According to Politico, John McCain’s finance team must prepare or their most epic battle yet, competing with Barack Obama’s campaign which has the potential to reach over $300 million. A financial rift of this magnitude would allow Obama to compete in more states than McCain, thus giving Obama a clear advantage.

“‘McCain has to make every dollar count in the general election, and Obama will have money to burn,’ said Evan Tracey, co-founder of Campaign Media Analysis Group.”

“Clearly, a major reason for the imbalance is the length of the Democratic primary compared with that of the Republican race. But it’s also a matter of resources: Obama raised nearly three times more money than McCain’s $100 million tally through April.”

Tip.

According to the Associated Press, Barak Obama has beat Hillary Clinton in the race to obtain the Democratic presidential nomination today. By clinching the nomination, Obama because the first black candidate to lead a major political party in a presidential campaign. Now the question on everyones’ mind is: Who will join Obama’s ticket as his VP?

“Vanquished rival Hillary Rodham Clinton swiftly signaled an interest in joining the ticket as his running mate.”

“According to one participant in an afternoon conference call among Clinton and members of the New York congressional delegation, Rep. Nydia Velazquez said she believed the best way for Obama to win over Hispanics and members of other key voting blocs would be to take the former first lady as his running mate.”

Tip.

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.”

In order to bring a sense of civility to the blogosphere, I think a code of ethics (similar to the one included below) should be implemented immediately:

An alternate code of conduct for bloggers and commenters:

-Be courteous.

-Give accurate information in the spirit of being helpful.

-Respectfully disagree.

-Use the correct venue for your post.

-Admit the possibility of fault and respect different points of views.

-If you screw up, take responsibility in your actions.

This code of ethics should be implemented immediately because I believe bloggers have a responsibility to up hold certain regulation, especially if blogs are to become the Fifth Estate. Since adhering to a code of ethics will be voluntary, the community will have to police itself; however, I do believe the principles would carry a lot of weight even if not everyone agrees on them.

While others may disagree that a code of ethics is necessary, or even reasonable, as it can even be considered an attack on free speech; however, Tim O’Reilly, a founder of online discussion and debate, stated the best possible rebuttal for this statement:

“That is one of the mistakes a lot of people make – believing that uncensored speech is the most free, when in face, managed civil dialogue is actually the freer speech,” he said. “Free speech is enhanced by civility.”

Headlines of 2010:
Man hit by car.
Bellevue fire.

The future of “witty wordplay” headlines that traditionally attracted readers to certain articles may be grim, according to Clive Thompson’s article “How Google News Is Changing The Way Newspaper Headlines are Written.”

According to Thompson, newspapers and online media news sources are beginning to change their prose style in order to be more easily brought up by search engines. Headlines based on puns or wordplays have created “the problem of synonymity,” which occurs when a machine sorts an article by simply the words of the headline, not the intended meaning of the headline or the actual genre of the story.

While technology has always affected journalism, I think we have reached a point where technology is beginning to have a negative impact on journalism. If people begin to create headlines only for the machines, I believe their readers will suffer and there will be a significant decrease in the sites popularity. This is because I personally believe creative headlines should remain a determining factor in distinguishing an article that is worth your time to read (dependent on the medium and intended audience, of course).

Fortunately, some news sites have began searching for ways to save their inventive headlines. One solution presented and used by the BBC is create two different headlines for each article, one which attracts the readers and one that is literal for the machines.

On the other hand, some sites such as Boing Boing, contribute some of their success to only using simple, factual headlines.

“Many people have dozens of blogs in their RSS readers, which means they’re scanning hundreds or even thousands of headlines a day – and thus scanning them at a lightning pace,” Boing Boing co-founder Cory Doctrow said. “If you write abstruse, punning headlines where the meaning isn’t immediately clear, the reader will never click on your entry.”

After reading Doctrow’s statements, I came to the same startling conclusion as Thompson: “So maybe optimizing for searchbots isn’t a bad idea – because you’ll also optimize for humanbots.”

As of now, I am remaining optimistic that technology will not turn us all into humanbots who no longer have the time or desire to enjoy traditional journalism. Thus I plan to continue to use imaginative headlines in my personal posts since I am not looking to develop an audience outside of this class now, but in the future I too might have to bow down to machine and change my ways in order to succeed.

How will journalism programs, such as the UW’s, adjust their headline writing curriculum to overcome the issue of search engine induced “synonymity”?

How will online articles that strive to be seen as traditional journalism be impacted if headlines do become straight literal?

There are several steps bloggers can take in order to remain out of the courts. The most obvious precaution one should take to avoid being charged with making defamatory statements by simply telling the truth. Stefanac explained another precaution in “Dispatches from Blogistan” that I had never heard of before: insurance for bloggers.

“If you’re really worried about defamation lawsuits, there are liability insurance policies available, but many bloggers will find annual premiums averaging $3000 for a $1 million policy with a $5000 deductible to be a steep price,” Stefanac explained.

So is insurance necessary for bloggers? I decided that if I want to continue blogging after this class is finished, I should look further into the matter, so my quest for blogging insurance began.

The first step I took was to head to Google and search for “insurance for bloggers.” The usual insurance sites, including Geico and Farmers Insurance were at the top of the search, these sites offered no information concerning my actual search topic. The rest of my search hits were also very off topic, mostly they focused on blogs about insurance.

Fortunately, I came upon a fellow bloggers site that directed my research to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The purpose of the EFF is to defend your rights, as an internet blogger or journalistic, in they cyber world.

The EFF provided extensive information on blogger’s rights and a very usefully legal guide for bloggers. Concerning insurance, the EFF stated that many insurance companies are now offering media liability insurance policies designed to cover online libel claims; however, the costs may be steep, the insurer may conduct a review of the publisher, set standards and qualifications to be followed.

The EFF also explained that some homeowner’s insurance policies, and possibly some renter’s or umbrella insurance policies, may cover libel lawsuits; however, they usually exclude punitive damages and liability related to business pursuits.

In concluding my research I found that yes, insurance is available for bloggers if you think it is necessary. In my current situation, I do not see insurance as a necessity. I feel there are too many “howevers” associated with the policies, and the steep prices are obviously way out of my price range. Therefore I think the best way to protect myself as a blogger is to simply tell the truth.

As employees begin blogging, both professionally and personally, how will companies ensure their employees and the company do not end up in court? Will regulations within the company be the answer, or is this a more complicated situation?

How has lawsuits against bloggers impacted the blogosphere? Are less people willing to speak their mind, or has little change been noticed?

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.

How individuals are supposed to gain credibility and distinguish themselves from the masses in the blogosphere has been a question I have personally battled with throughout the quarter. Fortunately, chapter seven of “Dispatches from Blogistan” has finally provided some form of an answer to my burning question.

“Better tools for filtering and gauging reputation are coming onboard every day,” Stefanac explained. “Individual bloggers are getting more proficient at presenting their cases in a manner that inspires confidence and action.”

By utilizing new technology and presenting arguments that are well formulated and balanced, bloggers are beginning to set themselves apart in their personal communities and the entire blogosphere.

Chapter seven also addressed another blogging issue I have expressed concerns about, the relationship between blogging and traditional journalism. In an interview with Jamais Cascio, an Internet activism veteran, Stefanac once again calmed my fears about traditional journalism surviving in the cyber world by stating.

“The only journalists (by which I mean the writers of traditional news media) who should be nervous about the rise of citizen media are those journalists whose work can’t stand scrutiny,” Cascio stated. “Good journalists should be ecstatic about this development, and not just because of the fact-checking aspect.”

Fortunately I feel that I was taught to accept and enjoy receiving criticism from an early age. I feel that any feed back I receive as a journalists, whether I choose to act on it or not, is beneficial because it allows me to further critique my skills.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading chapter seven because I thought it spoke directly to some of the questions I have been attempting to answer all quarter.

How should privacy be defined in the blogosphere? How will privacy be regulated, especially in instances where the lawsuits are involved?

How can bloggers ensure that they balance citing their sources by hyperlinking and copyright infringement? Are there regulations against this or will there be any in the future?