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, andNPR.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 Lostbroke 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 Lifeand 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 Laudewith 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 whole idea from the start was to build a site that could kind of infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right," says Jestin Coler, whose company, Disinfomedia, is behind some fake news sites. -
When protests over the shooting of Michael Brown turned violent in Ferguson, Mo., live-streaming videos showed Americans what they couldn't see on TV.
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Video cameras are everywhere — from those in smartphones to security cams. And just when you thought it couldn't get harder to hide, live-streaming video apps are raising new questions about privacy. -
Apple will allow users to get reports on how much their kids are using particular apps on their iPhones and iPads. The announcement follows pressure from shareholders about the overuse of technology. -
It can be frustrating when viewers try to figure out which service has what they want to watch — Netflix, Prime, Hulu? It's about to get worse as more streaming services launch this year. -
Sacramento, Calif., is one of the first U.S. cities to have 5G wireless service, and its mayor sees 5G giving the city an edge in attracting businesses and autonomous-vehicle technology. -
Following the unsealing of court documents, children's rights groups are asking the agency to open an investigation into practices that allow such purchases without parental permission. -
As its iPhone sales growth slows, Apple has been expanding its presence in health care, where privacy matters. Apple's privacy values could give it an edge, if the company lives up to them.
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They say Microsoft's contract "crossed the line" into weapons development for the first time and that the company is failing to inform its engineers "on the intent of the software they are building." -
Silicon Valley is rethinking the implications of technology that disrupts entire industries, while the man who coined the term "disruptive innovation" stands by its basic goodness.
