Laura Sydell
Laura Sydell fell in love with the intimate storytelling qualities of radio, which combined her passion for theatre and writing with her addiction to news. Over her career she has covered politics, arts, media, religion, and entrepreneurship. Currently Sydell is the Digital Culture Correspondent for NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and NPR.org.
Sydell's work focuses on the ways in which technology is transforming our culture and how we live. For example, she reported on robotic orchestras and independent musicians who find the Internet is a better friend than a record label as well as ways technology is changing human relationships.
Sydell has traveled through India and China to look at the impact of technology on developing nations. In China, she reported how American television programs like Lost broke past China's censors and found a devoted following among the emerging Chinese middle class. She found in India that cell phones are the computer of the masses.
Sydell teamed up with Alex Bloomberg of NPR's Planet Money team and reported on the impact of patent trolls on business and innovations particular to the tech world. The results were a series of pieces that appeared on This American Life and All Things Considered. The hour long program on This American Life "When Patents Attack! - Part 1," was honored with a Gerald Loeb Award and accolades from Investigative Reporters and Editors. A transcript of the entire show was included in The Best Business Writing of 2011 published by Columbia University Press.
Before joining NPR in 2003, Sydell served as a senior technology reporter for American Public Media's Marketplace, where her reporting focused on the human impact of new technologies and the personalities behind the Silicon Valley boom and bust.
Sydell is a proud native of New Jersey and prior to making a pilgrimage to California and taking up yoga she worked as a reporter for NPR Member Station WNYC in New York. Her reporting on race relations, city politics, and arts was honored with numerous awards from organizations such as The Newswomen's Club of New York, The New York Press Club, and The Society of Professional Journalists.
American Women in Radio and Television, The National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and Women in Communications have all honored Sydell for her long-form radio documentary work focused on individuals whose life experiences turned them into activists.
After finishing a one-year fellowship with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, Sydell came to San Francisco as a teaching fellow at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of California, Berkeley.
Sydell graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree from William Smith College in Geneva, New York, and earned a J.D. from Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law.
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The Iranian government has been blocking access to YouTube and Twitter. The two sites remain important communication outlets for protesters. That's because people outside Iran have volunteered their time and their computers to keep Iranians connected.
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Chinese novelists were once encouraged to address politics and society through a Communist lens. Now young writers can be as entertaining as they want on the Web. -
Yahoo is rejecting an unsolicited $44.6 billion offer from Microsoft. But it remains to be seen whether Yahoo shareholders will support a management decision to snub the software giant's bid.
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Microsoft's first priority in its unsolicited bid for Yahoo is to compete with Google for advertising revenue that comes from online searches. But the merger would bring a lot of other goodies, too.
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Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo further demonstrates its desire to compete with Google, which has dominated the Web search industry. But analysts warn that Microsoft and Yahoo each bring flawed Internet strategies to the table, while Google holds a strong hand.
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India's billion-plus population is mad for movies, and Hollywood is hungry for a piece of the Hindi film market. Sony Pictures took the plunge recently with a highbrow romance — and found itself going head to head on opening weekend with a home-grown superstar. -
The iPhone went on sale Friday, after much hype. But by Saturday, the long lines were for people who wanted to try the phones, not buy them. Everybody was curious but slow to buy as there were concerns about the carrier; No. 3 AT&T. Sentiments are mixed as to whether it has lived up to its promise.
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On this day five years ago, the iPod music player from Apple was introduced. It caught the attention of music lovers, both for what it could do -- allow them to fit much of their music in their pocket -- and for the way it looked.
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Rep. Mark Foley has been brought down not by e-mails, but transcripts of instant message (IM) "chats" his underage correspondents saved. Many people haven't thought much about where their IM messages go, and who can read them.
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Despite an atmosphere of increased security and monitoring technology, it's never been easier to assume another identity -- at least, for a little while. Filmmakers and writers are finding fodder in the ability to easily diguise oneself online.
