Category: Class
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Advertising Revenue is Dying
The key findings of a Tow Report written by Elizabeth Anne Watkins say it all, but there is one in particular that gets to the crux of the matter. “The hyperefficient market for programmatic display ads has driven down their prices, reducing revenue for publishers.” This, combined with the way ads impact the user experience, is killing…
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Content Matters, So Let’s Change the Structural Convention
“[T]he way we structure content says a lot about the values we share.” One argument I have made for many years is that language matters. In an article for The Think Company, Dave Thomas illustrates clearly why. Using The New York Times as an example, Thomas talks about conventions specifically surrounding gender. If we learn to expect that a woman’s…
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SEO Versus Quality Control: Where is the line between optimization and staying afloat?
In the Boston Globe article Confessions of a professional clickbait writer, Ben Kissam touches on some of the controversy surrounding the different approaches to driving traffic. “I’m not paid to write beautiful prose; I’m paid to grab eyeballs.” The article as a whole has a light, almost sarcastic tone. Kissam seems to both criticize the lack…
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Lit Mags and Reading Fees: What is the Solution?
For a number of years now, reading fees have been a hot topic in the writing community. Why should we be paying to be rejected? These fees have become a norm, with many prestigious (and not so prestigious) journals succumbing to relying on the writers looking to be published for their support. Some of these…
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Online Communities
Instead of the normal Tuesday Review, you lovely folks get to enjoy a class assignment examining online communities—kind of like what I’m trying to build here. What makes a community? According to Merriam-Webster: “a unified body of individuals[.]” These individuals may gather because of common interests, geographic location, shared characteristics, and other such similarities. Are…
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A Review of “Club Plum”
“Club Plum is a house party. We play all the good music. The DJ dances and laughs and knows that today is yesterday, and today is tomorrow, and pain is forever, so we’ve got to crack out the joy and ride the beat.” Thea Swanson | founding editor of Club Plum Club Plum is very…
Nic Job 