In the future, online comments may not be anonymous

This New York Times article addresses an issue we discussed in class tonight. A website owner will not be held accountable for comments made by a third party on that site. However, according to this article, the Times may soon hold the people accountable who publish comments if the Times removes the ability to comment anonymously. Maybe this would get rid of the anger and hateful posts. Some might argue that removing anonymous posts will harm "free speech," but if you won't put your name on something you write maybe it shouldn't be said.

The public square of information and the Internet

This is a great column from the New York Times' David Brooks. It deals with exactly what we've been talking about in class. Brooks even refers to "The Daily We." He quotes from a study that finds that the Internet isn't sending people into information "ghettos" but exactly the opposite. That does not mean people are going to sites with an open mind, that can't be measured, but it does go against the assumption that Internet users will only go to sites that agree with their political ideology. The study from the University of Chicago found that people who visited highly partisan sites were MORE likely to visit websites that conflicted with their views. Essentially, polarization isn't the Internet's fault.

Kids consume a lot of media

This is informative, especially for those of us in higher ed who tie our fates to the decision making abilities of 16-18 year olds. The article gives a summary of a study about the media consumption habits of children. Lots of television watching, especially for those children who have televisions in their rooms. It may inform how and where we get our messages to potential students.

I'm linking from an article on Digg so we'll see how that works. It may not matter. Enjoy.

Social Media and how it should work into your crisis communication plan

This is a good article on social media and how it relates to crisis communications. It makes a good point that in a crisis, especially after a tragedy, an organization should suspend normal social media posts.

Using YouTube for Crisis Communication

This is a good example of an organization using a YouTube post for crisis management.

Bloggers consider themselves journalists

Well, I know I spouted off in class last week that most bloggers should not be considered journalists, but, according to a study by PR Week and PR Newswire and reported on TechCrunch, more than half off all bloggers believe that they are journalists. However, it is telling to note that 91 percent of bloggers report that they refer to other blogs for research while fewer than 40 percent of print reporters reported using blogs for research. As Dr. Groves told us in class last week, a print reporter is trained to "check everything out." It is difficult to confirm if information on a blog is true. . .  by looking at other blogs. There is value in speaking to sources in-person, on the phone or even via e-mail to get information and confirm what another source is telling a reporter. The "old-school" term for that kind of reporting is "wearing out the shoe leather." It would be interesting to see a study that asks print and broadcast reporters if THEY consider bloggers to be journalists. Obviously, bloggers at the New York Times are held to journalistic standards, but I wonder what view old media reporters have of self-labeled new new media "journalists."