Online advertisers joined the blogger backlash against the Federal Trade Commission’s new guidelines that require bloggers, Twitterers and others to disclose any cash or freebies they’ve received to hawk stuff online.
Noting the new guidelines have created a “firestorm of controversy within the ad-supported interactive-media industry,” Interactive Advertising Bureau President Randall Rothenberg suggested the FTC rescind the new guidelines.
A Twitter campaign that rippled through the U.K. Tuesday helped to induce an about-face on a legal injunction that was preventing the Guardian newspaper from reporting on a public parliamentary proceeding.
Bloggers and Twitter users, led by Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger, expressed indignation about a court injunction that called into question the British newspaper’s right to report on a parliamentary debate.
As you’ve likely heard by now, the Federal Trade Commission is trying to reign in freebie-grabbing bloggers and graft-happy social media users masquerading as unbiased critics.
by William M. Bulkeley, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Some bloggers are beginning to save their words on paper after all–collected between hard covers in a bound volume to pass along to their children.
A service, Blog2Print, from New York custom-book maker SharedBook, prints blogs into books and says that demand has been been growing 50 percent every month, although from a small base.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
A recent amendment to the federal shield bill being considered in the Senate will exclude non-“salaried” journalists and bloggers from the proposed law’s protections.
The law, called the Free Flow of Information Act, is intended to prevent journalists from being forced to divulge confidential sources, except in cases such as witnessing crimes or acts of terrorism.
by James Hookway, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Attempts to censor the Internet are spreading to Southeast Asia as governments turn to coercion and intimidation to rein in online criticism.
Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam lack the kind of technology and financial resources that China and some other large countries use to police the Internet.
by C.W. Anderson, Assistant Professor, Department of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island
Business models are important–but questions like “what kind of journalism best integrates with the nature of 21st-century democracy and society?” are also practical problems.
by Babak Rahimi and Elham Gheytanchi, Assistant Professor, UC San Diego, & Sociology Instructor, Santa Monica College
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been, and remains, one of the world’s harshest censors of the Internet, frequently blocking sites that are deemed “immoral” and politically offensive to the unelected authorities in power.
by Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader has already inspired hope for new digital business models for book and newspaper publishers. Now the Kindle wants to do business with bloggers too.
by Rachel Emma Silverman, Editor, The Juggle, The Wall Street Journal
A number of Juggle readers are parent-bloggers themselves–and many of you read mom- or dad-blogs regularly. In many cases, parent-bloggers review products, such as diapers, toys and baby gear, and often receive free samples or services from companies hoping to see their wares get real parents’ seal of approval.
by Elizabeth Holmes, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Can mommy bloggers become mommy tweeters?
A new microblogging site targeting moms and modeled after Twitter launched Friday. Rachael Herrscher, a 31-year-old mother of three, has added the abbreviated commenting feature to her site Today’s Mama.
Ms. Herrscher is not the first to rip off the idea of Twitter. The more popular the site becomes–it is adding millions of users by the month–the more knockoffs pop up. There are Twitter clones for different countries and a handful by subject or topic.
While the very phrase “product placement” elicits jeers and hisses in the TV and movie worlds, on the Web something surprising has been happening: Branded content is emerging as not just a promising way to make money, but as creatively viable as well. Take Ashton Kutcher’s “Blah Girls,” which features sassy teen celebrity-bloggers who pause occasionally to quaff VitaminWater as they chase celebrity dirt.
by Charles Cooper, Executive Editor of Commentary, CNET News.com
“The Internet represents freedom, but not everywhere.”
So begins the annual “Internet Enemies” report by Reporters Without Borders–and that’s probably the cheeriest line in the entire 39-page document. It goes down from there.
This is a section of the All Things Digital Web site featuring posts from around the Web, from other Dow Jones properties and also original pieces we solicit. The section is now explicitly labeled that it comes "from other Web sites."
We are fully aware of the controversies around how linking and aggregating is done on the Web and we, in no way, are attempting to "scrape" original content created by others. Instead, regarding third-party posts, we are trying to point readers of this site to other posts from around the Web that we admire and are trying to do so in the quickest manner possible.
The Internet is full of terrific content that is not ours and we want to help our readers find it by making editorial suggestions--Look, Mom, no algorithm!--of posts we think are worth their time.
That is why we have made even more changes to Voices to ensure we do this in the most transparent and timely way. While we don't expect that everyone will agree with our policies, we have made changes that reflect our intent in pointing to content outside our site.
Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media. But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media. We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate. We will offer lots of opinion and analysis, but plenty of fact as well.
