Historic Hawaii newspapers online

The University of Hawaii at Manoa Library announced that three Hawaii newspapers are now available online at the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website. The Library is a participant in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Library of Congress, and state projects to provide access to U.S. newspapers published between 1836 and 1922.

The Hawaii papers are:

• The Daily Herald (Honolulu, 1886-1887)
• The Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu, 1865-1916; online: 1877-1913)
• The Independent (Honolulu, 1895-1905)

According to the Library, The Daily Herald and The Hawaiian Gazette had "a conservative pro-American editorial viewpoint" and The Independent had "a strongly nationalistic Hawaiian viewpoint."

Chronicling America currently provides newspapers from 1880 to 1922 from the District of Columbia and 15 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. It aims to eventually have every state and U.S. territory represented.

Blog on blog

State of the Blogosphere, Technorati begins releasing its annual status report with, Who Are The Bloggers? A quick scan reveals the majority of bloggers to be highly educated, affluent U.S. males, aged 18-44. (Most likely the readers, too?)

For the full color pie charts, visit the three webpage report, Day 1: Who Are The Bloggers? SOTB 2009.

Good dog, bad dog

According to recent Pew surveys, Americans positively view news media as political watchdogs, discouraging leaders "from doing things that should not be done." However, just 29% of Americans think news reporting to be accurate, down from an 55% in 1985.

Partisan politics also play a role in supporting press criticism of political leaders.

In the most recent survey, 65% of Republicans said press criticism of political leaders does more good than harm; in four surveys during the Bush administration, far fewer Republicans expressed this view (51% in 2001; 43% in 2003; 44% each in 2005 and 2007).

Democrats, by contrast, have become less supportive of a watchdog role for the press than they were during the Bush administration. In September, most Democrats (55%) saw more benefit than harm from press criticism of political leaders, but that was down substantially from 71% in 2007.

What most Americans agree on is the major loss were the news media to completely disappear, including regional and national television, newspapers and websites.

News - Net surf's up

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, "an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues," published a report yesterday based on their most recent installment of the weekly News Interest Index examining news interest relating to the news media's coverage. The study found:

The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news.

They found 40% of the respondents to their questionaire say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, "and more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%)." Television is cited as being the chief source of national and international news (70%).

Internet Overtakes Newspapers As News Source - Pew Research Center for the People & the Press News Interest Index
(December 2008, pdf, 7pp/44kB)

Summary (html)

Two more for the new year

Two new year studies addressed revealing controversies in the US culture wars. The New York Times (NYT) reports of two economists' conference paper (pdf, 63pp) to this year's annual meeting of the American Economic Association. According to NYT, Professor Gordon Dahl of the University of California, San Diego, and Stefano DellaVigna, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, find

that violent films prevent violent crime by attracting would-be assailants and keeping them cloistered in darkened, alcohol-free environs.

Their paper suggests killing time at a movie is not spent in more violent behavior or tendencies.

"Economics is about choice," Professor Dahl said. "What would these people have done if they had not chosen to go and see a movie?...on days with a high audience for violent movies, violent crime is lower."

NYT quotes Melissa Henson, senior director of programs at the Parents Television Council, "The study's premise strikes me as somewhat goofy."


In 1999 the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) published a report (OpenBook, 48pp) which, according to the NAS website,

states unequivocally that creationism has no place in any science curriculum at any grade level.

However nine years later, NYT reported earlier this week that the NAS Committee on Revising Science and Creationism new book is meant to further defend and explain

the fundamental methods of science, document the overwhelming evidence in support of biological evolution, and evaluate the alternative perspectives offered by advocates of various kinds of creationism, including "intelligent design."

Including statements from biologists and members of the clergy, the report is intended for students, school boards, legislators, policy makers, and leaders of the community.

...science and religion should be viewed as different ways of understanding the world rather than as frameworks that are in conflict with each other and that the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith.

Science, Evolution, and Creationism
(2008, OpenBook, 88pp)

Plugged into science

The National Academies offers a weekly series of podcasts "focusing on a wide range of critical issues in science, engineering, and medicine." Begun in early March 2007, the many podcast topics include:

• None of Your Business: Privacy in the Information Age (Fri, 14 Sep 2007)
• Critical Issues in Transportation (Fri, 31 Aug 2007)
• Uninsured in America (Fri, 6 Jul 2007)
• Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up? (Wed, 6 Jun 2007)
• Tech Tally: Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy (Fri, 23 Mar 2007)
• Engaging Schools (Fri, 16 Mar 2007)

The shows are ten minutes in length and, like all podcasts, may be donwloaded and played on one's computer or loaded onto an MP3 player for playback on the go. The National Academies also provides a subscription link for automatic download.

The Sounds of Science Podcast - key findings and important recommendations made by The National Academies.

D.C. beat, e-style

National politics press gets a new online news provider. Recruiting writers from such established press as The Washington Post and launched January 23, The Politico self-described emphasis is "on the 'backstories' -- those that illuminate the personalities, relationships, clashes, ideas and political strategies playing out in the shadows of official Washington."

We will focus on three arenas. The first is Congress and the constant flow of agendas, personalities and power struggles that define daily life on Capitol Hill. The second is the 2008 presidential campaign, a race already churning and one likely to shape history in ways far beyond the typical election. The third is lobbying and advocacy, a part of the capital economy undergoing rapid growth and change.

With a slick, sophisticated look of an east coast news magazine, The Politico offers the expected modern, blog features of permanent links to articles and columns, reader comments interaction, and registered user access to email alerts and participation in chats and forums.