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Watch this whacky case and hope for federal legislation
There’s a weird journalism law case going on Detroit that bears watching. Pulitzer Prize-winning Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter has been ordered to divulge his source for a story about a former federal prosecutor. The former prosecutor, Richard Convertino, claims in a civil suit that the U.S. Justice Department violated his privacy when the reporter…
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The collectors
Paul Chenoweth coins a type of social media person, The Collectors. Collectors seem to be obsessed with acquiring the most friends/followers or network connections (depending upon the terminology within a particular online site). I know many of these individuals from several years of participation and research within online communities. Their rationale for connecting (their term)…
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The balancing act
Quick definition: “He said, she said” journalism means… There’s a public dispute. The dispute makes news. No real attempt is made to assess clashing truth claims in the story, even though they are in some sense the reason for the story. (Under the “conflict makes news” test.) The means for assessment do exist, so it’s…