California Watch is making a little news today. We’re announcing new partnerships to distribute our investigative journalism.

With many of the state’s best and biggest newspapers aboard, we have launched the California Watch Media Network. It represents a step forward in the development of our business model and in our collaborative approach to watchdog reporting.

Last year we produced more than 40 investigative and enterprise stories – journalism that made a significant impact. We produced stories that changed laws, prompted policy reform and even led to a criminal arrest. Continue Reading

Almost everything is subject to constant change due to the influence of modern technology and so is the media identity card being issued to the journalists this year, said Mass Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella at the Media Identity Cards presentation event held at the Media Ministry yesterday.

”The media identity card is very important for journalists. Foreign journalists who visit Sri Lanka for short assignments need this identity card within a short time. Some times they spend only one or two days in Sri Lanka. They need it for that period. It is useless if it takes 72 hours to issue it to them. The new media identity card is made using digital technology, and would take only a short time to issue,” he said.

In the near future all data integrated ID card with even the holder’s blood group included, will be issued, which can be used as an all purpose ID card, he said. The Government Information Department commenced to issue the media identity card for journalists in 1984 and it soon became popular. Since then the department has issued media identity cards for journalists annually adopting a methodical system. The latest media identity card issued by the Department for this year has been made using digital technology,” the Minister said. Information and Media Ministry Secretary W B Ganegala, Director General Ariyaratne Athugala and many others were present at the media ID cards presentation event.

By Nadira Gunatilleke

SOURCE: http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/01/27/news51.asp

From mind of Broadway performer Josh Gad

BBC Worldwide Productions is launching an original Web series created by Broadway performer Josh Gad (pictured), who is soon to star in The Book of Mormon, the musical created by the South Park team Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

The new comedy series, Gigi: Almost American, features a clueless foreigner pursuing an average American lifestyle. Beside Gad, who recently appeared in Love and Other Drugs, Gigi also features the comedy troupe The Lost Nomads.

“Josh Gad is a tremendous talent and his comedic gifts, along with those of his fellow Lost Nomads troupe members, make Gigi an inspired and innovative series, in line with the quality programming viewers expect from the BBC,” said Jane Tranter, evp and head of BBC Worldwide Productions.

The 10-episode Web series, a first for BBC, is being distributed on My Damn Channel, home to Web hits such as You Suck at Photoshop.

- Mike Shields

SOURCE: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3ic632406c267d6dcb67e92309101ba078

RISMEDIA, January 27, 2011—The medium of video can be utilized in many different ways in the real estate business. It can showcase specific listings, provide an overview of a market, or in the case of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, David Winans & Associates, it can be the basis for a new comedy Web series.

Touted as “a comedy about life, love and real estate,” “The Agent,” (launching soon at http://theagent.tv) follows Justin (Andrew Milbourne), a young man who accidentally stumbles upon the industry and his new job as a REALTOR®. The unprecedented series will unravel over the course of 10 episodes, each with its own storyline, while following an underlying plot showcasing the quirks of an agent’s daily life in the field.

By Nick Caruso

SOURCE: http://rismedia.com/2011-01-26/dallas-broker-turns-heads-with-new-web-comedy-series-the-agent/

Kiefer Sutherland follows his turn in “24″ with a new project — a new Web-only action series called “The Confession,” which also will star John Hurt. Mr. Sutherland is also one of the executive producers.

Online video service Hulu will carry the series.

“The Confession” explores the conflict between good and evil, with Mr. Sutherland playing a hit man and Mr. Hurt a priest who hears his confession. The story line will feature flashbacks to the events that brought the characters to this point.

The series will have 10 short episodes (around five minutes) and is set to premiere in March.

“The Confession” is distributed by the digital network Digital Broadcasting Corp.

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Pingdom, a company that monitors websites and servers, spent a busy year in 2010 measuring traffic on the Web.

According to Pingdom’s recently released survey, there are 1.97 billion Internet users on planet Earth as of June 2010. Asia has the most (825.1 million). North American has 266.2 million.

People sent 107 trillion e-mails in 2010: 89.1 percent of them were spam.

There were 255 million websites as of December 2010 and 152 million blogs.

Social networking and microblogging sites also contributed significantly to online traffic flow. Facebook had 600 million users by the end of 2010, and added 250 million new users during the year. There were 175 million people on Twitter by September 2010.

People watched 2 billion videos a day on YouTube and more than 2 billion a month on Facebook.

Pingdom culled the statistics from a number of sources, including Pew Research Center, Comscore, Facebook, Twitter, TechCrunch and TwitterCounter.

For the full survey results, go to: http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/01/12/internet-2010-in-numbers/
SOURCE: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11023/1119546-67.stm#ixzz1CAxQY5fp

Adrian McCoy: amccoy@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1865.