bloggers

Recently Murdok readers fired off a couple hundred comments regarding the US House of Representatives’ definition of journalist in the Free Flow of Information Act, a law shielding journalists from having to reveal their sources. A new development in Virginia involving a citizen journalist shows why this definition needs to be broadened to include bloggers, and any other type of journalist.

Fair use is back in the news courtesy of a New York Times article on publishers being unhappy with the use of excerpts of their content. The main focal point of the article is Henry Blodget of Silicon Alley Insider, who recently quoted a WSJ columnist.

Two versions of a bill in Congress would enshrine a journalist’s right to keep his or her sources confidential, effectively banning the government from forcing journalists to reveal whistleblowers. One version though—the House version—gives an incredibly stupid definition of journalist that excludes not only bloggers, but freelancers, independents, and nonprofit journalists as well. For the most part, the Senate and House agree on what a journalist’s duties are and what journalism entails:

A Forrester report released yesterday kicked off once again the debate over paying bloggers to write about products and companies. Blogging purists, new media marketing experts, and Google’s Matt Cutts have all weighed in, indicating this is hardly a debate that will soon be put to rest.

There’s little difference between a gadfly and a real journalist, and three New York City gadflies just proved there’s no difference between a blogger and a real journalist. The New York Times’ City Room blog chronicles the victories of three local news bloggers who had been repeatedly denied press credentials by the NYPD because they worked online or for “nontraditional” news outlets.

One might say the Internet is anything you want it to be—a truth machine or spreader of lies—maybe it’s both. In light of recent events Apple would say it’s the latter. Twice over the past month, a blogger has sunk their stock.

The right side of the blogosphere is in a snit over a phone interview of Michelle Obama posted by African Press International. Only thing is, the Obama campaign says it’s a complete fabrication.

Bloggers can offer companies a great way of getting in contact with potential customers and angry critics.  Sending out unsolicited releases is not, however, the best method of reaching bloggers, and so a session at the BlogWorld Expo explored the relationship between bloggers and PR departments.