Author Archives: kruijs

Prediction Markets — Who Will Lead the Senate? Follow the Prediction Markets

By Justin Wolfers, nytimes.com, Oct 11, 2014 How would commentary on the midterm election look if economists, rather than Beltway pundits, were calling the race? You would read a lot less about personalities, gaffes and gossip, and a lot more about fundamentals like the state of the economy. And you would certainly get a more […]

About:Media — The New Editors of the Internet

Dan Gillmor, The Atlantic, Aug 22 2014 Twitter and YouTube are among a tiny group of giant companies with greater and greater power—and less and less accountability—over what we read, hear, and watch online. Who gave them this power? We did. And if we don’t take back what we’ve given away—and what’s being taken away—we’ll […]

About:Media — Why Audiences Hate Hard News—and Love Pretending Otherwise

Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, Jun 17 2014 Ask readers what they want, and they’ll tell you vegetables. Watch them quietly, and they’ll mostly eat candy. This year, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism asked thousands of people around the world what sort of news was most important to them. The graph below shows […]

Prediction Markets — Bookies may be best bet to predict Referendum

By University of Stirling, phys.org, May 28, 2014 Professor David Bell from the University of Stirling looked at using “prediction markets” – which include the gambling industry – to forecast the outcome of the referendum. He concluded that these markets often produce more accurate results than relying on opinion polls, which sample opinion on the […]

About:Media — The Supreme Court won’t intervene in the James Risen case. What’s next?

Mark Berman, The Washington Post, June 2 2014 The Supreme Court declined to step in Monday on behalf of James Risen, a New York Times reporter and author who faces potential jail time for not identifying a source. Risen is the author of the 2006 book “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA […]

About:Media — We used to read the newspaper, now the news reads us.

@stefanwehrmeyer, @annabelchurch and @pudo, Ghostery, May 2014 Sites like Facebook and Twitter are often criticised in the media for their data-based business models. Ironically, they share user behaviour with far fewer shady ad networks than the average news site. Visiting Facebook will only request data from Facebook’s own servers, while a visit to Die Welt […]

About:Media — EU Wants a ‘Right to Be Forgotten,’ But the Internet Never Forgets

Lance Ulanoff, Mashable, May 14, 2014 A top European Union court ruled on Tuesday that consumers can ask Google to remove potentially damaging content about them, also known as the preposterously-named “right to be forgotten.” One problem: It’s exactly opposite of the way the Internet should work. The EU’s action is such a fundamental misunderstanding […]

About:Media — The solutions to all our problems may be buried in PDFs that nobody reads

Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, May 8, 2014 What if someone had already figured out the answers to the world’s most pressing policy problems, but those solutions were buried deep in a PDF, somewhere nobody will ever read them? According to a recent report by the World Bank, that scenario is not so far-fetched. Nearly one-third […]

Prediction Markets — Let Prediction Markets Flourish

By Adam Ozimek, Forbes, March 23, 2014 The existing evidence is positive about these markets as forecasting and information aggregation tools. But when looking at examples where these markets have underperformed we should really remember that even when Intrade was operating legally there were significant regulatory restrictions placed upon it, and most participants were operating […]

About:Media — The First News Report on the L.A. Earthquake Was Written by a Robot

Will Oremus, Slate, March 17, 2014 It’s reasonable to expect that robo-journalism will improve over time as companies like Narrative Science refine their algorithms. And it’s remarkable that we’ve already reached a point where LAT readers can expect to encounter the phrase, “This post was written by an algorithm.” Just don’t expect the Quakebots of […]

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