Advocate's Studio

Yesterday, I read something that riled me up. A tech blog post with an inflammatory title designed to ensure click-through and “opinionated” content marginally “based” on “facts” with an equally inflammatory bent. On a well-respected and highly viewed tech blog.  The post was dressed up like a “tech” review, but in reality served as a “hot poker” to get readers to hit it and come back repeatedly to check the comments for more outrageousness. The blog author kept the craziness going by answering challenges in the comments with additional “facts” he failed to mention in the original post.

This post reminded me of a similar post that I read last fall – another in which the writing was clearly designed to encourage readers to enter the fray and even post comments in outrage because of the over-the-top nature of the post and its equally poor writing.

I am not going to link to the post here, because I am not interested in encouraging more “hits” on it and in rewarding the writer for a job poorly done. One reason that bloggers engage in such tactics is to inflate hits and statistics, measures which affect revenues for a blog that relies on hits and clicks to increase its income.

I surely don’t begrudge anyone their income opportunities, as long as they are not hurting anyone in the process. Are these manipulaters hurting anyone here? Umm, yes!  Whether they choose to be or not, bloggers populate the new wave of journalism. The advent of blogging has dramatically changed the way in which people receive their “news.” Blogging has changed the face of traditional news outlets. More and more readers have shifted reliance on traditional news outlets to bloggers for cutting-edge information, particularly on cutting-edge topics.When readers believe they are receiving quality and are instead fed drivel, it breaches reasonable expectations of validity, bringing our profession down in the process.

Journalists adhere to a code of ethics, through the Society of Professional Journalists. I thought I might quote some of it here:

Seek Truth and Report It
Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

*   *   *

— Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.

*   *   *

— Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
— Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.

There are reasons for ethical codes. When people perceive that a practice has the power to harm, they rightly craft a set of “rules” to ensure protection of those who could be subject to the foul play that misuse of power can wreak. Lawyers have a code of ethics. Journalists have a code of ethics. Cyber Journalist has proposed a blogger code of ethics as well. The admonitions make sense. Here is the proposed Code in its entireity:

Be Honest and Fair
Bloggers should be honest and fair in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Bloggers should:
• Never plagiarize.
• Identify and link to sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability.
• Make certain that Weblog entries, quotations, headlines, photos and all other content do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
• Never distort the content of photos without disclosing what has been changed. Image enhancement is only acceptable for for technical clarity. Label montages and photo illustrations.
• Never publish information they know is inaccurate — and if publishing questionable information, make it clear it’s in doubt.
• Distinguish between advocacy, commentary and factual information. Even advocacy writing and commentary should not misrepresent fact or context.
• Distinguish factual information and commentary from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.

Minimize Harm
Ethical bloggers treat sources and subjects as human beings deserving of respect.
Bloggers should:
• Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by Weblog content. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
• Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
• Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of information is not a license for arrogance.
• Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone’s privacy.
• Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.
Be cautious about identifying juvenile suspects, victims of sex crimes and criminal suspects before the formal filing of charges.

Legal bloggers may already be sensitive to many of these concerns. Their reasons for blogging differ from those bloggers who make their money from hits and click-throughs. Legal bloggers undertake blogging to showcase their expertise, make connections and earn trust and respect from peers and clients. I would imagine  (and hope) that the incidence of “sensational” headlines and outrageous assertions would be either zero or none on law blogs. I only wish that such irresponsible conduct could be limited to blogs that pander to the National Enquirer crowd – far away from blogs that profess to provide valid news and reviews on tech matters or other professional subjects.

Reserve wild assertions and crazy opinions for the cocktail party or Twitter, Friendfeed or any of the social media outlets where they clearly will be viewed as opinion. Remember your footprint when you blog and, hopefully, your content will add to the blogosphere, rather than detract from it.

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Connie Crosby, a tech-savvy librarian from our neighbor to the north, mentioned on her blog today that the Online University Lowdown has created a list of the 50 best blogs for law librarians to follow. Why do I mention this? Anyone interested in research, writing, technology and reference management should make a point of finding web-friendly library scientists and reading their offerings religiously. I have several of these blogs in my reader and I never fail to pull interesting and enlightening information from them. My first exposure to many of the resources that I have adopted was from a blog entry authored by a researcher or librarian. My first exposure to Twitter came from blog posts by Connie and another professional mentioned in her blog above, Steve Matthews.

Time is definitely precious, with all of the possible venues for information and engagement cropping up in our real and virtual worlds. If you have to budget time for information gathering, I recommend offering a little shelf-space to some of the fine resources mentioned in this list
.

The Advocate is very pleased to announce that you lucky Kindle owners can now get your favorite law, research, writing and technology blog on your Kindle for easy reading on the go.  As of yesterday, Amazon opened up its Kindle blog catalog to publishers large and small. Follow the link to Ben Parr’s Mashable article for more information. Signing up to install the blog on their directory was simple: all it required of me was to set up an account with a tax id number and make some simple formating choices. Amazon does the rest and has told me that the Studio will be available within 42 – 78 hours for download to your Kindle.

Convenience does come with a small price tag. I am not sure what the Studio will cost to purchase from Amazon, but I figure it cannot be too much since the big name blogs will be going for between .99 cents and $1.99. Personally, my preference would be to make Advocate’s Studio on the Kindle available for my favorite number: free. Unfortunately that is up to Amazon and not me. As with iPhone apps, however, I am never bothered by a small fee for the convenience these portable tools offer and hopefully, Kindle owners won’t balk at the price either.

I also signed up my art blog, Star Toe Studio, so that both sides of my brain will be available for viewing by Kindle users far and wide.

I don’t have the URL’s at which the blogs will be made available yet, but I will update this post when they are live.

Happy reading!

… for the kind mention of Advocate’s Studio in their Spring, 2009 newsletter! The newsletter contains an article about blawgs and legal bloggers, offering an overview of the subject matter of blogging, where to find blogs, what are the ethical issues and lots of other tidbits of good information. I feel particularly honored to have the Studio mentioned along with some most excellent examples of legal blogging, including Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs, Wayne Schiess’ Blog.LegalWriting.Net and Michelle Lore’s Minnesota Lawyer blog.

Blogging is becoming a primary means of communication across the strata of our profession. Students, attorneys, professionals, clients, academics and other “interested parties” are on even footing in the blawgosphere. Blogging and related social outposts in the Web 2.0 world remove artificial barriers separating levels of experience and position. Opening lines of communication through blogging holds the promise of harmonizing and democratizing our profession and assisting in bringing the practice into the twenty-first century. Much of this promise lies with law students – the true future of legal practice. Here’s hoping that these students embrace the new technologies, expand and improve the medium and assist us “older” folk in learning some new tricks in the process.

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Often viewed as somewhat ponderous and not very agile, the Fortune 500 and the proverbial tortoise have much in common. However, it pays to keep an eye on that tortoise. Nora Ganim Barnes, PhD and Eric Mattson of Financial Insite have published a study indicating that,while progress has been somewhat slow, the Fortune 500′s social media journey is further along than expected. The study measured progress primarily by the number of companies maintaining “public-facing” blogs.

The data for the study was collected in February and March, 2008, so it is already a year old and pre-dates the mainstream Twitter boom.

According to the report, 16% of the primary corporations listed had a public-facing blog with a post within the last 12 months, including three of the top five.

Although the percentage was somewhat surprising to me, the breakdown by industry was not. Blogging corporations are more readily found in tech and related industries. However I was heartened to see social media adoption among some decidedly non-tech industries, such as insurance and banks, with Progressive Insurance and New York Life among them.

And these blogs are interactive! Over 90% take comments and have RSS and subscription. Over 80% linked to a corporate Twitter account. Others had unconnected Twitter accounts. A sizeable percentage are using podcasting and video to enhance their content.

While the results pale in comparison to soc med activities at schools and the Inc. 500, it is heartening to see the big corporations make the leap into Twenty-first century marketing. This is good news for lawyers seeking to connect with clients on-line. There clearly is someone listening on the other end of the line!

As with any good fable, there is a moral. Slow and steady certainly fits here, but for rainmakers, the better moral might be “if you build it (your on-line presence) they (your corporate clients) will come.”

Read the report here

Hat tip to the Resource Shelf.