Instruction in social media essential in journalism education

According to an online news pioneer, modern journalism students do not naturally see the social media as an important aspect of their professional repertoire. -db
MediaShift
August 30, 2010
By Alfred Hermida
Social media is such a new phenomenon that it is easy for someone to claim to be an expert in the subject. A search on Twitter [...]

Experts have reservations but say social media helps journalists

Experts agree that among other things social media can help journalists to develop stronger relationships with their readers, find sources quickly, reach a wider audience and do on-the-spot  reporting more effectively. -db
MediaShift
August 16, 2010
By Sandra Ordonez
OurBlook.com has been conducting an ongoing interview series on the current and future role of journalism and social media. [...]

Redondo Beach city attorney warns of pitfalls to social networking in local government

Redondo Beach has launched social networking pilots to create greater transparency and public participation, but the city attorney warns of complications concerning California’s open meeting law, the First Amendment and the expense of maintaining the sites. -db
Redondo Beach News
August 18, 2010
By Sascha Bush
The City Attorney’s office spoke to the Redondo Beach City [...]

Cyberbullying: Proposed California law aims to criminalize online impersonations

Center for Internet and Society fellow Larry Downes says that while a new law criminalizing online impersonations seems reasonable, it is prone to unintended consequences. -db
Center for Internet and Society
Analysis
June 12, 2010
By Larry Downes
I was interviewed yesterday for the local Fox affiliate on Cal. SB1411, which criminalizes online impersonations (or “e-personation”) under certain circumstances.
On paper, [...]

Coast Guard’s web-based news site on Gulf oil spill may provide model for covering future disasters

The Coast Guard’s Deepwater Horizen Response site created in 24 hours to cover the Gulf oil spill has been so successful in providing photos and information about the spill that some say the site could become a model for how government disseminates information during disasters. -d

NextGov
May 5, 2010
By Bob Brewin

Crisis management in an Internet-driven news [...]

University of Chicago censors student facebook post

Continuing a practice of monitoring and censoring student posts on social media, the University of Chicago forced a student to delete comments about a professor from his private Facebook page. -db
FIRE
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
Commentary
March 24, 2010
CHICAGO — For the second time in two years, the University of Chicago has censored a student’s post [...]

Student First Amendment rights get lost in school’s policing of off-campus postings on social media

A blogger from the Citizen Media Law Project argues that school authorities are over reaching in many instances in punishing students for off-campus speech. In many instances the speech has no disruptive effect on the school or falls short of creating a hostile school environment. -db

Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
March 17, 2010
By Justin Silverman

A freshman at Oak [...]

New access to social media may precipitate change in Iran

After the U.S. Treasury Department decided to exclude social media services from sanctions against Iran, there is hope that these services will help Iranians  effect political change. Iran is a special case in that nearly half of the population uses the internet. -db
Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
March 11, 2010
By Arthur Bright

Anyone who followed the Green Movement protests [...]

International internet freedom gets boost in latest regulations proposed by Obama administration

The U.S. Treasury Department announced changes in its sanctions against Cuba, Iran and the Sudan which allows internet service to these countries even when they are under U.S. sanctions. -db
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
March 10, 2010
By Danny O’Brien
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Monday key amendments to the regulation of United States sanctions [...]

Proposed national broadband access may lack funding

The Federal Communications Commission’s plan for national broadband access has great potential to speed communication and enhance public access to government information and services but faces obstacles in funding and net neutrality. -db
OMB Watch

March 9, 2010
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is gearing up to release its plan for national broadband access on March 17. The [...]

Opinion: Time for bloggers to gain protections afforded traditional media

With more of the public gaining their news from online sources rather than print media and using the social media to become more interactive and participatory in accessing the news, a CMLP blogger argues that bloggers should be entitled to the same protection as mainstream press. -db
Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
March 1, 2010
By Andrew Moshirnia

Well, it [...]

Judge allows suit to go forward on student Facebook posting

A Florida student is suing her principal for suspending her after she posted a Facebook page calling her Advanced Placement teacher “the worst teacher I’ve ever met.” -db

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
February 17, 2010
By Amanda Becker
A federal magistrate said this week that a former Florida high school student who was suspended for [...]

Judges to jurors: No Twittering

Jurors can expect to be reminded of the limits of their free speech rights as a federal court body has released revised model jury instructions specifically forbidding jurors from using technology and the social media to communicate about cases in progress. -db
Wired
February 8, 2010
By David Kravets

A federal court policy-making body is belatedly entering the internet age [...]

Olympic athletes in winter games confused by rules restricting social media

Olympic social media rules bar athletes from acting as reporters since they lack accreditation, but they can twitter in the first person and send reports from the sidelines. -db

Wired
February 5, 2010
By Mark McClusky

American skier Lindsey Vonn, one of the potential stars of the 2010 Winter Olympics, told her nearly 35,000 Twitter followers that she would [...]

Haiti Rewired: Wired.com tackles Haiti’s reconstruction with online collaboration

Haiti Rewired launched by Wired.com following the January earthquake, is an innovative response to the problem of on-going disaster relief. Editor-in-Chief Evan Hansen, a member of FAC’s board, calls the project an online “collaboration of writers, editors, technologists, researchers, geographers, infrastructure specialists, aid groups and others” dedicated to rebooting Haiti’s future.

Haiti Rewired’s Mission [...]

Twitter emerges as vehicle for publicizing final health care bill

Congressional leaders announced that the final health care bill will go online on Twitter 72 hours prior to its consideration on the floor, a move that firmly establishes the social media as a significant player in providing public assess to the nation’s business. -DB

Sunlight Foundation
Opinion
January 15, 2010
By Paul Blumenthal
So, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer announced [...]

Prop 8 hearing: Strict enforcement of laws against assault needed rather than curtailing TV coverage

A Citizen Media Law Project blogger argues that the Supreme Court should recognize that it is against California law to assault witnesses and that not televising the proceedings will not protect witnesses in what promises to be a widely publicized event. To allow the broadcast on YouTube would provide a boost to freedom of the [...]

Diet doctor sues Kim Kardashian over alleged libelous twitters

Observers think that Dr. Sanford Siegal has a weak case in his libel suit against celebrity Kim Kardashian. Siegal created the “Cookie Diet” and subsequently posted that Kim Kardashian had lost weight using the cookie diet. Siegel sued over Kardashian’s tweets that stated it was false that she was on the cookie diet and that [...]

India all a-twitter as government ministers clash over use of social media

An Indian junior minister got a reprimand from his boss for using Twitter to criticize the government’s immigration policy, provoking discussion about open debate in a democracy and the role of electronic media. -DB
The Los Angeles Times
December 31, 2009
By Mark Magnier

NEW DELHI – It takes a lot fewer than 140 characters to say, “Do you [...]

Media project publishes guide to live-blogging in courts

The Citizen Media Law Project has published a guide to live coverage in courts using the social media. Since not all judges allow electronic devices and local laws sometimes prohibit the devices, it is important to know how to avoid legal problems in live-blogging or tweeting in the courtroom.-DB

Citizen Media Law Project
December 10, 2009
By [...]

First Amendment panel finds promise, pitfalls in social media

By Donal Brown
The panel on journalists and social media at the First Amendment Coatition Assembly offered wise advice and a few emphatic warnings, chief among them: everything a journalist puts up on Twitter or Facebook or other social media is public.
Speaking at the assembly October 24 in Los Angeles on the panel entitled “Twitter with [...]

Politicians using social media encounter legal obstacles

As politicians begin using Twitter, etc. to campaign, gain support for legislation and fundraise, they sometimes find themselves up against state and federal law. A Citizen Media Law Project staff attorney says that it is important that the rules be amended regularly to take into account changes in the social media and to avoid stifling free expression. [...]

As newspapers decline, politicians use social media to connect with voters

In some communities, social media is the only way politicians can reach voters, at times receiving immediate responses that speed the political process. -DB

MediaShift
September 29, 2009
By Steven Davy

When television cameras panned across the room full of senators and representatives during the recent presidential address to a joint session of Congress, the audience at home [...]

New Defense Department policy may allow troops to tweet and blog

In the face of a raft of military prohibitions against social networks. a new draft policy recognizes the power of the networks and seeks to balance the risks with the gains. -DB
Wired
Commentary
September 29, 2009
By Noah Shachtman
The Defense Department may allow troops and military employees to freely access social networks — if a draft policy circulating around [...]

Social networking ban on convicted sex offenders deemed unconstitutional

A blogger for the Citizen Media Law Project says that the new Illinois law making it illegal for convicted six offenders to use social networking websites is probably unconstitutional and certainly unenforceable. -DB
Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
August 20, 2009
By Andrew Moshirnia
The memory of pain can be one of the best painkillers. Anyone who has had the misfortune [...]

Pentagon wants public input on social networking policy

Faced with the arduous task of framing a policy on social media that balances security and the need for troops to communicate with friends and family, the Defense Department is asking the public for their ideas. -DB
NextGov
August 10, 2009
By Bob Brewin
How do you develop a policy for using social media in the Defense Department that balances [...]

Security concerns may shut down military social networks for military personnel

Just as the U.S. military is beginning to embrace Twitter and Facebook, it may have to close these sites down to keep out hackers and cybercrooks. -DB
Wired
July 30, 2009
By Noah Shachtman
The U.S. military is strongly considering a near-total ban on Twitter, Facebook, and all other social networking sites throughout the Department of Defense, multiple sources within [...]

Homeland Security first government agency to harness social media

The Homeland Security Department is the first cabinet-level agency to implement Obama directives on social media, offering a YouTube channel and formulating plans to use Twitter in event of disasters. -DB
NextGov
July 22, 2009
Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Homeland Security Department relaunched its Web site Wednesday and became the first Cabinet-level agency to follow the tech-savvy White House [...]