My Response to "Big Brother is Reading Your Blog

My Response to: “Big Brother is Reading Your Blog”
Written by Olga Kharif, for Business Week, February 28, 2006.

Read the original article here: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060228_241578.htm?chan=technology_ceo+guide+to+technology

“These days, social networkers are concerned about protecting their privacy, not only from predators and scam artists, but from nosy employers and campus authorities”
While in our parents’ time teenagers used to write in diaries and hide them under the mattress, they only feared that their mother would find it, so they put little padlocks on them so their secrets were safe. This days, while we might protect what we write in blogs with passwords so our mother can’t get into our computers and read them, we have no idea who out there is reading what we write.

I think the main issue in this article comes down to privacy. We’ve all heard the advice from parents, teachers, news outlets and pretty much anyone else to not divulge personal information on the internet. But we’ve all seen it, or maybe even done it ourselves. Posting ages, birthdays, schools, names of friends and family, making it easier to be tracked down by total strangers. And we’ve all heard the stories, too. Of young girls and boys posting what seemed like innocuous and harmless personal details, only to land themslves into all types of trouble.

But that’s not the only privacy issue we are facing. As we know, social networking sites such as facebook.com, or myspace.com are becoming increasingly popular, and today it seem that almost everyone is using one of these types of sites. The issue is that istituations such as universities and work companies are aware of this too. Now, this doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. However, it turns out that some unis are using facebook profiles and student’s posts to determine things such as which students should be kept in a class ( A North Carolina college proffessor has done this), or even to monitor private activities. In other cases, bosses have fired employees for comments written in blog posts. I don’t know about you, but I think it's completely ridiculous for bosses to go on a firing rampage based on what people type in blogs. After all, blogs are meant to be used as outlets, and as a forum on which to share your opinions and beliefs about whatever issue, and getting fired for speaking your mind about something that may not even be work related frankly seems wrong.

So, in this age of freedom of speech, where we can apparently say whatever we want on the internet, it seems we have to watch our backs even more, just to make sure we can stay in uni, and keep our jobs.

Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism. So, what do I know about it?

Basically, I think the term 'citizen journalism' explains it all. The general public reporting on events, issues and topics that interest them. And by general public I mean those with no journalistic training or experience.

I think generally the idea behind citizen journalism, other than allowing people to share their opinions on current events, is that it provides a type of independent view of the news, not influenced by politics, or ratings. Therefore citizen journalists are more able to see the news from a different perspective than conventional journalists.
Also, citizen journalists can provide news to the world before it is reported by 'real' journalists. For example, if someone witnesses a major event or occurrence they can film it, write about it and upload it to their blog, before other news sources are even aware of it.

Citizen Journalism is found mainly online, in blogs, podcasts, videos and photos. Today, access to the internet equals power for the general public to showcase their opinions to be heard in a public forum.

Now, citizen journalism is being recognised as a valid form of news distribution. On television news and online news sites, the public is being encouraged to share their opinions, and send in or upload photos and videos of current events. These are just some examples of citizen journalism in practice.