How About Diversifying Newsrooms for a Change?

Media organizations would benefit from fresh faces from a variety of backgrounds; protesters want the Gates Foundation to stop giving money to private prisons; meanwhile, a man is serving a life sentence in prison for lending his friend a car and going to bed. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

New Media, Old Problem: Where’s the Diversity? Diversifying newsrooms can be profitable for media organisations.

Cell Phones Used as Medical Instruments in Africa, Asia; US May Change Regulatory Policy Cell phones are being used as medical instruments in underdeveloped nations, extending highly cost-effective health care to underserved villages and rural areas.

Mystery Man Took 445 Photo-Booth Self-Portraits Over 30 Years The man sat down in the booth, pulled the curtain shut, posed, and waited for the click.

Israeli Social Media Analyst: ‘No Desire for a Violent Intifada’ “We Israelis love talking about peace, but we’re less interested in what goes on with others,” says Tel Aviv resident Orit Perlov, 33, a researcher with the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) and an expert on analyzing developments and in-depth trends in Arab societies, using social media networks.

Ultra-Orthodox Request Gender-Segregated University Study Issues of religion, state and multiculturalism raise significant questions about values and politics everywhere.

The Commons as a Rising Alternative to State and Market Jeremy Rifkin’s new book, The Zero Marginal Cost Society, brings welcome new attention to the commons just as it begins to explode in countless new directions.

How the Modern Office Shapes American Life Each year, the average American spends nearly 2,000 hours working.

The Seductive Allure of Wars We’re Not Winning For better or worse, ours is today a warlike nation that depends on volunteers to fill the ranks of its armed forces.

If You Thought China’s Air Was Bad, Try the Water On Friday the government of Lanzhou, China, informed its 3.6 million residents that their drinking water would be carcinogenic for the next 24 hours.

Radical Quilting: Contribute To The Drones Quilt Project The idea for a Drones Quilt came from some women in the UK who started the project as a way to memorialize the victims of U.S. combat drones.

Inside the FBI’s Secret Relationship with the Military’s Special Operations When U.S. Special Operations forces raided several houses in the Iraqi city of Ramadi in March 2006, two Army Rangers were killed when gunfire erupted on the ground floor of one home.

Protesters Want Gates Foundation To Stop Investing In Private Prisons About two dozen immigrant-rights advocates and other demonstrators gathered outside the Gates Foundation’s offices recently, demanding it dump its investments in one of the nation’s largest operators of private prisons.

How Lending A Friend Your Car, Then Going to Bed Can Land You a Life Prison Sentence Ryan Holle, who had no prior record, is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole in Florida.