It’s official: Journalists are no longer the only news breakers

Michael Jackson image from TMZ

This has been a long time coming. Although people have had in their pockets the means to transmit breaking news for at least a decade, increased social networking – particularly Twitter, Facebook and Youtube—has finally garnered enough traction to spread information to the masses.

Three events just this year have set the stage for this.

1. The crash landing of the plane into the Hudson River, which was first broken visually on Twitter
2. The death of Neda in Iran, which went viral globally after being posted on Youtube, and
3. Michael Jackson’s death just hours ago, which was first reported by TMZ and spread like wildfire within minutes on Twitter.

The traditional news media, although generally doing admirably in the social media arena, cannot be in all places at once, especially with shrinking newsroom personnel. Ordinary people on the ground, and non-traditional media–such as blogs, video sites and Twitter—are inherently in better positions to document events as they happen.

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How to send a takedown notice without being a jerk

Strategically monitoring and managing your online reputation

If you are not aggressively monitoring your own and your organization’s online presence, you are not only missing big-time opportunities, you are also potentially enabling damage toward reputations that might otherwise be avoided.

Here’s why: What is said about you online is more critical now than ever before because with social media it is far easier for anyone to attack you anonymously and even impersonate you without your consent. Anonymous attacks are commonplace on news sites because news media outlets take laissez faire approaches to anonymous reader comments in order to gain more online advertising revenue.

Impersonations are happening all over the Internet and on Twitter in particular to the point that one led to a high-profile lawsuit recently and the emergence of a new feature on Twitter: verified accounts. Examples of fake Twitter accounts: here, here and here. See what happened to U.S. Representative Dean Heller (R-Nev.) this past week. A Reno blogger for months was tweeting as if he were Heller and few knew it was occurring. The fake Heller garnered more than 500 followers. Heller’s communications personnel should have been all over this from the beginning.

Prior to social media, online mock sites were common but far more intensive to execute. A Twitter account takes seconds to create and followers will arrive within moments. (more…)

Palin’s Pushback – Unfortunately Necessary

Many have had a field day with the David Letterman fiasco regarding his jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter(s). Key to the debate is the point that Letterman and his writers clearly screwed up in their innuendo about Palin’s daughter.

It is obvious the joke in question was meant in reference to Palin’s oldest daughter, age 18, who became pregnant before marriage and while still a teenager. But Letterman and his writers inadvertently were referring to the daughter at the ballgame in question, who is 14, getting “knocked up by Alex Rodriquez.”

Palin rightfully pushed back against the joke. And she continued pushing. While Letterman initially tried to diffuse the situation with more humor, Palin clearly wasn’t satisfied.

She went too far in attempting to reframe the context of the joke, such as suggesting her youngest daughter should stay away from David Letterman. However, the situation was precipitated by Letterman’s inadvertent mistake and Palin was correct to fight back.

As an added touch of grace to the situation, both Letterman’s eventual apology and Palin’s acceptance of it, shows that in such situations a good fight must ensue before a true resolution can be find.

Palin necessarily stood up for herself and her family in order to get to that point. She should be commended.

[EDIT: Jim Lukaszewski just chimed in and he takes Letterman to task. You may read his response here.]

Sotomayor and Sexism: NPR Gets It Right

Nominations to the Supreme Court by the President are chief among mainstream ongoings that should not be politicized. I’ve never cared for how nominees are treated, as most seem more subject to political grandstanding than actual testament to relative qualifications.

This goes for the treatment of Clarence Thomas and Harriet Miers to Samuel Alito, John Roberts and now Sonia Sotomayor. While it’s justified to give critical examinations into records, and yes, even such things as temperament and character, the ultimate test is judicial and decision-making skill. Can the nominee do the job she or he is appointed to do, and can they do it effectively? How well do they think and process incredibly complex problems?

Where critics have gone too far with the current nominee is by assailing her character on the bench — Lindsay Graham (R-SC) called her a bully — without thorough thought given to current Supreme Court justices. It took National Public Radio to point it out.

Nina Totenberg brilliantly digs up the criticisms against Sotomayor and then does a back-to-back comparison of her so-called bullying behavior against that of current judges, in particular Justices John Roberts and Antonin Scalia. Totenberg both read court transcripts and listened to actual questioning by the Sotomayor and then pits them against questioning by Roberts and Scalia.

Totenberg’s complete story is here, but her conclusion bears repeating:

So, if Sotomayor sometimes dominates oral arguments at her court — if she is feisty, even pushy — then she would fit right in at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tulane University moves forward after Katrina fallout

Tulane T: Downloaded from www.tulane.edu

AAUP censure likely to be lifted

It was reported today that Tulane University is likely to have its censure lifted as it negotiates with its faculty and the American Association of University Professors.

I wrote two years ago about the debacle faced by Katrina-affected universities who were hit with censure by the AAUP for alleged violations of faculty rights. Tulane and other institutions were forced to reduce faculty in light of the disaster.

The AAUP claimed the institutions did so in a way that violated the rights of faculty. Tulane, however, rightfully fought back and posted its own version of the events, including documentation of errors in AAUP’s censure process and report. While I don’t take sides for either Tulane administrators or faculty, I found Tulane’s official response refreshing for the simple reason that too many institutions roll over in light of public criticism — or they simply don’t respond publicly at all.

Progress has been made since 2007, and it is reported that Tulane administrators and AAUP have been working to have the censure lifted. The complete story is here.