Ganja Queen and Media Ethics

In my Journalism Media & Ethics class we screened the HBO documentary "Ganja Queen," which told the story of a young Australian woman who was accused and then convicted of importing marijuana into Bali, Indonesia. The documentary raises a number of questions about the ethics of representation of true-life stories, especially in an age of online social-interactive media and "reality" television. First, to what extent does a broadcaster or documentary filmmaker owe it to the audience to update knowledge about a subject? In this case, there have been numerous developments since the documentary was filmed, some of which probably would radically change the audience's perception of events. Second, most ordinary people are not media-savvy in the sense of having the degree of self-awareness to know when something they are saying or doing looks wrong or suspicious on camera. Does a documentary filmmaker, especially in a criminal case, owe it to the subjects to help them be at their best for the camera, or is the goal to...
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Perlmutter at Kansas Governor’s Public Health Conference on Social Media

David D. Perlmutter was a keynote speaker at the Kansas Governor's Public Health Conference in Wichita. His two topics were: "Marketing Health Information: The Challenge of Online Social-Interactive Media" and "How to Tell the Story of Your Success Via Online Social-Interactive Media" Originally posted May 5, 2009 at PolicyByBlog...
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Mass Communication and Society on “New Media in the 2008 Presidential Election”

David D. Perlmutter and Tom Johnson (Texas Tech) will be co-editors of a special issue of the academic journal Mass Communication and Society on "New Media in the 2008 Presidential Election." Originally posted May 5, 2009 at PolicyByBlog...
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New Job for Perlmutter!

My second week of work over--time flies! I am now a professor & Starch Faculty Fellow and director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and The University of Iowa. Some local reports: http://www.news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/april/040809perlmutter_director.html http://www.dailyiowan.com/2009/04/09/Metro/10968.html http://www.corridorbiznews.com/aspx/NewsDetail.aspx?ItemID=1664   And an interview by a student for his newsblog: http://johngoodlove.blogspot.com/2009/05/interview-with-daniel-perlmutter.html   Originally posted July 3, 2009 at PolicyByBlog...
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“Facebooking Your Way Out of Tenure” at Chronicle of Higher Education

My essay "Facebooking Your Way Out of Tenure" appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, July 3, 2009. [online]. It is part of my regular column, "P&T Confidential." The essay (first of two parts) looks at how the vast new world of online social networks--Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, blogs, Twitter, etc.--has affected many parts of our lives, including promotion and tenure for academics. In part one I deal with how Facebook can negatively influence the way people, including those who will decide on your tenure bid, think about you. In part two, next month, I will outline tenure-friendly Facebooking activities.   Originally posted July 3, 2009 at PolicyByBlog...
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Blogs as Stealth Dissent?

Wei Zha & David D. Perlmutter. "Blogs as Stealth Dissent?: 'Eighteen Touch Dog Newspaper' and the Tactics, Ambiguity and Limits of Internet Resistance in  China." In Guy J. Golan, Thomas J. Johnson, & Wayne Wanta (eds.), International Media Communication in a Global Age, pp. 277-295. New York: Routledge. Originally posted October 4, 2009 at PolicyByBlog...
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