John Thomson: Thinking out loud » Journalism

PBS and Google encouraging voting video

john — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:52:05 +0000

YouTube, PBS urge people to record voting (Silicon Valley)

In what must be an effort to combat voter intimidation, PBS and Google are encouraging voters to discretely record their experiences and upload them to a YouTube channel. PBS will air the best ones, I assume, after the election.

The YT channel page also links to the Citzen Media Law Project (a cool Drupal site, I might add). The law of recording around a poling place could be dicy, although the idea of a voter recording their own experience has never really been addressed.

This could be one to watch.

First Amendment Gotcha

john — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:58:04 +0000

A state appellate court overturned an order against a SoCal newspaper, stating that the paper can publish stories about a case in which it is a defendant. This is one of those strange cases where a paper can use it’s strong voice in the community (from which jurors will be selected) to argue on its own behalf. The government (here, the court) is rightly restricted from restraining the voice of the paper–even though it means those on the other side of the case might have a more difficult time arguing in the court of public opinion. The strength of one’s right to speak often results in the restriction of another’s.

Also worth a look is the Supreme Court’s Tuesday hearing on the constitutionality of searches resulting from erroneous database information.

A count of Journalist arrests

john — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:25:30 +0000

The Minnesota Independent went to the trouble of tabulating the journalist arrests at the RNC Convention in St. Paul. What’s interesting is the range of media organizations–from the grassrootsy-independent types, to student newspapers, to established media organizations like the AP, Fox, and local stations KARE and WCCO.

Of the 800-plus people who were arrested or detained in conjunction with RNC protests, a good chunk of them — 42, by our count — were members of the news media. Media representatives in town to cover the events, from both big and small presses, were slapped with citations and pending charges ranging in severity, including unlawful assembly, obstructing the legal process, misdemeanor interference with a peace officer and felony to riot plus other riot pretenses.

The mass of protesters has been accused of being violent, anarchist, and part of a liberal media conspiracy. Yet, how can we know this if journalists are prevented from doing their job–reporting what’s happening on the ground.

2008 RNC Journalist Arrests

john — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:40:48 +0000

It’s hard not to sound political when you’re talking about protesters at a political event and linking to admittedly partisan sources. Yet, the story of the protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention was perhaps successfully buried by the arrests of what some have called “dozens of journalists, photographers, bloggers and videomakers. I’ve watched Twin Cities IndyMedia LiveWire and it seemed like every time I looked, there was another (unsubstantiated) report of journalists being arrested or gassed. We afford journalists legal protection because of the important role they play in keeping government transparent and accountable to the public. Every journalism school I’ve been at has said it’s tough work, and this shows it.

A good friend once said that he couldn’t see how nonviolent protest could fail to cure a social ill. I’ve always been a little skeptical of this view, largely because of its reliance on media to show what happens to protesters. But it’s surprising how YouTube and Twitter might hold some hope for this view–even though they’re only getting the message out to people who are interested.

Here’s a playlist of a few journalist arrest videos.

State of the Newspaper Industry

john — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:40:55 +0000

A couple of longer reads that might be of interest to any newspaper or online news buffs.

Out of Print (New Yorker): This is a bit older, but I just got around to reading it today. An interesting historical account of the role of a newspaper in democracy and how the Internet is changing all of that.
Death of Print (Valleywag): A look at some of the ways newspapers tried to innovate online, but “botched.”

Newspapers get a bad rap, but I think their role in researching and reporting (not to mention organizing and funding) the important news of the day is undeniable. Once a majority of Pulitzers start going to bloggers, we’ll know things have really changed.