Joel Mathis, a reporter for The Lawrence Journal-World, hangs out at La Prima Tazza, while blogging. His blog, Cup O' Joel, is at lawrence.com.
Kit Leffler/Kansan
the number of responses immediately dropped to the dismay of the bloggers. The anonymity of the online forum fosters an unrestrictive environment where offensive comment, when left unchecked, can become the norm, as was the case with lawrence.com. The comments were getting out of control, Cauthon says, referring to the unapologetic and anonymous posts such as the one Gillaspie received.
"The best blogs generate comments," Mathis says, "but there is a class of people who hate in cyberspace." The situation, apparently, creates a catch-22; the more controversial and interesting the blog, the more negative comments it will receive.
Bulletin boards have given us precedence to remove comments, Cauthon says. Prodigy, an Internet service provider, began to use screening software to prevent children from accessing adult content, making itself a publisher. In May 1995, the Supreme Court of New York decided in Stratton Oakmont v. Prodigy, that because Prodigy exerted some control over its content, it was therefore responsible for all material that passed through its service, even if posted by a third party. In a similar 1991 case, Cubby v. Compuserve, the District Court of the Southern District of New York maintained that an Internet service provider is also responsible if it refuses to remove libelous material posted by a third party.
Matt Drudge, creator of gossip-news Web site drudgereport.com, knows about libel. Material he posted has been the subject of numerous lawsuits. Drudge is often deemed a sensationalist gossip columnist and the antithesis of a true journalist. In a recent interview published in Radar, Drudge said, "In the end I don't care what I'm called as long as it is not a blogger." Not a blogger?
Traditional and mainstream journalists
are nervous about blogs and they should be, Mathis says. It is yet another media outlet that has the speed of online news and the underbelly reputation of underground journalism, or a of a media watchdog. "Blogs are now what Hunter Thompson did in the '60s," Gillaspie says.
Some blogs, such as Mathis' Cup O' Joel, are less controversial and avoid challenging the journalistic standard. Mathis' blog, "a downtown life kinda thing," covers "safe" topics to avoid trouble. Cup O' Joel was, at first, an insider's view of city hall. Mathis covers the city hall beat for The Lawrence Journal-World, and his blog suggested a conflict of interest. "When you write on a particular subject, your opinions show through." He was worried his blog would create credibility issues, rendering him less capable of objectively covering city hall issues for the Journal-World's print version.
As large companies begin to use blogs as a forum for quick communication and a tool for insight into the employee psyche, a new set of rules must be applied. While employee blogs and K-logs knowledge management blogs, can create ideas, give human resource departments a better understanding of their employees and humanize major corporations, they may also invite lawsuits for libelous posts, according to an article printed in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Blogs, even before taking on a sound definition, must now adhere to restrictions. Groove Networks, a software firm, encourages its employees to keep blogs on an independent host but has administered a blog policy to avoid conflicts of interest and potential law suits, according to an article in Computer Weekly.
Robert Scoble, a Microsoft marketing employee, writes The Scobleizer Weblog, an unedited blog about corporate life and Microsoft products. Ed Cone, a fellow blogger at edcone.com and a media watchdog, says Microsoft has benefited from Scoble's blog. Cone says Scoble has hyped new products and put a face on an otherwise faceless corporation.
Corporate entities are just now logging on. According to Perseus, teenagers account for half of all blogs, and teenage females write the majority of blogs.
Once in existence however, most blogs, more than half, are temporary. I
blushed when I read this as I remembered staring idly at my blank screen. A new blog waited at the tip of my fingers, but it would never reach the white screen. So, I quit. I am a statistic.
Gillaspie asked if he scared me off. Never. Not even the comments scared me away. Powder Room Confessions just dwindled out.
But I am not alone. Of the surveyed blogs, 66 percent, or 2.72 million, had not been updated in two months. On average, active blogs are only updated every two weeks with an average run of about four months.
Gillaspie has been consistently posting for one year, since lawrence.com's launch. His thought-provoking blogs are a far cry from the diatribes of a teenage girl, and my own blog. It is the mix, the varying viewpoints, that make up the blogging community. Each person's contribution is shaping the definition and increasing the importance of this electronic soapbox as fast as the information passes through the wires.
—Sara Behunek, Jayplay writer, can be reached at sbehunek@kansan.com.
14 jayplay
thursday, october 30, 2003