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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In the second of a three-part series on the future of television, Rick Karr looks at how new technologies are influencing what television viewers are more likely to watch -- shorter, more immediate clips of longer shows. -
Flat-screen televisions, iPods and the Internet are radically changing how viewers consume video programming. In the first of a three-part series of reports on the future of television, Rick Karr looks at the ways technology is changing how viewers watch TV. -
As new ways of receiving radio programs gain hordes of fans -- from satellite services like XM Radio to Internet tools like Audible.com -- a decidedly lo-fi approach is making waves. Low Power FM radio is being touted as an alternative to generic, commercial programming. -
The technologies that record companies blame for a downturn in retail sales -- computers, CD burners and the Internet -- are also allowing musicians to do more of the things that record labels used to do. In a three-part series, NPR's Rick Karr profiles artists and Internet sites embracing emerging business models. -
An innovative program in New York will have diverse artists contribute samples of their work to a trust. Over time, some of the works should increase in value. The money raised will allow the trust to pay out pensions when the artists retire. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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Search engines may soon use personal information to return better search results. Google's plan to offer an e-mail service that delivers ads based on e-mail keywords has privacy watchdogs nervous. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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A $1 billion-a-year industry has sprung up offering advertisers and other businesses advice on how to get the most consumer traffic out of their Web pages. Most are ethical, but some specialize in building pages that trick search engines into thinking they're more important than they are. In response, engines continually tweak programs to prevent misleading returns. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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If Web users don't pay to search, how do search engines make money? In the third report in a five-part series about Internet search engines, NPR's Rick Karr traces the ways companies such as Google and Yahoo earn cash.
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In the 1990s, Stanford students Sergey Brin and Larry Page figured out how to use the structure of the Internet — the way pages link to one another — to put the most relevant items at the top of a search list. Their discovery transformed their garage startup, Google, into the Internet's top search engine, a household name and even a verb. NPR's Rick Karr reports.
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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.
