[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Poynter Online’s Romenesko highlights just some of the issues raised by an article in the Spokesman-Review which used gay chatrooms to ‘expose’ the mayor of Spokane of using his position to “develop sexual relationships with boys and young men”. To quote further from the article: “[The mayor] offered a man he believed to be an 18-year-old – whom he met online at Gay.com – gifts, favors and a City Hall internship, Internet dialogues retained by the newspaper reveal. The 18-year-old was actually a forensic computer expert working for the newspaper.”

You can also read coverage of the journalistic issues at the Seattle Times, which includes responses from the Spokesman’s editor and professors of journalism ethics. It not only documents the reasons behind the decision, but also the dangers of it amounting to entrapment. It’s well worth reading in full, but here’s a key quote:

Smith of The Spokesman-Review said … “I would be lying if I said I’m not troubled by it. It’s a step we took with great reluctance,” after many newsroom discussions and after consulting with outside journalism-ethics experts.

Reporters and editors asked themselves whether they could obtain on their own the information they needed.

“What we were trying to ascertain was whether the man we were tracking on [the Web site] was, in fact, Jim West [the Mayor]. … We had allegations from three individuals that they had interacted with this person and that this person was West. But we needed more substantial verification than they were able to provide.

… From the outset, the newspaper decided to explain to readers about the use of the outside expert and fictional scenario but debated whether to publish the chat transcripts. In the end, it did so. “It was only fair that readers saw what we saw to see if we quoted people fairly, accurately and contextually,” Smith said.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Kaibatsu of GrabaGeek makes the point that: “Now Google is seeking patent(s) to rank news quality … The 4500 plus news sources will still be around but it will be harder to get your article’s headline noticed to the world. So [writers on] sites like Grabageek and Neowin who promote amateur journalism will have to work harder to pass the rank rating to get your article on Google news.”

Shame they didn’t link to their source about Google seeking patents… I had to find it myself.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. …if you convince your newspaper to podcast, as the Denver Post has. Get your Denver news on your ipod here.

UPDATE (May 10 2005): The Philadelphia Daily News also launches a podcast, as reported by Poynter.

UPDATE (May 16 2005): Now it seems they can’t resist the lure of hosting their own chat shows. And: podcasts become a trend.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Backfence.com being a citizen journalism site in the vein of Korea’s OhmyNews. Poynter reports on the site including an interesting advertising model that allows you to place your own display ads and classified ads, “and even Yellow Pages listings”. Worth exploring.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. That’s the upshot of this article on Poynter online reporting that ABC News is to provide content for the new Playstation Portable (PSP). The chances of it catching on are slim, as the writer points out: “I’d be surprised if many people spent five minutes putting a 90-second video clip on a portable player when they could just watch it online to begin with.” But still, a trend worth watching.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. The idea of students maintaining blogs is nothing new, but Warwick University have taken it a stage further with their own blogging service. The Guardian reports that the service hosts more than 3,000 weblogs “but with 15,000 students at the university, at least 12,000 therefore remain unconvinced”. Interestingly, students can block tutors from reading posts, and there seems to be a trend towards “gaming” the system. “For example, students have faked comments to certain posts so they are identified as hot topics and highlighted on the main Warwick Blogs page”.

This main page is most interesting. Visitors can browse the blog directory to find bloggers in their area (or by name), or look at the categories page to see what’s being discussed (“Crime and Deviance” was the hot topic when I visited, suggesting a recent sociology assignment must have been set). It’s a great display of blogging ability, and also a great way to engender communication within an increasingly fragmented student body. And if I was working on the student paper, I’d be browsing to see where my next story might come from…

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. You may have read about Associated Press planning to charge for use of its material online. Here’s the take from OJR – key quote:

“AP started as a cooperative. Today, it is a cooperative in name only. It’s time to take a lesson from music swappers and invent the new AP – a digital cooperative, a Napsterized news service.

“…Members would have to adopt thorough formatting taxonomy and keywording schemes that would make articles easy to search, sort and parse for publication. Suitable schemes already exist through independent standards bodies such as the International Press Telecommunications Council and the news division of the Special Libraries Association.

“A PubSub-like function would allow a member to be notified when stories with key topics hit the networks. For instance, a Knoxville newspaper or broadcast outlet would get an alert when any member uploaded a story about the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. The Times provide a helpful list of bloggers covering the election. To list them here:

“Some websites try to remain neutral or dispassionate, such as politicalbetting.com , which allows political gamblers to place trends and events in context or the Guido Fawkes blog , which cuts across all kinds of political stories.

“The pollingreport.co.uk site (and its blog) is excellent at deciphering voting intentions, as is electoralcalculus.co.uk, which has clear constituency background information.

“British bloggers are just as partisan as in the US. Sites such as honourablefiend.com and concom.blogspot.com make little attempt to hide their allegiances. Also good value are sites that pick on a party and knock it as hard as they can – labour watch, libdemwatch or torytrouble.”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Interesting article by Amy Gahran on how interviewees might publish transcripts of their interviews – including what the journalist says – on their blogs. “When I interview sources I will make a point of asking if they have their own site or weblog, and whether they’re intending to write about the interview. I will consider the whole conversation mutually on record unless otherwise specified.”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Google Maps has already made some waves in the US, so it’s good to see it now over here – and what a lovely piece of technology it is. Intuitive, click-and-drag control with a slider to zoom in, with great detail.