William Powers
Recent articles by William Powers
Finding Peace in Colombia
A thrill seeker surrenders to South America’s scariest nation.
Crowd Control
Everybody's buzzing about citizen journalism. But the "journalism" could use some editing.
Who Are We?
The flap over journalists making political donations confirmed the widespread suspicion that media outlets are hiding something. But it doesn't have to be this way.
The Daily Dose
Two multipart newspaper series provided intriguing looks at Dick Cheney and Mitt Romney.
In Their Element
Bill and Hillary Clinton are the media's dream team. They never become old news.
Bee Afraid
Into the summer news void steps science, with stories of disappearing bees.
The Golden Gaffe
Why the story of John Edwards's $400 haircuts has taken on a life of its own.
The Dead Can Dance
Journalists are using the deaths of prominent people to comment on current-day problems.
Digging Murdoch
The idea that The Wall Street Journal needs Rupert Murdoch is a howler.
Dancing Horses
What a dancing horse tell us about the way digital technology is changing political news.
The Biggest Niche
Do we need a 24-hour radio channel devoted to presidential campaign coverage?
Trading Places
Not so long ago, when a journalist interviewed a presidential candidate, the news was about what the politican said. But as the flap over Katic Couric shows, the old rules no longer apply.
We're in the Money
In their presidential campaign coverage, the media have spoken: Raise gobs of money, or die.
Mutual Suspicion
New and old media vet one another's work, helping consumers decide what not to read.
Karma Chameleons
Like movies and professional sports, the mega-story is a social glue. But it can also be short-lived.
Twinkie Time
The recent dustup between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama over remarks by David Geffen was a classic specimen of the wispy stuff of modern campaign coverage.
Toot, Toot
As the Walter Reed story shows, in the solar system of journalism, newspapers are the sun.
Brand Aid
It took decades for the media to catch on, but now they're branding with a vengeance.
Look Sharp
Newspapers are run by people who care a lot about words and very little about design.
What Goes Up
Barack Obama has everything going for him except what he really needs right now: a massive media disaster.
Mirror, Mirror
For better or worse, the Scooter Libby trial offers a glimpse into Washington as it really is.
Over the Hedge
The media are so saturated with coverage of the very wealthy, the story line is losing its novelty.
Let's Get Small
Smaller is considered better for most media delivery devices. But for The Wall Street Journal?
The Match Game
Pairing content with medium has become a make-or-break art in today's media world.
The Authority Question
As the Charles Stimson controversy shows, the media establishment still speaks with authority.
Serious Puff
The Web sites of the 2008 presidential hopefuls are a rich vein of information.
Let's Talk About Us
The more journalism declines into depression, the more journalists obsess about themselves.
Fa La La La La
'Tis the season for ringing the holiday bells instead of sounding the death knell for journalism.
Viva, Vox Pop
Polls get all the attention because we are a numbers-obsessed culture. But there's another conduit for America's moods.
The Scandal Factory
Scandals used to be rare and unpredictable. Today, they're common and routinized.
Snow Country
The largely positive coverage of White House press secretary Tony Snow suggests that the media care more about pure gamesmanship than the principles underlying the game.
The Personality Test
Personality will be decisive in determining which kinds of media outlets survive.
After the Fall
If Republicans lose control of the House or Senate in November, don't be surprised if the media start tearing into the war in Iraq as they have never done before. The pack will smell blood.
Driven to Despair
By playing the alarmist, the media reinforce the notion that newspapers have no future.
The Star Chamber
The broadsheets' lack of verve for celebrity coverage has been on display in recent days.
Put Up Your Dukes
America needs to have a loud argument about the role of the press in a time of war and terrorism.
Invisible Greed
The media are letting the rich off the hook with their coverage of philanthropy.
The Bard of the Bubble
For informed real estate coverage, look for David Streitfeld's byline in the Los Angeles Times.
Sticking to the Pan
Leisure coverage may not be weighty stuff, but it could be the golden egg that saves newspapers.
Invasion of the Netroots
The latest fashion accessory on the campaign beat is something called "netroots."
The Media Royals
Watching the media cover its own superstars can induce a kind of cognitive dissonanace.
They're Easy
Media outlets could be a lot more discriminating about the attention they lavish on some people.
Making Whoopee
When it comes to the gathering and selling of news, fun is a deeply serious matter.
This Leaky World
Other countries are struggling with the same questions we're facing about anonymous sources.
Gore: The Game
Does Al Gore most resemble Tom Cruise, David Blaine, or Richard Nixon?
Sweet Hierarchy
Online media could learn something about news hierarchy from their old-media brethren.
Everything Old Is New
Cutting-edge media outlets could borrow an idea or two about news coverage from the past.
Do the Midterm Twist!
From a news point of view, midterm elections exist for one reason: to kill the boredom.
The Media Kvetch
Contrary to popular belief, we may be witnessing a high-water mark in the media's evolution.
The Fedora Gap
A little Jared Paul Stern color would be nice right now in White House-land.
Annual Fixation
Anniversaries are a media tradition, but are they also becoming a growth industry.
Those Busted Blogs
Blogs find themselves in the same place as newspapers: not half as popular as they'd like to be.
Tippecanoe and Katie, Too
It's time we started choosing network anchors in a truly democratic way, through free and fair elections.
The Alpha Story
Given how grave things still are in Iraq, why is the war not an Alpha Story for the media?
Good and Grumpy
Grumpy old media guys like Ted Koppel and Dan Rather are ubiquitous these days, but they serve as a useful foil to hip, clever, happening zeitgeist jockeys.
'Toon Terrific
The range and thoughtfulness of opinion in U.S. newspapers about the Muslim cartoon conflagration was an object lesson in what liberal democracy is all about.
What Torino Teaches
The media's coverage of the Olympics has itself become a kind of spectator sport, revealing all sorts of lessons about how journalists cover contests, including political ones.
Profiles in Plastic
What's frustrating about much of the coverage of 2008 presidential hopefuls is how unoriginal and old-fashioned it is. More attention needs to be paid to the image-makers at the core of the business of politics, and not just to the candidates.
Win, Lose, Draw
Government and media are always struggling for power. So who's winning now?
The Happy Dance
Tech news these days is a sort of comfort food—happy talk about happy new products.
Who Needs Hollywood?
Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay are giving Hollywood celebrities a run for their money.
Mags Alive
The decline of newspapers makes sense in every way. Are magazines also endangered?
Getting Bob
Why are some journalists giddily celebrating Bob Woodward's fall from grace?
Bye-Bye, Bubble
Bad news for the media: The real estate bubble is fading away as a story.
Breaking Up With Google
Journalists have been making savage love to Google for several years now. Will it last?
Get Happy
There are good reasons to view media scandals as encouraging developments.
The First Shall Be Last
Why is the race to be first still such a dominant force in journalism? After all, times have changed.
Booming On
If you can stand the narcissism, it's instructive to watch Baby Boomers grow old through the media.
Love Is in the Air
Barack Obama is the one Democrat who elicits a McCain-like swoon from media people.
Star-Crossed
When there's a real disaster, celebrity journalists can distract needlessly from an urgent story.
Welcome Back, Carter
In the media's telling, the Bush White House is becoming That '70s Show.
Six Billion Harriets
The controversy over her nomination highlights the credentialism debate at issue throughout society, including the news business.
Crisis of Faith
When it comes to scandals, The New York Times and the Catholic Church have a lot in common.
Storm Surge
Katrina let news people step into the classic roles journalists have been playing since time began.
Paper Loss
The Wall Street Journal's new Weekend Edition, which made its debut last Saturday, is like a scary cyborg of The Journal—it has a convincing, lifelike resemblance, but no heart or soul inside.
Hello, Goodbye
Mega-stories have their own life cycles. And they often disappear before we should be done with them.
Look Back in Wonder
David Shaw of the Los Angeles Times helped change the way the media covers the abortion debate.
Alive in London
The BBC News Web site feels the way great newspapers have always felt—vital, intelligent, crisp, and lucid.
Past, Present, and Peter
The media are missing the mark in using Peter Jennings's death to lament the state of network news.
The China Canard
China has become the place to be, the beating heart of media buzz.
The Gloom Gang
The court ruling against Judith Miller shouldn't prompt the press to declare the end of free journalism in America, as so many media crape-hangers are eager to do.
If Newspapers Were Lattes
Newspaper executives could learn a thing or two from Starbucks about serving the needs of customers.
A Media Supreme
A high-pressure story like the confirmation fight is a brutal test of the quality of the media.
Bio Exhaustion
The season of political biography is here again. Media people are political groupies at heart, and nothing fascinates them more than imagining they live among giants, and actually get to know them personally.
Throat Clearing
The resolution of the Deep Throat mystery didn't clear up much of anything for the media.
The Buffoonery of 'Balance'
Republicans should recognize that liberal broadcasting has real value, of the Machiavellian kind, for them.
Anchors Away!
Old or young? Diva or Commentator? A look at the theories about the perfect television news anchor.
The Good Uncle
Why is the media coverage of Warren Buffet muted, lacking in verve, and often downright sympathetic?
Will Work for Food
Newspapers are going to great lengths to stop the readership decline.
Conventionally Yours
Media scandals are becoming as routinized as a Japanese tea ceremony, although the scandals differ hugely.
The Human Touch
The news media could learn something from Oprah Winfrey about admitting one's own flaws.
Middle March
More and more establishment news operations are giving the blogging form a whirl.
Storm Troopers
The more people in politics and the media talk about "the perfect storm," the less they actually say.
Sleeping With the Enemy
The hubbub over a blogger getting inside the White House briefing room shows that the blogging story has become a cottage industry—a cultural fashion trend.
The Extrapolation Fallacy
Even talking about "the media" is beginning to seem absurd. Yet we still do it every day.
Gas Bubble
Like economics itself, economic journalism is a dismal, foggy realm where the hapless news consumer is constantly bumping into weird conditionals and subjunctives.
The Canary's Song
Other presidents had ways of at least seeming to be humble. George W. Bush doesn't.
The Agony of Victory
The worst thing that could happen to New England would be for the Patriots to win the Super Bowl.
The Immortality Race
Social security faces possible disaster because a lot of people are living into their 80s and 90s. Meanwhile, the new number to beat is 100.
Why Blogs Are Like Tulips
Bloggers are bold and beautiful today, but like tulips in the 17th century, they could soon fade.
Politics on the Brain
As this week's Washington hoopla demonstrated, politics is n ow a full-on national obsession.
The Tsunami Effect
Calamities that take up residence in the collective mind tend to share certain features.
The Massless Media
With the mass media losing their audience to smaller, more targeted outlets, we may be headed for an era of noisy, contentious press reminiscent of the 1800s.