After hearing about an established Christian publisher recently launching an official blog for their products, I did some thinking about the relationship between the traditional publication outlets and social media.

I’m sure that traditional publishers have a relatively large budget for print advertising, but it seems that they are very slow to hire professionals to do serious social media work, blogging, and online advertising. This seems true at least in the academic markets and relative to their print marketing outreach. And the blogs that publishers do have are usually not very good, although there are exceptions.

Read more on Some Thoughts on Social Media and Publishing…

Edmund Burke: "…in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all."

In today’s Acton Commentary, “The State of the Fourth Estate,” I argue that the profession of journalism must be separable from traditional print media.

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This morning we opened the final day of GodblogCon 2008 with an exclusive premiere of the Acton Institute’s new documentary, The Birth of Freedom.

I had occasion to think about one of the more compelling parts of the film when I came across this blog post from Justin Taylor. JT shares a section from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s address at Western Michigan University, December 18, 1963.

Read more on GBC 08: The Birth of Freedom…

The first full day of programming at GodblogCon 2008 has begun, and the first session was from Andrew Jones, “The Missional Church in the Internet Age.” There was a marked contrast in attitudes towards new media between Jones’ (missional) talk and the following session, led by Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio. I think John may have more to say on this later.

Read more on GBC 08: The Beginning of the End…

We are one week away from the beginning of GodblogCon 2008. For the second year in a row the Acton Institute is a sponsor of the event, and we’re proud be be a part of the premier gathering of bloggers and new media connoisseurs. Other sponsors include the founding institutions behind GBC, Biola University and the Torrey Honors Institute. Crossway Books & Bibles, which is publishing the forthcoming Stewardship Resource Bible, is also a sponsor of the event (Acton research scholar Stephen Grabill is general editor of the Stewardship Resource Bible).

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GodblogCon 2008 is two weeks away. The Acton Institute is a proud sponsor of this event, held in conjunction with the BlogWorld & New Media Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center, September 20-21.

Read more on A Fortnight of Anticipation: GBC 2008…

By almost any measure, the first Right Online conference, as part of the Defending the American Dream summit in Austin, TX, has to be judged a success.

The organizers of the event weren’t sure quite what to expect. How many bloggers and new media folks would attend? On the first day the summit organizers had to rely on special support given by the hotel because initially there were not enough lunches available…there were so many more people in attendance than they had expected or even hoped.

Read more on Right Online Austin: Politics and Christianity…

An excellent talk by from the Media Research Center, “Understanding and Critiquing Old Media,” opened today’s afternoon session at Austin’s Right Online summit. The speakers clarified some basics about journalism, such as the fact that typically reporters don’t write their own headlines (copy editors do) or that there is an unofficial reporter’s code of ethics from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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The Sam Adams Alliance hosted a session titled “Samsphere” here in Austin, Texas at the Defending the American Dream conference. After a brief biography of American Founder Samuel Adams, discussions turned to improving networking and message organization for individuals and groups committed to freedom and political liberty.

Read more on Right Online Austin: Samsphere Session…

The PowerBlog is well-represented this weekend at the Defending the American Dream Summit in Austin, Texas. Ray Nothstine and I have made the trek to Texas to engage and learn from a variety of organizations seeking to bring the power of new media to bear on the conservative movement.

Read more on Defending the American Dream…