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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Microsoft announced on Monday that it will pay $2.5 billion for the Swedish software company Mojang AB, developer of the popular Minecraft franchise.
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Pushed by rivals like Samsung, Apple is likely to announce bigger iPhones on Tuesday. Users of bigger-screen devices say they prefer their larger images and the ability to see multiple apps together. -
Amazon's position is that "instead of selling 100,000 copies at $14.95, you would sell 200,000 copies, let's say, at $8.99 or $9.99," says industry analyst Tim Bajarin. -
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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Steve Ballmer, 58, on Tuesday resigned from the software giant's board because of other time consuming commitments including his new ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers. -
Preservationists are worried about troves of records stored on what was once considered a durable medium: the compact disc. Many discs can last for centuries — but most won't. -
Following the shooting of an unarmed black teen, the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown caught fire on Twitter. The response demonstrated the scope of what's informally known as Black Twitter.
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Your doctor and lawyer may know a lot about you. But in a time when we are using computers to socialize, keep track of finances, do work and store family photos, your IT person probably knows more. -
It's no secret that men dominate the top positions in Silicon Valley. But there are areas of the tech industry with lots of women: marketing and PR. Their contributions are often key, but overlooked. -
"Bad" Web bots are going after everyone they can, but why? Because by hijacking Grandma's computer, they make it look as if she visits a site often, thus making the site more valuable to advertisers. -
The Supreme Court has ruled that Aereo, a TV streaming startup, is violating the copyrights of TV producers, marketers and broadcasters by offering subscribers the ability to watch and record broadcasts on any Internet-enabled device. It now appears that Aereo will have to shut down.
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Women make up a significant proportion of dedicated gamers, but they were hardly represented on stage and in games previewed at a big game industry trade event in Los Angeles.
