One-third of Americans now own either an e-book reader or a tablet computer, according to the latest update from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. That's almost double the rate from one year earlier, and it corresponds to a decline — from 72% to 67% — in the percentage reading print books. E-book readers are typically 30 to 49 years old, have college or graduate degrees, and live in households earning more than $75,000, the report said.

Nick Diakopoulos at Nieman Journalism Lab has some words of warning about the computer tools that sites like Google use on news pages: "Even robots have biases. Any decision process, whether human or algorithm, about what to include, exclude, or emphasize — processes of which Google News has many — has the potential to introduce bias." He also defines algorithm types: Summarization, personalization, optimization, ranking, association, classification, and aggregation.

PIOs and their colleagues might have noticed a push NIH recently made to reinforce the requirement that grantee institutions provide acknowledgement of federal funding in press releases, stories, and other publicly facing items. Some of you may also have heard from NIH lately about including grant numbers in press releases and similar materials, too. Here’s what these projects are all about.

Chip Scanlan at the Poynter Institute has some thoughts on what the big guy should leave under the tree for aspiring multimedia reporters this season: "Technology has filled the journalistic toolbox with an array of innovative gadgets that enable journalists to gather and deliver the news with speed and sophistication. But which ones does a multimedia journalist need?" Top of the list: A smartphone. Most audacious choice: A remote controlled helicopter video camera.