Bloggers Alter the Rules at Democratic Convention

By David Carr

The New York Times – The party held by Vanity Fair and Google on the last night of the Democratic convention in Denver had all the A-list juice you might expect, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Madeleine Albright mixing it up with Spike Lee, Jamie Foxx and Susan Sarandon.

Reporters and editors from mainstream media outlets were finally at ease, off deadline, swilling drinks and munching sushi and doughnuts.

Most felt acquitted, having spent punishing amounts of time and effort on an event that was supposed to be short on news, but seemed to generate plenty.

The party is a charming ritual, except this year there seemed to be a few hundred extra faces at what was billed as a tough ticket.

“Who are all these people?” sniffed one editor who had been in the game for years.

“They are your colleagues,” I said. “But they may not be your friends.”

During the convention, Google had hosted the Big Tent which housed 500 bloggers, vloggers and other nontraditional media types. Google also made sure that these journalistic insurgents were invited to the after-party, people like James Kotecki from Politico, Baratunde Thurston of Jack & Jill Politics, Chuck Olsen of Blogumentary and Noah Kunin of Blanked-Out. They may not have gotten face time with Chevy Chase, but then they had their own A-list to meet, like a YouTube co-founder, Chad Hurley, Craig Newmark of Craigslist and Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and an Obama strategist.

The new kids are tipping the balance in their favor, certainly compared with 2004. Many big media organizations cut back their presence at conventions this year, in part because conventions are so choreographed and in part because it is not a great time to be throwing money around.

But the continuing shift to online advertising that is hurting big media is helping small media, to the point that the number of journalistic boots on the ground — if not equal — are at least competitive. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/business/media/01carr.html?ex=1377921600&en=ee566029b7f0c4c1&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The Enquirer: Even Scandal Can Be News

In the new media world, bloggers and tabloids set the agenda with the old guard media often trailing behind. When a scandal involves a political figure, it often becomes to big a story for the old-guard establishment media to ignore. New York Times Columnist David Carr discusses this trend.

By DAVID CARR
Published: August 17, 200
The New York Times – To those who look at American tabloid culture and say “good riddance,” I say, not so fast.There are some stories, especially ones that occur in the bedroom, where mainstream media outlets sometimes can’t venture — or at least they can’t find it in themselves to lead the charge. But it would be hard to argue that the body politic is not enriched by the recent revelations that John Edwards is not who we thought he was, even balanced against the many stories the Enquirer gets wrong. (Even in his confession, Mr. Edwards wrinkled his nose and suggested that the allegations had originated with “supermarket tabloids,” as if the method of conveyance absolved him of the deeds described.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/business/media/18carr.html?ex=1376712000&en=8b7c7a6c97c5fa97&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

CNN Video on John Edwards Sex Scandal

An Uneasy Intersection of Bloggers And the Law

The New York Times

There is no better way to get a blogger talking than by telling him what he cannot publish — although you might forgive a government prosecutor for thinking otherwise.A grand jury subpoena sent by prosecutors in the Bronx earlier this year sought information to help identify people blogging anonymously on a Web site about New York politics called Room 8. The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence “could impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with law enforcement” — implying that if the bloggers blabbed, they could be prosecuted.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/technology/15law.html?ex=1373947200&en=74f85ca2f270df2d&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Chinese Bloggers Score a Victory Against the Government

WSJ – July 5,6 – HONG KONG — Chinese authorities announced that four Communist Party, local government and security officials in Guizhou province’s Weng’an county were sacked for “severe malfeasance” over the alleged coverup of a murder, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Initially, police said high-school student Li Shufen drowned, angering people who believe she was raped and murdered, perhaps by children of local officials. Even on Wednesday, the provincial party chief, Shi Zongyuan, had brushed off protests over the incident — protests that Xinhua said involved some 30,000 people — as being “used and incited by very few people with ulterior motives.” But with the announcement of the firings on Friday, he said the local officials’ “rude and rough-handed solutions” in dealing with local issues had caused the riot, according to Xinhua.

That change in stance appears to be a direct result of pressure brought by journalists and Chinese bloggers such as Zhou Shuguang, a self-styled “personal news station,” who didn’t allow the issue to drop, posting to the Internet unofficial reports along with photos and pleas from the family of the dead youth. When mainstream Chinese Web sites began deleting posts on the issue, some bloggers turned to technical workarounds, including writing their posts backwards and reposting material that had been taken down elsewhere.

Friday’s apparent change of heart is the latest sign authorities are aware that old approaches to controlling information aren’t working. Even earlier, authorities tried to get out in front of the story: In Weng’an, local officials held a news conference less than two days after the riot to give their version of events. And Xinhua also covered the riot almost immediately, in contrast to past practices of waiting days before reporting such events.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121521562007829595.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news