Kendra Rae’s Ramblings

Ars Technica reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court decision to prohibit a high school student from being reelected as student secretary and from being able to speak at graduation, after posting a blog that named her school officials “douchebags.” The student and her mother initiated the law suit because they believed the school had violated her First Amendment rights.

“The Court of Appeals noted that adults may have a constitutional right to use vulgar or offensive speech in order to make a point, but that it ‘may legitimately give rise to disciplinary action by a school’ if a school is responsible for ‘teaching students the boundaries of socially appropriate behavior. Although Avery made her statements off school grounds and outside of school hours, they were related to school activities and ultimately caused some level of disruption of the school setting.”

“Avery’s position as secretary was also considered a ‘privilege’ that could be rescinded at any point, the court said, especially since her actions apparently undermined the values of the student government as an extracurricular activity.”

Tip.

According to a report by Read Write Web, in order to increase online readership, The New York Times is the process of creating an API that will allow programmers to more easily structure print content for the web. The New York Times plans to have the API finished by the time summer arrives, with parts of the API available to the public within six months.

“An API is a logical step for newspapers. It will give developers access to their vast amounts of well-researched data, and allows the paper’s brand to be spread easily across the web. More access to Times content and the ability to mash it up in new and interesting ways can only be a win for both readers and the paper.”

Tip.

According to a Gallup Panel survey, a large majority o Democrats, Republicans and independents think it is important for the president of the U.S. to meet with the leaders of countries that are considered our adversaries. The survey also specified that most people would like to see a meeting between the U.S. and Iran.

“About 6 in 10 Americans (59%) think it would be a good idea for the president of the United States to meet with the president of Iran. This includes about half of Republicans, a majority of independents and most Democrats.”

Tip.

One of the most appealing aspects of the blogosphere is the free flow of unfiltered ideas and conversation it permits; however, this same freedom can be abused and all together discarded. In the most extreme cases, blogs have been used to target individuals to the point where they fear for their own lives.

In order to protect the rights of others while balancing a blogger’s right to freedom of expression; I support the implementation of a code of ethics for bloggers.

“The aim of [a] code is not to homogenize the Web, but to make clearer the informal rules that are already in place anyway,” said David Weinberger, a well known blogger and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, during an interview for the article “A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs.”

Read the rest of this entry »

KC Cowen introduced the class to the idea of blogs as the “Fifth Estate” in her post titled Democracy Defended: Polibloggers and the Political Press in America. But what is the “Fifth Estate”?

Geoff Livingston explains the “Fifth Estate” and its relation to the Fourth Estate, or the media. The fifth estate was born from the media audiences ability and desire to comment, influence, supplement, augment and develop their own voice concerning information obtained through the media. Start the dramatic music — the fifth estate and blogs are one in the same.

“The Fifth Estate – citizen media – brings to bear unreported yet relevant news, and questioned stated facts,” Livingston explained.

Stephen Cooper, Associate Professor of Communications at Marshall University professor, proposed a similar, yet different, definition and use of the Fifth Estate in his book, “Watching the Watchdog: Blogging as the Fifth Estate.” Cooper explores the distinct type of media criticism that has developed in the blogosphere, which he has named the watcher of the watchdog.

According to Amazon.com: “In one sentence, the thesis of this little book is that the blogosphere is in the process of maturing into a full-fledged social institution, albeit a non-traditional one: emergent, self-organizing and self-regulating.

If you are still interested in learning more about the Fifth Estate, take some time to read this recent Washington Post article about how in some cases the media has accepted and used social media to its benefit.