The rise of the reader: journalism in the age of the open web [Article]

Katherine Viner is the editor-in-chief of Guardian Australia. This is the text of her AN Smith lecture in Melbourne during October. Or you can watch the hour-long video here.

A newspaper is complete. It is finished, sure of itself, certain. By contrast, digital news is constantly updated, improved upon, changed, moved, developed, an ongoing conversation and collaboration. It is living, evolving, limitless, relentless.

Newer tools are overwhelming established industries – and journalism is no different. A more recent story here.

The limits of investigative journalism – Jay Rosen [Essay]

Prof. Jay Rosen’s cover story in the American Review about the limits of investigative journalism tries to explain why some stories take on a life of their own & become purveyors of change, while others languish in the dark before dying prematurely. Worth a read.

The cost of the tummy tuck, photographed [Article]

Found this website devoted to photography that documented the impact that cosmetic surgery is having in South Korea.

South Korean photographer Ji Yeo created a series called Beauty Recovery Room that graphically shows the fixation with cosmetic procedures. Post-operative surgery women are shown in their respective recovery rooms, black and blue, some of them obviously in some kind of pain, all more than willing to endure the agonizing process to achieve an unnatural look.

NSFW, discretion advised.

Why even photographic evidence can be mistaken [Article]

Are the pictures that you see on the news real or fake? What happens when the pictures that the news agecy has published prove to be wrong? David Turner writing in the Nieman Reports reminds journalists to verify news – major or minor – that they discover on social media. Also a reminder for readers to be aware of media bias.

The Story of an eyewitness – the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco [Article]

Jack London wrote about the 1906 earthquake that almost destroyed the city. Om Malik shared a link to this story that makes the tragedy come alive a century later.

San Francisco, at the present time, is like the crater of a volcano, around which are camped tens of thousands of refugees At the Presidio alone are at least twenty thousand. All the surrounding cities and towns are jammed with the homeless ones, where they are being cared for by the relief committees. The refugees were carried free by the railroads to any point they wished to go, and it is estimated that over one hundred thousand people have left the peninsula on which San Francisco stood. The Government has the situation in hand, and, thanks to the immediate relief given by the whole United States, there is not the slightest possibility of a famine. The bankers and business men hare already set about making preparations to rebuild San Francisco.