Next class assignment for digital media class: blog about the ethically challenging scenario posed by the professor.
Said ethically challenging scenario: Should I or should I not, as a hypothetically respectable journalist both in print and online, include the link to a child pornography website that divulged the name of a hypothetical CU professor who was listed as a frequent client to that site?
Answer: Absolutely not.
According to our class reading this week by Foust, the Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act of 1996 because the restrictions (which were similar to the restrictions put on broadcast content) were over broad. Thus, an Internet site only with indecent content would not likely be regulated, which is a significant fact for pornography sites.
However, child pornography is an entirely different game. It is considered obscene material and, just as with both print and broadcast media, is prohibited. Journalists in this case are not only charged with the ethical dilemma of whether or not linking to a controversial site furthers journalistic integrity through transparency or whether it contributes to the dissemination of decidedly inappropriate material. By linking to this site, journalists are putting their readers in legal danger. Child pornography is one of the most closely-monitored activities in the media industry, with some of the harshest and most unforgiving consequences.
Regardless of whether a reader of the news site simply wanted to view the source of the story, law enforcement and others would have no way of proving it. Journalists have a binding responsibility to their readers -- and in this case, that responsibility is to keep their readers uninvolved in a highly illegal activity. The sacrifice of not showing a transparent source here is worth not taking the risk.
While journalists are not responsible for the content on the pornography site itself, the Supreme Court has established precedent against linking to illegal material, such as providing a link to the DeCSS program, which gave users information on how to illegally copy DVDs (a practice which was prohibited in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Linking to child pornography puts journalists in an equal, if not heavier, position of responsibility to exclude any kind of link that might lead their readers astray and toward an illegal activity.
To conclude: Sure, some things are more questionable when it comes to linking. As posed in the readings, what should a journalist do when faced with the decision to include a link to a white supremacist group? A whole extra set of equality and fairness balance comes into play.
But when the question is boiled down to one of illegal activity, providers of news can follow the rule that they never want to be responsible for making their readers a part of the next morning's headline.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Assignment #2
Second blog post assignment: analyze another blog. In other words, blog about a blog. This one will be interesting.
I took a shot at treehugger.com, and I was decently impressed.
According to the site's history page, TreeHugger was acquired by Discovery Communications so that it could expand its audience past the hardcore environmentalists toward the people who are mildly interested in sustainable living.
Apparently, that was a smart move. I don't consider myself a tree hugger, but I would read this blog again.
Perhaps the most attractive feature is that it has made some sense out of the 30 posts that appear on the site each day. A visitor to TreeHugger can choose between topics such as culture and celebrity, business and politics, or fashion and beauty--meaning that I can navigate directly to a post about how eating vegetables can empirically make a person more attractive.
This seems a fullproof way for the blog site to keep hold of its visitors. Once I read that article about vegetables and beauty, I admit I was a little more open to checking out the post that ranted about Obama's lack of environmental attention in a sneak peak of his State of the Union address.
Each of the blog posts are submitted by different people and from a wide variety of places. On the site's homepage, just today's posts included places such as New York, Istanbul, Paris and Berlin. As a consumer, the idea that this site is an aggregation of many voices and perspectives gives me a sense of security in what I read. I feel like I am not going to get lost in a maze of senseless Sierra Club propoganda, even if that is what a few of the posts contain.
TreeHugger also offers a variety of ways to get involved. It has a seemingly infinite number of links, to forums, games, recycle centers, job posts, and even a calculator to see how much waste and money you will save according to its "climate culture calculator." The site goes from one of simple media consumption--passive media-to-reader--to a more complex and, in many ways, rewarding interaction. The audience is challenged to take what it reads and decide for itself how to react.
That might be why TreeHugger has achieved "Top 20 blog" status. It is a blog focused on social change as a means to a respectable end. In the midst of so much blogging noise, I wouldn't be suprised if many readers say that they see this site as a reprieve. Unlike other blogs, it is not a running commentary based on one or few perspectives. It is informational, simple to navigate and addresses some area of interest for almost anyone who stumbles on the site.
Tomorrow, I'll probably be back to see what the site has to say about the beauty benefits of soy.
I took a shot at treehugger.com, and I was decently impressed.
According to the site's history page, TreeHugger was acquired by Discovery Communications so that it could expand its audience past the hardcore environmentalists toward the people who are mildly interested in sustainable living.
Apparently, that was a smart move. I don't consider myself a tree hugger, but I would read this blog again.
Perhaps the most attractive feature is that it has made some sense out of the 30 posts that appear on the site each day. A visitor to TreeHugger can choose between topics such as culture and celebrity, business and politics, or fashion and beauty--meaning that I can navigate directly to a post about how eating vegetables can empirically make a person more attractive.
This seems a fullproof way for the blog site to keep hold of its visitors. Once I read that article about vegetables and beauty, I admit I was a little more open to checking out the post that ranted about Obama's lack of environmental attention in a sneak peak of his State of the Union address.
Each of the blog posts are submitted by different people and from a wide variety of places. On the site's homepage, just today's posts included places such as New York, Istanbul, Paris and Berlin. As a consumer, the idea that this site is an aggregation of many voices and perspectives gives me a sense of security in what I read. I feel like I am not going to get lost in a maze of senseless Sierra Club propoganda, even if that is what a few of the posts contain.
TreeHugger also offers a variety of ways to get involved. It has a seemingly infinite number of links, to forums, games, recycle centers, job posts, and even a calculator to see how much waste and money you will save according to its "climate culture calculator." The site goes from one of simple media consumption--passive media-to-reader--to a more complex and, in many ways, rewarding interaction. The audience is challenged to take what it reads and decide for itself how to react.
That might be why TreeHugger has achieved "Top 20 blog" status. It is a blog focused on social change as a means to a respectable end. In the midst of so much blogging noise, I wouldn't be suprised if many readers say that they see this site as a reprieve. Unlike other blogs, it is not a running commentary based on one or few perspectives. It is informational, simple to navigate and addresses some area of interest for almost anyone who stumbles on the site.
Tomorrow, I'll probably be back to see what the site has to say about the beauty benefits of soy.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Assignment #1
“Why is today significant?” This is the first prompt my digital media instructor has asked us reporting students to seize with creativity and zest.
To be fair, I’m cheating a little. Today is indeed very significant in the history of the United States—it is Martin Luther King Day, the day that Wall Street, government offices and public schools close to honor a man who was the bastion of the Civil Rights movement, and who today is an icon for the poor in spirit, opportunity and health.
Yet while I believe it is always advisable to reflect on days such as this on a national and even global level, I could not help my natural, self-concerned instinct to apply this day to my own personal battles.
From this side of winter break, graduation seems to be looming ever-nearer. I suddenly feel as though time has been swept from under my feet, and I am left dumbstruck on my bottom, wondering what lies ahead and with no idea of how to get up and get going again. My decisions regarding my career path tend to follow a pattern of deep, introspective examination, a conclusive decision, action, and then doubt that I made the right choice at all.
I recently started interning at the Greeley Tribune, a small Northern Colorado newspaper. One week in, I have already wandered down that path of doubt—twice. I have squirmed uncomfortably at the thought that perhaps reporting is not at all for me. Maybe I should pursue a career that more directly helps my community.
To the Greeley Tribune, today was significant because the turnout at the annual MLK march was three times what it has ever been in Greeley history—a great front page story. To me, today was significant because that march represented a different kind of movement, one that I am sure other students in college can certainly understand.
Another intern and I were sent out today to cover the MLK march. We were given instructions to keep an eye out for a school board member who has been causing some commotion in the city due to a few controversial radio broadcasts about the personal flaws of Martin Luther King Jr. Our editor and a few reporters predicted that there might be more people marching than usual to demonstrate their disagreement with the hateful words previously broadcast about MLK.
They were right. Parents, school kids, college students, grandparents and veterans took time from their day off to show their support for the dignity of a man who died 43 years ago.
All of this, I thought to myself, because one city newspaper took notice of one person’s opinion and turned it into wildly public discourse. All of this began because people in Greeley picked up the paper from their porches or opened an internet browser, and were so moved by the words they read that they turned them into action.
The power of the press. This march, more than anything, showed me what a direct influence reporting has on a community. I can say now that maybe I do have an idea of where I want to go after this May.
At the presentation at the end of the march, a video was played which set one of MLK’s speeches six months before he was assassinated to a power point. His words at that time were meant for a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia in October 1967.
He said, each person, beginning with her education, has a life blueprint. “When you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it,” Martin Luther King Jr. said.
He said that if your calling should be to sweep streets, then you should sweep the streets with the same artistry that Michelangelo painted pictures and with the same dedication that Beethoven wrote symphonies.
“If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley,” he said. “Be the best little shrub on the side of the hill. Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”
To be fair, I’m cheating a little. Today is indeed very significant in the history of the United States—it is Martin Luther King Day, the day that Wall Street, government offices and public schools close to honor a man who was the bastion of the Civil Rights movement, and who today is an icon for the poor in spirit, opportunity and health.
Yet while I believe it is always advisable to reflect on days such as this on a national and even global level, I could not help my natural, self-concerned instinct to apply this day to my own personal battles.
From this side of winter break, graduation seems to be looming ever-nearer. I suddenly feel as though time has been swept from under my feet, and I am left dumbstruck on my bottom, wondering what lies ahead and with no idea of how to get up and get going again. My decisions regarding my career path tend to follow a pattern of deep, introspective examination, a conclusive decision, action, and then doubt that I made the right choice at all.
I recently started interning at the Greeley Tribune, a small Northern Colorado newspaper. One week in, I have already wandered down that path of doubt—twice. I have squirmed uncomfortably at the thought that perhaps reporting is not at all for me. Maybe I should pursue a career that more directly helps my community.
To the Greeley Tribune, today was significant because the turnout at the annual MLK march was three times what it has ever been in Greeley history—a great front page story. To me, today was significant because that march represented a different kind of movement, one that I am sure other students in college can certainly understand.
Another intern and I were sent out today to cover the MLK march. We were given instructions to keep an eye out for a school board member who has been causing some commotion in the city due to a few controversial radio broadcasts about the personal flaws of Martin Luther King Jr. Our editor and a few reporters predicted that there might be more people marching than usual to demonstrate their disagreement with the hateful words previously broadcast about MLK.
They were right. Parents, school kids, college students, grandparents and veterans took time from their day off to show their support for the dignity of a man who died 43 years ago.
All of this, I thought to myself, because one city newspaper took notice of one person’s opinion and turned it into wildly public discourse. All of this began because people in Greeley picked up the paper from their porches or opened an internet browser, and were so moved by the words they read that they turned them into action.
The power of the press. This march, more than anything, showed me what a direct influence reporting has on a community. I can say now that maybe I do have an idea of where I want to go after this May.
At the presentation at the end of the march, a video was played which set one of MLK’s speeches six months before he was assassinated to a power point. His words at that time were meant for a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia in October 1967.
He said, each person, beginning with her education, has a life blueprint. “When you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it,” Martin Luther King Jr. said.
He said that if your calling should be to sweep streets, then you should sweep the streets with the same artistry that Michelangelo painted pictures and with the same dedication that Beethoven wrote symphonies.
“If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley,” he said. “Be the best little shrub on the side of the hill. Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”
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