ARCHIVES: Blogs & Blogging
Most people “expect the most prolific tweeters or those with most followers would be most responsible for creating” huge trending topics on social networks. But research shows otherwise. Researchers found that the mainstream media, especially those like The New York Times , CNN and BBC, act as “feeders” for news topics on Twitter, helping to amplify and in turn make something into a trend on the social network. To prepare the report Trends in Social Media: Persistence and Decay , researchers... MORE
The Voice of America (VOA) has launched a new “blog network”. All of VOA’s English language blogs are now conveniently listed on one webpage, including Digital Frontiers, a dynamic online discussion of privacy, identity and freedom in the digital age. In addition to a single page that brings together links to all of VOA’s blog sites, visitors can see what others are saying about key issues, and what topics are generating the most interest. They can also interact with VOA journalists, see what... MORE
Picture this: someone writes, emails or phones you to say that something you wrote on your blog is libellous and is threatening to sue. Do you take it seriously? Do you take down your material? Do you say you're sorry? Or do you face your nemesis in court? The independent charitable trust Sense About Science has put together a guide entitled "So you've had a threatening letter. What can you do?" "So you've had a threatening letter" explains exactly what defamation is, and what to do if you are... MORE
The Russian government has drafted legislation that would make it easier for news agencies to contest plagiarism of their reports, drawing cheers from big outlets like Interfax and RIA-Novosti, but critics say the bill is too vague to be effective, according to a Moscow Times report. The law, drafted by the Communications and Press Ministry, would extend copyright protection to news reports, with the threat of fines and the possible confiscation of publications to dissuade media from using... MORE
With a military government that severely restricts Internet access and imprisons people for years for posting critical material, Burma is the worst place in the world to be a blogger, the Committee to Protect Journalists says in a new report. CPJ’s “10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger” also identifies a number of countries in the Middle East and Asia where Internet penetration has blossomed and government repression has grown in response. “Bloggers are at the vanguard of the information... MORE
The number of newspapers in the US offering some form of user-generated content has doubled up. Overall, 58 per cent of newspapers offered some form of user generated content in 2008 compared to 24 per cent in 2007. In fact, 58 per cent of newspapers allowed for user generated photos in 2008, while 18 per cent accepted video and 15 per cent articles. The number of newspaper websites allowing users to comment on articles more than doubled in 2008. About 75 per cent of newspapers now accept... MORE
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has written to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and one of Google's founders, Sergey Brin, about a defamation lawsuit that the Indian construction company Gremach brought against Google's Indian subsidiary, Google India Private Ltd, in February 2008. As a result of the action, a Bombay high court ordered Google's subsidiary on August 15 to reveal the identity of a blogger who used the pseudonym "Toxic Writer" to post comment's criticising Gremach on Google's blog platform... MORE
Authoritarian regimes around the world are dealing with troublesome citizen bloggers by arresting them, and they're doing it more often. "Last year, 2007, was a record year for blogger arrests, with three times as many as in 2006. Egypt, Iran and China are the most dangerous places to blog about political life, accounting for more than half of all arrests since blogging became big," says Phil Howard, an assistant professor of communication. With his students at the University of Washington,... MORE
New York-based political blog Talking Points Memo (TPM) has been honoured with the 2008 IPI Free Media Pioneer award. David Kurtz, Managing Editor of Talking Points Memo, received the prize on behalf of TPM at the award ceremony in Belgrade on June 17. Created and run by the U.S. journalist, Joshua Micah Marshall, Talking Points Media ( http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com ) is the flagship blog of TPM Media, a network of sites that includes TPMmuckraker, TPMCafe, and TPM Election Central. Marshall... MORE
Newspapers will have to change the way they approach blogging if they are going to be a force in increasing public dialogue on political issues, says a joint study from American universities Ball State University and the University of Nevada, Reno. A study of blogs and audience engagement during the week before the fall 2006 US elections found that most newspaper staff-produced blogs contained a small number of postings, failed to create much interaction between the blogger and the audience and... MORE
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