Rick Karr
Rick Karr contributes reports on the arts to NPR News. He is a correspondent for the weekly PBS public affairs show Bill Moyers Journal and teaches radio journalism at Columbia University.
From 1999 to 2004, he was NPR's lead arts correspondent in New York, focussing on technology's impact on culture. Prior to that, he hosted the NPR weekend music and culture magazine show Anthem, and even earlier in his career, worked as a general assignment reporter and engineer at NPR's Chicago bureau.
Rick was nominated for an Emmy award for his 2006 PBS documentary Net @ Risk, which made the case that the U.S. is falling far behind other nations with regard to the speed and power of its internet infrastructure. He's also reported for the PBS shows NOW and Journal Editorial Report.
Rick is a member of the songwriters' collective Box Set Authentic. He lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with his wife, artist Birgit Rathsmann.
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Thousands of musicians, music industry insiders and fans descend on Austin, Texas, this week for the 18th annual South by Southwest festival. At a time when employee layoffs and declining sales plague the music industry, the festival continues to grow. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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People over the age of 35 tell market researchers they'd buy more music if they didn't have to wade through racks of CD geared for 18-year-olds, read magazines tailored to 15-year-olds, or listen to radio aimed at 12-year-olds. NPR's Rick Karr talks with a former corporate turnaround specialist who sees the music industry in need of an intervention, and a publisher and editor who think a new magazine for older listeners is the key.
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Over the past five years, Indonesia has weathered terrorism, political upheaval and economic crisis. At the same time, the world’s largest Muslim nation has gone through a kind of artistic Renaissance. NPR's Rick Karr reports on the dynamic art scene in the island nation. View a photo gallery of Indonesian art.
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On Tuesday, online activist group the Electronic Frontier Foundation will file suit in a California federal court, seeking to enjoin Diebold from claiming copyright infringement over the release of company emails and memos. Activists have been trying to drum up opposition to electronic voting systems, which they say are insecure and plagued with technical problems. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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Hollywood studios back away from a ban on sending promotional videos to Oscar voters. The ban was meant to stop piracy, but it angered many who said it would have given studio films an advantage over smaller, independent features. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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Some clothing designers are watching this week's fashion shows in New York with an eye to knocking off their competitors' designs. Like the music industry, the fashion business is rife with unauthorized copying. But it's relatively free of infringement lawsuits like the ones the major record labels recently filed. NPR's Rick Karr reports as part of Morning Edition's series on the style industry.
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The New York Times names Bill Keller as executive editor, more than a month after the newspaper's top editors resigned following a plagiarism scandal. A former Times managing editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent, Keller replaces Howell Raines, who resigned after former reporter Jayson Blair was found to have plagiarized and fabricated stories. Hear NPR's Rick Karr.
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Two months after Apple Computer launches its subscription-based iTunes Music Store, analysts praise the service and say it represents the future of music on the Internet. Many music fans and analysts say the service, which allows users to buy songs over the Internet legally for 99 cents, is a model for legal distribution of music online. Hear NPR's Rick Karr.
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The Federal Communications Commission votes to relax restrictions on media ownership, allowing media conglomerates to buy more TV stations and own a newspaper and broadcast network in the same city. Critics say the move will lead to less diversity of content and viewpoints. Hear NPR's Rick Karr.
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NPR's Rick Karr reports on who supports the deregulation of the broadcasting industry and why. And he examines whether listeners and viewers will see any benefits.