Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Bloggers as.....Slaves?

Seems like in the new age of bloggers being used as an important tool of politics, some thorny questions of digital rights are coming up. Check this story out: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/huffington-post-is-target-of-suit-on-behalf-of-bloggers/?nl=afternoonupdate&emc=aua22

The Huffington Post is being sued by bloggers for lack of compensation to the bloggers for the services that they were contracted to do by the Post. The suit is being led by Jonthan Tasini, a labor lawyer who had these kind words to say "“The Huffington bloggers have essentially been turned into modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation”.

The question that is really raised here, however, is what rights do bloggers have? Are they considered workers in the same sense of a traditional 9-5 job? Are they writers or authors like James Patterson or JK Rowling? I think that these questions, and this lawsuit, have the potential to become a really big deal because the blogging world is only going to proliferate and these questions must be dealt with.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Goldstone and the UN

             In a stunning Washington Post article, Richard Goldstone, the UN chief of investigating Israel and Hamas's conduct during the 2008 war, completely retracts his previous report, where he claimed Israel deliberately targeted civilians (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html) . In response, Israel and various Jewish organizations are pressing the UN to rescind the report. After all, if the author himself disagrees with the conclusions, then why should such a report stand?
        Now lets be honest here. We all know that the UN Human Rights Council is full of inveterate Israel haters. They are not going to invalidate any literature that supports their doctrine of evil Israelis killing Palestinian babies. If Israel did not target civilians and they admit it, then all their holier-than-thou announcements hold no water and they know so. BUT what is interesting to me as a student in Media and Politics is how the media portrays the U.N.
                  For the most part, the media portrays the UN as a respectable international institution. But, it has not been like that for many years- and not just in its treatment of Israel. Why is it when that something/someone gives off an air of legitimacy, the media respects it? The media can be scathing sometimes, for example local US media can be very incisive against the U.S. government. Why should the UN get off easy? The media should treat the UN like any other organization and bring its failings to light.
                

And unrelated, but an interesting idea of how organizations should use terms in their public relations dealings is this blog: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/goldstones-retraction-and-the-new-anti-semitism/2011/03/29/AFMYIM9C_blog.html
I think her idea is really interesting. If Jewish organizations started calling the BDS movement anti-Semitic, would people take them more seriously?

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Youtube as a Venue to Talk to World Leaders

Last class we were discussing the ways a presidental hopeful would run a campaign, and how he/she would have to incorporate new media. On that note, I thought that this was really cool. It seems Youtube runs interviews with world leaders where average citizens from around the globe submit video questions and then the world leaders respond with their own video response in a interview style. Here is the link to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5t6A9wSMWo&feature=featured

I wonder if this will herald a new time where average citizens have more up close and personal exposure to their leaders, or the status quo remains the same? Either way, I think this was a really cool idea as more and more people go to the internet for news and entertainment programs like this will keep politics on the minds of average citizens.