NYT_word-list

We witnessed the birth of the world wide web, and since its inception we've seen Moore's law of exponential growth take hold of the technology, manifesting itself into the high speed information exchange that exists today. For many of us the easily accessible information might as well be an enormous playground, but some see it simply as a threat to the status quo.

At the forefront of the anti-internet fear mongering we find pundits, journalists, and newspaper companies doing everything from condemning the blogosphere to flat out admitting their fear of extinction. These reactions aren't shocking, they're akin to telegraph operator's distaste for the telephone and the 35 mm purist's cries of blasphemy when digital photography was introduced. Canon and Nikon couldn't afford to head those cries, and now polaroid has ceased production of its famous film. Although unfortunately technological paradigm shifts can result in layoffs and bankruptcies, it's impossible to imagine the world today had the machine-breaking Luddites prevented mechanized looms from revolutionizing the garment industry.

The New York Times on the other hand is heading in the right direction. Rather than condemning the internet's accessibility, the Times is accessing its site to mine data for its own benefit. Nieman Journalism Lab obtained a memo sent out to NY Times reporters and we now have access to a list of the 50 most frequently looked up words by NY Times readers online. At the top of the list is the Latin word su generis, roughly meaning "one of a kind." The site has an application (query.nytimes.com) that allows readers to highlight a word and obtain the definition. Some of the words are relative to current events like swine and pandemic, while there are also words that every American should know like glut, and others like neologism that are all too appropriate.

As far as we know the New York Times didn't intend for its audience to know about this memo, it was created to give reporters insight into their reader's vocabulary based quandaries, but it may in fact have a different effect. This could be the perfect campaign for transitioning into the inevitable mass media makeover. The memo going viral not only informs those of us not aware of the query.nytimes.com application, but it also gives NY Times readers confidence in the paper's ability to harness access to online information. Along with being easily accessible, up-to-date, and multi-media capable, it looks as though the digital news media has found another leg up in the information industry. However, on the plus side for newsprint editions, I tried smearing Silly Putty all over my computer screen and when I pulled it up all I got was some dust and a few finerprints.

You can see the full New York Times 50 most inquired about words here.

by: Scott Starrett

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The New York Times Knows Something We Don’t

June 24, 2009 communication, culture, The Rathaus

NYT_word-list

We witnessed the birth of the world wide web, and since its inception we’ve seen Moore’s law of exponential growth take hold of the technology, manifesting itself into the high speed information exchange that exists today. For many of us the easily accessible information might as well be an enormous playground, but some see it simply as a threat to the status quo.

At the forefront of the anti-internet fear mongering we find pundits, journalists, and newspaper companies doing everything from condemning the blogosphere to flat out admitting their fear of extinction. These reactions aren’t shocking, they’re akin to telegraph operator’s distaste for the telephone and the 35 mm purist’s cries of blasphemy when digital photography was introduced. Canon and Nikon couldn’t afford to head those cries, and now polaroid has ceased production of its famous film. Although unfortunately technological paradigm shifts can result in layoffs and bankruptcies, it’s impossible to imagine the world today had the machine-breaking Luddites prevented mechanized looms from revolutionizing the garment industry.

The New York Times on the other hand is heading in the right direction. Rather than condemning the internet’s accessibility, the Times is accessing its site to mine data for its own benefit. Nieman Journalism Lab obtained a memo sent out to NY Times reporters and we now have access to a list of the 50 most frequently looked up words by NY Times readers online. At the top of the list is the Latin word su generis, roughly meaning “one of a kind.” The site has an application (query.nytimes.com) that allows readers to highlight a word and obtain the definition. Some of the words are relative to current events like swine and pandemic, while there are also words that every American should know like glut, and others like neologism that are all too appropriate.

As far as we know the New York Times didn’t intend for its audience to know about this memo, it was created to give reporters insight into their reader’s vocabulary based quandaries, but it may in fact have a different effect. This could be the perfect campaign for transitioning into the inevitable mass media makeover. The memo going viral not only informs those of us not aware of the query.nytimes.com application, but it also gives NY Times readers confidence in the paper’s ability to harness access to online information. Along with being easily accessible, up-to-date, and multi-media capable, it looks as though the digital news media has found another leg up in the information industry. However, on the plus side for newsprint editions, I tried smearing Silly Putty all over my computer screen and when I pulled it up all I got was some dust and a few finerprints.

You can see the full New York Times 50 most inquired about words here.

by: Scott Starrett

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