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Zimbabwe bloggers battle onZimbabwe is going through what the BBC calls 'turmoil'. For those who live there it must be more like hell. Life in that country is being reported by bloggers and bringing the worlds focus to the plight of the nation. The BBC article 'Bloggers turn up heat on Zimbabwe' has links to other personal points of view of life in Zimbabwe. One in particular is The Zimbabwe Pundit, In Zimbabwe, a nation dominated by government owned media, keeping up with the political realities is an impossible and risky undertaking. Media in Zimbabwe is dominated by a state owned daily newspaper, and state owned radio and television. All reports carried by state media are unsurprisingly partial to the government. There’s a vacuum for balanced reportage on the country. Western media on the hand, seem too eager to demonize the Mugabe regime. They seem to always go back to their all too old mantra of showing our nation and our people as undercivilized meanwhile ignoring our unprecedent fortitude. Balanced reporting is the key and bloggers may well bring forth the true realities of living in Zimbabwe. While they are fed carefully controlled news, western views of the countries ills are viewed as being biased. We will have to see if bloggers in that country can continue. As it is, they seem to be at risk if they do. Posted by Bob Toovey on 02 April 2007 French to ban citizen journalist from reporting on violenceWell I was suppose to be having a break but when I saw this little item I had to write it up. It's happening in the country I live in and is outragous how the French Government is imposing this new law. I think I will let you just read on... The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday. Link to article, France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence
Posted by Bob Toovey on 08 March 2007 Taking a breakI am going to be taking a break for a week or two. You may of noticed it was a bit quiet here, I have just finnished moving house yet again and I have few other projects which are demanding my time. So I have not been posting as often as I feel I should. Therefore, I am going to take some time off from here and get the other projects sorted out so I can spend more time here posting. I will also take the opportunity in improving this site, do a bit of programming to to improve things a tad. So to all the readers of the site, thanks for stopping by, read previous postings and leave comments. I will be back here again soon. Cheers
Posted by Bob Toovey on 26 February 2007 Blogumentary - a personal view of blogging and politics Picked up via Boing Boing is a great online video called Blogumentary. It's by Chuck Olsen who is the founder of Minnesota Stories and the first credentialed blogger at Minnesota's state DFL convention in 2004. He produced a successful online campaign ad for Keith Ellison, now the first Muslim congressman in the United States. He was also involved in Sen. John Edwards YouTube announcement of his 2008 presidential bid, and documented citizen journalists on the Edwards campaign trail. (Full bio can be seen here). Shot in candid first-person style by director Chuck Olsen, himself an avid blogger, the film features interviews with influential bloggers including Joe Trippi, Jeff Jarvis, Dan Gillmor, John Hinderaker, Rebecca Blood, Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan. From the rise of Howard Dean to the fall of Dan Rather, from love at first blog to a friend's suicidal blog post, "Blogumentary" is a fresh and compelling journey into our hyperconnected existence. It is hosted on Google Video and lasts about an hour. If you are looking to find our more about blogging or about Citizen Journalism then this is a worth while watch. Posted by Bob Toovey on 08 February 2007 Apple Versus the Bloggers again
I have just read on WebProNews.com that Apple have been told that if they want to find out more who leaked details of their products back in 2004 then they are going to have to pay for it. To legally find out who leaked then they will have to pay almost $700,000 in legal fees.
The case brought up several important questions related to the status of the blogosphere: Do bloggers qualify as journalists? Can blogs be considered news sites? Does a private company have the right to suspend the protection of journalistic sources guaranteed by the First Amendment? Though the court didn't actually qualify the bloggers as journalists, it was assumed that they were journalists for purposes of opinion, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who headed up the defense. Quote from Jason Lee Miller's article, Apple Ordered To Pay Legal Fees For Blogger Previous postings about Apple here and here.
Posted by Bob Toovey on 30 January 2007 New publication on community created content
There is a good post by Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing about a new publication, Community Created Content. Law, Business and Policy. It's by Finnish copyfighters Herkko Hietanen, Ville Oksanen and Mikko Valimaki. “It tries to bridge the distance between law and commerce, talking about where the law is and where it's going -- and how you can apply that in your business.
Link to Boing Boing article
Posted by Bob Toovey on 26 January 2007 Are newspaper blogs boasting?Darren Rowse, a blogger of some repute, has an interesting article discussing the actual popularity of newspaper blogs. Apparently there has been a 210% increases in traffic in the last year for newspaper blogs but it seems Darren is little skeptical. In his posting he works through some of the figures and wonders why the big companies are not getting more traffic.
Posted by Bob Toovey on 20 January 2007 Bloggers invited to CourtThe upcoming trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the highest-ranking Bush administration official to face criminal charges, will for the first time feature seats reserved for bloggers. The seats will be among those normally taken by traditional press. To quote an article from the Washington Post website... “After two years of negotiations with judicial officials across the country, the Media Bloggers Association, a nonpartisan group with about 1,000 members working to extend the powers of the press to bloggers, has won credentials to rotate among his members. “ This is not going to make the blurred distinction between bloggers and journalists any clearer. The court has decided that to bring due process out in the open they would welcome bloggers. "Bloggers can bring a depth of reporting that some traditional media organizations aren't able to achieve because of space and time limitations," said Sheldon Snook, administrative assistant to Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan. Snook added that some bloggers also bring expertise that is welcome in court. Link to Washington Post article, 'Too Casual To Sit on Press Row?' Link to Media Bloggers Association article
Found via Boing Boing Posted by Bob Toovey on 12 January 2007 Blogging to peak in 2007Interesting report has popped up on the BBC website quoting some interesting facts and figures. We all know that blogging has taken off big time but did you know that, '100,000 new blogs were being created every day, and 1.3 million blog posts were written. ', thats for last month according to Technorati. Posted by Bob Toovey on 14 December 2006 Quick links about the future of printed newsThere is more talk about the demise of the newspaper, well at least the printed version. More and more free news to be had on the Internet is the reason. With modern PDA's and mobiles that can surf the net, news is accessible just about anywhere. Check out these links to the BBC website that discusses the future of printed news.
Posted by Bob Toovey on 12 December 2006 |
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