Why blogs are an open door

Abstract

Examining how journalists can benefit from blogs on the web, former editor Fletcher writes: “Blogs…tend to be open to the world. So do many areas of the social networking sites. When you create an entry about yourself on MySpace, anyone who visits the site can find you, unless you change the default position in order to make your site private. When you post a piece on Facebook, which has a huge following among university students around the world, it is not open to anyone, but there is not much point in being on it unless you make it open to groups of contemporaries – and once it is open to those groups, it is pretty much open full stop.” And he continues: A walk around the web reveals furious commentary from those who believe the press have no right to seek information in this fashion – and from others who think it would be remarkable if they did not. L J Ulrich, a columnist on The Daily Athenaeum, the newspaper of West Virginia University, writes: ‘Like it or not, Facebook is a perfect starting point for investigations. The system is literally a treasure trove of information: names, addresses, cell phone numbers, political affiliations, interests, hobbies, link-charted contact networks and countless photographs. This type of information makes journalists drool – not just because it is readily available and easy to find, but it has been voluntarily broadcast into cyberspace. Anything found on Facebook is well within the public domain. If it's posted, nobody can cry about how it's used’.”

Journalism as usual: The use of social media as a newsgathering tool in the coverage of the Iranian elections in 2009

“…Although a number of incidents had already occurred in which the press had been criticised by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) for the use of photographs published on Facebook and elsewhere online, journalists persisted in their belief that anything published online was 'fair game', free to be used by the press (Fletcher, 2007;Cooper, 2012;Newton and Duncan, 2012).…”

“…Opinions are divided on this: some journalists liken the practice to lifting quotes from cards left at a public site, while others consider it out of bounds for ethical reasons -the people posting those quotes did not intend them for the media. What must also be considered is whether the practice is good journalismseveral journalists think not, saying that the lack of face-to-face contact, and not knowing the relationship of the commenter to the deceased, means that the journalist will not get a true sense of the person, or the best possible quote for the story (Fletcher, 2007;Riehl, 2011;Cooper, 2012;Pugh, 2012).…”

Applications and implementations of new media in corporate communications

“…As the clientele can comprise shareholders, developers, employees, consumers, and suppliers (Joyce, 2005), this is the executive's opportunity to have a voice, and promote products and services in a way that engages the various stakeholders. Furthermore, these blogs can gain a daily readership to promote particular ideas (McKenna, 2007) and attract the attention of mainstream media, which may or may not be warranted (Fletcher, 2007). However, “sticking press releases on the front of the blog just doesn't cut it” (Hourihan as cited in Joyce, 2005, p. A01).…”