon and reality television superstar Donald Trump is going to run for president in 2012, according to the media.

Visibly embarrassed after being shamed by The President, The Donald, and The Public at large after seeing the clamp come down on a far-right fringe group called The Birthers, the media establishment gladly passed the mic off to Trump on Wednesday.

“I am so proud of myself because I’ve accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish,” an elated Trump said to a crowd of people cheering, no doubt in anticipation that the billionaire would hand out a thousand-dollar bill with every handshake.

And with that, the 64-year-old businessman who has erected major skyscrapers bearing his name in the majorest of cities became the frontrunning candidate to win the 2012 Republican Presidential primary.

Many media outlets reported that The Birthers stated an intent to scrutinize the document but failed to reference the group’s conclusion as posted on birthers.org Wednesday: “…[f]orgery or not, now we can debate the true meaning of a natural born citizen.” Whatever that means.
In today’s media climate, when even the New York Times mistakes an Onion parody cover of Teen Beat featuring President Obama as the real thing, we’re calling on Donald Trump to fill the L.A. River aqueducts with naturally flowing spring water, fund the salaries of laid-off LAUSD teachers and while he’s at it, to find life on Mars.

Perhaps I’m asking too much. “Obama Castigates Media for Helping to Propagate Racist Myth of His Un-Americanness” is clearly a pathetic, boring headline with poor grammar. There are only so many David Folkenfliks out there to do it right. But these actual headlines are far more hilarious, however fantastical:

• Why Quash the Birthers Now? – NPR, 4/27
• Could Donald Trump win the Republican presidential nomination? – WSJ Question of the Day, 4/28
• Can Trump become more than a ‘birther’ candidate? – Washington Post, 4/28
• Only one news site seemed to catch the “big” surprise on the birth certificate (Obama’s mother’s name is transversed to make her first name “Stanley,” middle name “Ann”) – Philly.com, 4/28
• Donald Trump For President, Says Joey Lawrence Of ‘Blossom’ – HuffPo, 4/28
• Donald Trump offered to take over BP oil spill operation – NOLA.com, 4/27
• Some blacks see racism in ‘birther’ questions – AP, 4/28
• Trump’s NBC colleague Lawrence O’Donnell called The Donald’s behavior an embarrassment to the network – MSNBC, 4/27
• On Twitter and elsewhere, an August 2009 headline from The Onion was reprised: “Afterbirthers Demand To See Obama’s Placenta.”

Thing is, Trump, who hasn’t voted in a primary election in 21 years, doesn’t need to run for president — he already gets more time to say whatever he wants on network TV than all past presidents combined. And do you really think The Donald’s willing to deal with “equal time?!?” Besides, when you’re a multi-billionaire with global influence it doesn’t matter who is president. You’re still rich as sin. Just ask Mike Bloomberg.

Trump, currently a registered Republican, has donated $2.5 million to various political campaigns over the years, according to a Washington Post report. Of those contributions, 54 percent were to Democratic party candidates.

Clearly what’s most important to Trump is his current reality series, Celebrity Apprentice, now going into the final three weeks of its season. There’s nothing Trump wants more than be at the top of NBC’s ratings — especially this week, going up against the final episode of The Office. Even if Trump’s show is stale and the characters are boring, the only thing that matters is what he says about himself on the show (“Trump Mulls Announcement on ‘Apprentice’ – New York Times, April 14). And now he’s got Meatloaf stumping for him.

Donald Trump is a darn clever man, a solid television personality, and a rich rich businessman. I envy him for that and can’t match him there. But if he’s a “possible Republican presidential candidate” like they keep saying on the news…. well then so am I.

This post was syndicated from LAist.com, where I am Associate Editor. A direct link to my LAist.com post index is at the top of my blog. The original post was published on April 28, 2011 at 1:15 p.m.

Click through to the videos in the presentation. Especially BP Spills Coffee. Riotous, no? But there’s truth to every bit of the parody. While BP was too focused on its record-breaking earnings and deflecting blame, it needed to address the reality of what was — and is — a very human tragedy in the eyes and on the active social networks of the public. And BP was way too late to that game.

The U.S. government just approved the first permit for deep-water drilling in the gulf since the disaster and there remains no known fix should history repeat itself. But our consumer culture didn’t get to where it is today out of an abundance of caution. This is where crisis management runs counter to traditional public relations. Organizations cannot wait to get involved on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, they must be proactively engaging and listening to their audiences. Sometimes communication is the only viable regulation.

Video and interview below as well as photos from the event.

Originally published at LAist.com.

Listen to the crowd react as Black Francis prefaces the set by recognizing the need celebrate this day and adding, “so we’re going to play 33 songs tonight….”

Can’t possibly dream up a more timely (or easier to write) press release for someone in music PR:

The band’s scheduled performance happened to fall on the very night that the 33 miners were dramatically rescued from 69 unimaginable days trapped 2000 feet below the surface of the earth.

I’m doubly envious as I felt a bit short-shrift by the last Pixies show I saw (at the Palladium this year) especially compared to a 33-song set (plus two-song encore).

“We were so moved by this story,” said Pixies’ Black Francis, “by how many lives had been affected by this, and how the Chilean people banded together to support what can only be described as a miracle. We wanted to do something to show how affected we were by this, so we played a special set at tonight’s show, 33 songs for the 33 miners, the longest set we’ve ever played as a band. We found out five minutes before we went on stage that all of the miners had safely reached the surface. This was definitely one of the most meaningful show we’ve ever played.”

The Pixies’ special 33 Songs for 33 Miners set (plus two encore songs) consisted of:

Cecilia Ann
Rock Muswic
Bone Machine
Crackity Jones
River Euphrates
Debaser
Wave of Mutilation
Monkey Gone to Heaven
I Bleed
Caribou
Cactus
Broken Face
Something Against You
Isla de Encanta
Tame
Sad Punk
Hey
#13 Baby
Gouge Away
Is She Weird
Dead
U Mass
Break My Body
Velouria
Dig For Fire
Allison
Ed is Dead
Mr. Grieves
Winter Long
Here Comes Your Man
Head On
Holiday Song
Vamos

ENCORE:
Where Is My Mind
Gigantic

Figure 1. Estimated newspaper publishing market decline in OECD countries, 2007-2009 (in per cent)

…[A] new OECD report looking at “The Future of News and the Internet”. It contains new data and analysis on the global newspaper industry and the challenges presented by the Internet. Its main message is that “large country-by-country and title-by-title differences and the data currently do not lend themselves to make the case for “the death of the newspaper”, in particular if non-OECD countries and potential positive effects of the economic recovery are taken into account.” The full report, including data and charts, is available at http://www.oecd.org/document/48/0,3343,en_2649_34223_45449136_1_1_1_1,00.html

After very profitable years, newspaper publishers in most OECD countries face declining advertising revenues, titles and circulation. The economic crisis has amplified this downward development.

About 20 out of 30 OECD countries face declining newspaper readership, with significant decreases in some OECD countries. Newspaper readership is usually lower among younger people who tend to attribute less importance to print media. In OECD countries, the general, regional and local press have been hardest hit and 2009 was expected to be the worst year for OECD newspapers, with the largest declines in the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Canada, and Spain (but much a much smaller impact on countries such as Austria, Australia (See above).

But in emerging economies, for example, the average daily paid newspaper circulation has been growing for a number of years (see Figure 2 below): by about 35 per cent in the BIICS countries from 2000 to 2008, most notably India with a 45 per cent increase in circulation between 2000 and 2008, South Africa (34 per cent) and China (an estimated 29 per cent). Other countries and continents, including Africa and South America, are also gaining readers. This rise has compensated for the drop in OECD paid circulation and led to an actual increase in the number of world newspapers – by 14 per cent from 2002-2008.

Figure 2. Paid for dailies average total daily circulation
2000-2008 (in millions). Worldwide, OECD, BIICS (Brazil, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa)

Source: OECD based on data from the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).

For more information on OECD work on the Information Economy, see here

www.oecd.org

Campaign Coverage FAIL! FoxNews has been striking out all over the place in recent weeks, along with much of the so-called Conservative media. It’s enough for them to actually go and interview this Joe the Plumber hack again but to quote his admittedly racy and barely informed point-of-view in a headline?!? It looks funny. It looks straight outta the Onion. But it’s effective as another hollow strawman for anyone reaching reaching reaching for reasons to vote for McCain.

Now I don’t disagree with Jack Shafer’s assessment today in Slate, that journalists will have us all retching upon hyperbole and re-statement to the effect that “Obama’s candidacy is momentous, without parallel, and earth-shattering, so they can’t file garden-variety pieces about the ‘winds of change’ blowing through Washington.”

At least I won’t be as ill as I was in 2004, when I couldn’t sleep for days after Bush was crowned a second time, or in 2000, when I was overseas and left to make excuses for my country’s inability to select a winner in a national election in the world’s bastion of democracy. And then, weeks later, to hand the keys to the kingdom to The Imbecile.

But I digress. The GOP doesn’t appear to have an October surprise that will stick. Not in today’s 24-hour social media climate. McCain is literally cracking himself up on the campaign trail thanking his pundits for not eating up the Hall-Obama-ween candy. Muahahaha, he might add.

Here’s a sample of what’s been brought to the table by the ever-desperate anti-Obama minority — and yes, it is a highly-unbalanced minority — in recent days:

DrudgeReportLOLWTFBBQ: The site trumpeted a headline featuring audio that was edited to change Obama’s words in a 2001 interview on Chicago Public Radio’s midday program Odyssey (which, by the way, featured the all-time best NPR theme song, as written by OKGo for host Gretchen Helfrich). WBEZ promptly delved through the archives and posted the unadulterated audio on it’s web site, along with an article clearing up the smear.

There’s the continued attempt of McCain backers (and now, apparently, the campaign itself) to get the LA Times to release video of Obama at a party for Rashid Khalidi, a former University of Chicago professor but also — or so they claim in right blogistan — a former PLO operative.

Regardless of Obama’s alleged association with Khalidi, it is McCain who is on the record has having given more than just a hug to the Palestinian sympathizer, in a relationship that dates back to 1993, according to Seth Colter Walls in the Huffington Post:

A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi’s Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, “West Bank: CPRS” on page 14 of this PDF.)

I could go on and on and if I have the time, I will. For now, prepare to eat crow, and until then you might just want to hide your hands behind your back.

WASHINGTON — The ATF says it has broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree. In court records unsealed Monday, agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target an unnamed by predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads.

How many such “plots” might be out there? How many copycats may be inspired by such reports and how many will be frightened? At least two other Obama death threats have been publicized in recent months. Personally, this makes me feel ill.