BLOGGING UP: News Roundup–01/26/06

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
I call it "BLOGGING UP": when organizations, government agencies, politicians, commercial companies, advocacy or lobbying groups or big media (print and electronic) try to use blogging for internal or public communication. The whole premise behind this website is that political blogging is coming of age as many mainstream folks and institutions try to adopt or adapt to blogs. I will start a new feature here--titled BLOGGING UP--which will periodically survey the variety of "professional" manifestations. A global roundup for this week: From Japan: "LIVEDOOR'S HORIE USES BLOG TO DENY WRONGDOING." The president of a company accused of financial misdeeds starts a blog to protest his innocence. Note his youth (33) and that he is an "Internet mogul." Will 72-year-old presidents of lumber supply companies do the same someday? (more…)...
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Political Blog News: March 7, 2006

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Items of interest this week: Blogged Out of a Job; Few Firms Have Rules but Posters Be Warned, Amy Joyce, The Washington Post, February 19, 2006. A reporter in Dover, Del., was fired earlier this month for offensive postings on his personal blog. The number of bloggers continues to grow, but the number of workplace policies explaining the company's rules on blogging remains anemic. And that can cause a lot of workplace angst for both management and workers. Activists turn to blogs for war news, Leigh Shelton, The Daily Reveille (LSU), February 14, 2006. Recent Internet research shows blog readership jumped 58 percent in 2004, and blog readers find personal publishers, or "bloggers," to be much more credible than traditional journalists. The Iraq war debate between anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan and U.S. Marine Lt. Col. David Couvillon that occurred in Baton Rouge, La., drew, among others, a small group of war-supporting mothers and anti-war organizers with seemingly nothing in common except that they said...
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The Origins of BLOGWARS, part 1

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
I got a chance on my DAILY SHOW appearance to mention when I first started working on my book, BLOGWARS. Here are more details--partly drawn from BLOGWARS itself. In my mind there were three points of origin of the book. 1. In 1996, a colleague and I conducted one of the first studies of presidential campaign Web sites. Our main finding was that they were mostly online "tackboards," posting information rather than developing content that exploited the hyperlinking and interactive qualities of the Internet. We stated, however, in the conclusions that: "It is currently possible, though no candidate has done this, to host an online talk show where the candidate fields questions from users throughout the nation." Then, as an afterthought, I began looking at "personal political Web sites" created not by the campaign apparatus—political consultants, managers, advisers, or parties—but by individuals who supported the candidate or some cause. Many were raucous and crude, but it did seem that personalized mass...
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Medical & Health Blogs (Medblogs)

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
Taking off from my work on political blogs I am now looking at health and medical blogs. I had noticed them over the years, especially ones by students and friends (see below). On March 26, 2008 I spoke to the "Grand Rounds" Public Health seminar at the KU Medical School and simulcast to online participants at other Kansas Public Health Departments. My presentation was titled "PAGING DR. BLOG! Nontraditional Sources of Health Information." It was a study of how blogs and other social-interactive media are changing the dissemination and reception of health information for both the public and health practitioners. Medical blogs (medblogs) fall into certain categories: (1) Personal Illness MedBlogs: blogs written or edited by people suffering from a specific disease, condition, or injury. These can be: (a) First-Person Focus is on self, really for personal processing of illness. Started by one or very few people who are ill. Emphasis is on personal "I" in writing style and topics. Often contains self-encouragement. Often contains a chronology or updates...
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Hippocratic Oath for Medical & Health Webloggers (medbloggers)

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
As noted in my previous post I am now looking at the world of medical & health weblogs (Medblogs). One very important issue for medblogs resonates with a controversy in political blogging world: codes of ethics. Mary Schoen, one my students and I did a study of ethics codes in among political bloggers. In brief, we found very few had formal codes or even thought that they needed to have them. For health care professional who blog, the ethical issues are much acute. So I am working on an adaptation of the Hippocratic Oath to apply to the medblogger. Question: Should professionas who are MedBloggers take a Special Hippocratic Oath? (more…)...
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Citizen Journalism Workshop: BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2008

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
If you are a blogger, hope to see you in Vegas! I am helping organize the workshop below. Citizen Journalism Workshop An Exclusive Event at BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2008 Date : Sept. 19, 2008 – 10:00AM – 4:45PM Location : Las Vegas Convention Ctr. PROGRAM OVERVIEW : As blogs take their place as legitimate and respected sources for news, information and analysis, BLOGWORLD & NEW MEDIA EXPO 2008 introduces a new Citizen Journalism Workshop. There are about 112 millions weblogs worldwide, and while many are blogging for casual reasons or for just a short time, others, especially news and information bloggers, are serious about their blogs' success in the greater marketplace of ideas. How can someone "break in" as a news, politics or current events blogger and build a readership, get attention from major bloggers and mass media, and more important perhaps, affect or influence the traditional press agenda, politics, and public opinion? Traditional news media outlets and bloggers have not always had the best...
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Create an iPhone app. class at Iowa

by David Perlmutter Comment Closed
David Perlmutter and Jim Cremer (Chair, Computer Science, Univ. of Iowa) have been awarded an Academic Technologies Advisory Council 2009 Innovations in Teaching with Technology Award by Iowa Information Technology Services. Totaling about $6,500, the funding will pay for the technology for the “Create an iPhone App. Class” to be taught in Spring 2010. See our discussion about the class on the Daily Iowan. Originally posted January 18, 2010...
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