SoloJourno

In an earlier post, I covered the PBS MediaShift post “Why Bloggers and Citizen Journalists Deserve A Shield Law”. The Electronic Frontier Foundation put out a Legal Guide for Bloggers. Although this is a USA-centric guide, it’s very instructional, and the EFF encourages people to write one for their own jurisdictions.

Whether you’re a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you’ve been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

Read the full article. Here’s the index of all questions. Also see the EFF’s page on Blogger’s Rights.

Via PBS Media Shift:

Today in the United States, there is no legislation that allows bloggers to protect their sources. Yet bloggers have become a great way for the public — and journalists in particular — to keep informed about important topics. A survey from Middleberg Communications and the Society for New Communications Research released on September 22 found that 66 percent of journalists use blogs to assist in their reporting. This means blogs play an important role in newsgathering and the press. So why not legally protect bloggers and citizen journalists by allowing them to use anonymity and protect their sources?

Read the full article.

cartoonist: Patrick Finney

Via Mashable:

Downsizing, layoffs, newspaper and magazine closings have put journalism on the most endangered careers list. But hundreds of smart journalists are realizing the opportunity and using their connections, reporting savvy and deep knowledge of their subjects to start sites covering their familiar beats.

These bootstrapping indie journalists are learning to run their own small business, including tending to many details they never had to worry about before—ad sales, marketing, promotion, tech and design to name a few.

Here, five former mainstream media reporters share their tips and best advice for creating a startup journalism site.

Read the full article.

Via Knight Digital Media Center:

The Knight Foundation’s 2010 Knight News Challenge rewards big ideas for informing and inspiring a geographic community. Deadline is Oct. 15. Learn more during Live Chats Sept. 9 and Oct. 8.

MIAMI - The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications for the 2010 Knight News Challenge, a contest awarding as much as $5 million for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news. The deadline for applications is Oct. 15.

Do you have a big idea for informing and inspiring a geographic community? Does it include innovative use of new digital tools or processes such as social media, mash-ups or wikis? How about new ways to exchange information via hand-held devices like cell phones? Knight Foundation wants to know. “You invent it. We fund it!” is the 2010 contest slogan.

Open to community-minded innovators worldwide, the contest has just three rules. Projects must use digital, open-source technology, distribute news in the public interest and be tested in a local community.

“We want entries to push the bounds of the imagination,” said Gary Kebbel, Knight Foundation’s journalism program director. “But they don’t always have to involve the invention of something completely new. We’re also searching for innovative twists on familiar tools.”

This is the fourth year of the Knight News Challenge competition. So far, 300,000 people have visited the project web site, at newschallenge.org, a total of 7,000 people have entered and the foundation has picked 35 winners.

Read the full press release. For more on the News Challenge, visit http://www.NewsChallenge.org. For more on Knight Foundation’s Media Innovation Initiative, visit http://www.mediainnovation.org.

Via Mashable:

Crowdfunding, or getting many people to donate small amounts of cash to fund a project, startup, or service, is nothing new. Think public radio or television pledge drives. Think political campaigns. Think tip jar. Now, as the media landscape changes and traditional revenue sources are beginning to disappear, some forward-thinking journalists and entrepreneurs are starting to apply the crowdfunding concept to the news. A new crop of sites are combining crowdfunding with volunteer and professional contributions in order to source news that people want to read.

There are two issues with crowdfunded sites that also have volunteer journalists, however: who’s going to pay for it and who’s going to write it. These sites are experimenting with ways of answering these questions.

Read the full article. See also A Guide to Crowdfunding Success