Author Archives: Erin Berger

Why New York Times Can’t (and Shouldn’t) Go Hyperlocal

July 3rd, 2012

The New York Times has its fingers in a lot of pies. As a part of its global platforms initiative, NYT recently launched a Chinese language iteration. It also has an entire site dedicated to experimental projects. But it took only three years of dabbling in hyperlocal journalism before the Times cut the project, backing [...]

Blatantly Sexist Ad Campaigns: It’s an E.U. Thing!

July 3rd, 2012

If you haven’t seen the European Union’s “Science: It’s a Girl Thing!” video yet, prepare yourself for a cringe-filled 53 seconds. Originally intended to showcase science career opportunities for women, the video resembles a low-budget cosmetics ad dripping with nail polish and bursts of powdered colors. Not to mention the science “opportunities” appear limited to [...]

Safecast Launches Citizen Radiation Measurement Tool

June 28th, 2012

Especially in the wake of last year’s disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, one would expect readily accessible data on radiation levels to be a priority. After all, these measurements help determine the size of evacuation zones around nuclear disaster sites, not to mention the degree of biological risk involved. Unfortunately, that [...]