Idea Lab

Journalism Graduates: It's Time to Reinvent Journalism

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

Spring is upon us and with it comes commencement season at universities across the country (Harvard's 358th commencement is this Thursday, FYI). This is a tough time for graduates in almost every discipline, but especially so for journalism grads. At least that is the conventional wisdom. Which is why it is so refreshing to see a shift in perspective occurring (perhaps even, gasp, a paradigm shift?) at two of this country's preeminent journalism schools: the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. In commencement speeches last month, Nicholas Lemann and Barbara Ehrenreich both exhorted...

• June 2, 2009
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The Role of Citizen Media in Ensuring Fair Elections

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

Yesterday, I read an article in the New York Times describing the fears some voters in Duval County, Florida have that their early votes will be lost and never counted. I found the article deeply disturbing. It wasn't because it surprised me that people fear their votes won't be counted (that fear has some precedent in Duval County, where 26,000 ballots were discarded in the 2000 election), but because it brought into focus for me the apprehensive feelings I've been having about the upcoming election. I have this nagging feeling that something . . . well, terrible . ....

• October 30, 2008
• 1 comment

CMLP Completes Launch of Online Guide to Media Law

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

Today, we are launching the final sections of the Citizen Media Law Project's online guide to media law covering the risks associated with publishing online, including defamation and privacy law.  (You can read the press release here.)  The free online guide, which is intended for use by bloggers, website operators, and other citizen media creators, focuses on the legal issues that non-traditional and traditional journalists are likely to encounter as they gather information and publish their work online. The legal guide, which runs more than 575 pages, is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It...

• July 29, 2008
• 1 comment

CMLP Legal Guide: Accessing Government Info

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

Back in January, the Citizen Media Law Project began rolling out its Citizen Media Legal Guide. So far, we've published major sections of the guide covering Forming a Business and Getting Online, Dealing with Online Legal Risks, and Newsgathering and Privacy. This week we began rolling out the section on Access to Government Information, which highlights the extensive amount of information available through government sources and explains how both traditional and non-traditional journalists can use various public access laws to gather and make effective use of this information. To whet your appetite, I've pasted the first part of the...

• April 2, 2008
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CMLP Legal Guide: Deciding Whether and How to be Anonymous

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

In light of Dan Schultz's excellent post entitled Anonymous vs. Scientology: A Case Study of Digital Media, I've decided to focus my post this week on the legal and practical issues you should consider if you wish to engage in anonymous speech online. This is the third in a series of posts I've put up highlighting some of the topics covered in the Citizen Media Law Project's recently launched Citizen Media Legal Guide. In the first two posts I discussed choosing a business form for your online activities and the legal issues associated with selecting a platform for online speech....

• February 17, 2008
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CMLP Legal Guide: Getting Your Content Out to the World

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

This is the second in a series of posts calling attention to some of the topics covered in the recently launched Citizen Media Law Project Legal Guide. The first topic I took up was choosing a business form. In this post I discuss the various issues, both legal and practical, that arise when you select a platform for your online activities.Getting Your Words and Other Content Out to the World So you've decided that you want to publish online. There is a wide range of platforms you can use to get your words, video, and other content out to...

• February 10, 2008
• 3 comments

Highlights from the CMLP Legal Guide: Choosing a Business Form

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

This is the first in a series of posts calling attention to some of the topics covered in the recently launched Citizen Media Law Project Legal Guide. The first topic I'll take up is choosing a business form for your online publishing activities. There is increasing awareness that, especially if you publish content in collaboration with others, it may not be smart to simply leave the relationship "natural" or informal. But this realization raises other questions: What are your options? What are the benefits of legal formality? Will it be expensive to obtain these benefits? Will you have to...

• February 6, 2008
• 1 comment

Citizen Media Law Project Launches Legal Guide

by David Ardia
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

Last week we launched the first sections of the Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide. The guide is intended for use by citizen media creators with or without formal legal training, as well as others with an interest in these issues, and addresses the legal issues that you may encounter as you gather information and publish your work online. You can read the press release here. The Legal Guide, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, covers the 15 most populous U.S. states and the District of Columbia and will focus on the wide...

• February 5, 2008
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