Thanks to Leanne who sent me this from her listserv today:
IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, BLOG 'EM
March 8, 2005
Got something to say? Got access to the Internet? You're one step away from being a blogger. And these days, bloggers are having an affect on politics, news, on everything, really. And blogs are changing the way we do news. There's no doubt about it.
I check several blogs a day. Some on politics, some on technology and some journal blogs written by my friends. It's become part of my daily routine, like reading the paper in the morning.
So what are blogs? Turns out that although 8 million have created blogs, 62 percent of Americans who use the Internet don't know what a blog is. That's according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. And in an age where blogs are fundamentally changing the nature of news, we thought we'd tell you the story about the beast of blogging.
In case you're part of that 62 percent, blogs are online journals. They are places on the Internet where anyone can have a voice about, well, just about anything. If that definition seems vague, that's because the nature and rules of blogging are being defined more and more every day.
Blogs have been credited with bringing attention to news that the mainstream media (called by bloggers "MSM") is slow to report, or would otherwise ignore. Think of the cases of Sen. Trent Lott, CBS' Dan Rather, CNN's Eason Jordan, among many others. But blogs don't only bring attention to comments made by those in the spotlight; they can also affect your privacy. How?
Well consider this. You're at a party and a blogger overhears your conversation with someone. That person then writes about your conversation, using your name, in his blog. Well, anytime your name is searched on the Internet, that blog will appear with your comments made at that party. Is that fair? The blogger doesn't even have to identify him or herself. Or his sources.
Not yet anyway. A California judge is considering a lawsuit brought by Apple Computer against three bloggers who have published information on unreleased Apple products. The bloggers refuse to disclose the identity of their sources (who are likely Apple employees) and are asking for the same legal protection as journalists. Under the California Shield Law, journalists don't have to reveal their sources. Do the same laws, rules, codes of conduct of journalists apply to bloggers? Not yet. Should they?
Tonight, correspondent John Donvan will tell the story about a high school teacher whose blog led to political change in her state. Tonight's piece is a fascinating one. Turns out that as John and producer Elissa Rubin were conducting interviews with bloggers, they were being blogged. The bloggers had some interesting opinions, to say the least.
And as this program airs (and this e-mail is read by viewers), there's no doubt that bloggers will blog about it.
We hope you'll tune in, along with the bloggers.
Zena Barakat & the "Nightline" Staff
ABC News Washington Bureau
Matthew Lombard, Ph.D.
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
President, International Society for Presence Research
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This e-mail is from MMC, the listserv for students, faculty, alumnae/i, and friends of the Mass Media & Communication doctoral program at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Very interesting article, Tamar.
Personally, I see no reason not to apply the same laws to bloggers as has been applied to anyone publishing information in all forms, i.e. the defamation laws should be the same, privacy laws should be the same, journalist laws should be the same if the blogger has become a journalist - apply the same standard to make that determination. I don't feel that blogging is any different than printing a flier and distributing it around the neighborhood, or printing a newspaper, or a chapbook, or a newsletter. We're just talking greater coverage. The difficulty comes with jurisdiction which can be a real stickler when it comes to internet cases right now.
Posted by: Adriana Bliss | March 08, 2005 at 07:38 PM
Oh! It's you! I have already been here; already enjoyed your posts, your quick and lively mind, your astute observations about living as/life/the great enterprise we are all on... Yes, I have similar long curly hair (it's of a particular kind of curl, no, that harks from that part of the world?), am in my early 50s... though I was born in Zimbabwe (note at my site in response to your beautiful comment), I have lived in Canada since I was 10...
On your post - I recently went to a blogging conference at UBC where I heard that there are 31 million blogs world-wide! Technorati scans about 8 million of them...
Posted by: Brenda | March 09, 2005 at 01:16 AM
The blogosphere becomes ever more interesting to me. It is like walking in a web or maze and at each turn I discover something new and amazing. The funnest part for me is knowing that what I discover has already been there awhile - only I just didn't see it.
Probably why I love it so much. It's almost like being a kind of child again - that evolving way of opening my eyes bit by bit to awareness, dawning ... Thanks to both Brenda and Adriana for participating in this for me!
Posted by: Tamar | March 09, 2005 at 07:30 AM