Posts tagged news

ccindecision:

Something weird has happened to The Most Trusted Name in News.

Has something weird happened? Has the race to break news scraped the bottom of the barrel yet (of course not, there’s a long way to go).

In my inconsequential opinion, CNN has been one of the newsroom to most embrace technology and social media in recent years and as a result it is also the one suffering most from the process of pulling hard fact from rumour and hearsay as the time to do this work diminishes in the newsroom.

ccindecision

News Is Bad For You

Apparently, the more mobile devices you have, the higher your perceived value of media is. According to BCG’s recent study, Through the Mobile Looking Glass, when you get a second mobile device, there is a 41% increase in perceived media value, a 40% increase when you get a third, and a 30% increase when you get a fourth. 

Which makes sense, if you’re spending your days juggling four mobile devices and consuming media on all of them. What could be more important than the information nuggets you’re eating all day long?

Hopefully a lot of things, considering that the nutritional value of all the information we’re consuming could be very low.

The Guardian’s Rolf Dobelli explains:

In the past few decades, the fortunate among us have recognised the hazards of living with an overabundance of food (obesity, diabetes) and have started to change our diets. But most of us do not yet understand that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body. News is easy to digest. The media feeds us small bites of trivial matter, tidbits that don’t really concern our lives and don’t require thinking. That’s why we experience almost no saturation. Unlike reading books and long magazine articles (which require thinking), we can swallow limitless quantities of news flashes, which are bright-coloured candies for the mind. Today, we have reached the same point in relation to information that we faced 20 years ago in regard to food. We are beginning to recognise how toxic news can be.

Dobelli goes on to provide illustrative examples of the following:

  • News misleads.
  • News is irrelevant.
  • News has no explanatory power.
  • News is toxic to your body (literally).
  • News increases cognitive errors.
  • News inhibits thinking.
  • News works like a drug (you begin to crave it).
  • News wastes time.
  • News kills creativity.

Dobelli wants us to go without news. To be clear, he’s not arguing against ALL journalism. He supports investigative journalism, long-form, and books, but for the last four years has entirely removed the consumption of other (shorter) news from his diet. He’s since experienced: “less disruption, less anxiety, deeper thinking, more time, and more insights.”

FJP: Firstly, journalists simply can’t afford that kind of lifestyle and anyone active on a social network can’t avoid it. And great, illuminating, informative, well-reported, well-presented journalism is out there. But if we set aside the details of his argument (over which we could debate at length), Dobelli’s larger point (that our news consumption habits aren’t very healthy), coupled with the fact that we of the mobile generations perceive the value of media so highly, raises the most important question of all for people living in 2013: How can we construct healthy, anxiety-free, informative, enjoyable news diets that help us live better lives and understand the world better? News literacy. Just like we ought to do with food, practice consuming with balance and intention.—Jihii

jtotheizzoe: I’m sort of thrown off today. it’s hard to be motivated to bring you science when there’s Reality going on. When something hits us upside the head like the Boston Marathon explosions, we can feel dizzy, disoriented … left swirling in a dust-storm of rapidly beating hearts, furrowed brows, held breath and shaking heads. That’s how I feel, anyway. I’ve been sitting here, repeatedly muttering statements that begin with “What the f…” and simultaneously cheering and cursing the power of social media to communicate painful news. I keep looking through Twitter and blogs, knowing exactly what I’ll see and don’t want to. So powerful, but so unfiltered.  It’s not the first time in the past year that this message from Fred Rogers has been appropriate, and that’s perhaps the ultimate tragedy. But he’s right. Every photo of violence and blood in the streets of Boston that we won’t unsee is full of people running in to help. And if we have to look, that’s what we should focus on. My thoughts are with Boston.  FJP: Agreed. A very wonderful thought from someone who works on a very wonderful program. Our thoughts are with all those in Boston and all those who have a loved one who traveled there for the marathon. If you’re looking for someone or have information about someone, try Google Person Finder.

jtotheizzoe:

I’m sort of thrown off today. it’s hard to be motivated to bring you science when there’s Reality going on.

When something hits us upside the head like the Boston Marathon explosions, we can feel dizzy, disoriented … left swirling in a dust-storm of rapidly beating hearts, furrowed brows, held breath and shaking heads. That’s how I feel, anyway. I’ve been sitting here, repeatedly muttering statements that begin with “What the f…” and simultaneously cheering and cursing the power of social media to communicate painful news. I keep looking through Twitter and blogs, knowing exactly what I’ll see and don’t want to. So powerful, but so unfiltered. 

It’s not the first time in the past year that this message from Fred Rogers has been appropriate, and that’s perhaps the ultimate tragedy. But he’s right. Every photo of violence and blood in the streets of Boston that we won’t unsee is full of people running in to help. And if we have to look, that’s what we should focus on.

My thoughts are with Boston. 

FJP: Agreed. A very wonderful thought from someone who works on a very wonderful program. Our thoughts are with all those in Boston and all those who have a loved one who traveled there for the marathon. If you’re looking for someone or have information about someone, try Google Person Finder.

How We Talk About North Korea Via Alex Pareene: [North Korea] is the sort of story that our news media is absolutely awful at covering. Most people on cable news are brainless idiots hired primarily for their ability to talk on camera for long periods of time without saying “uh” that often, and even when they have a simplistic-but-workable grasp of domestic affairs they rarely know shit about the rest of the world. North Korea is a secretive hermit state that even the CIA can’t penetrate, and every report on the capabilities and motivations of the primary actors there will by necessity involve a lot of guesswork… …This rampant uninformed speculation seems harmless until you recall the sort of effect hysterical uniformed speculation has had on America’s foreign policy in the past. It became clear in the run-up to the Iraq War that the news media was a very useful tool to get the public on board with wars. Through insinuation and misdirection, the false notion that Saddam Hussein was in some way responsible for 9/11 was spread with very few examples of actual lies from the administration — they just made the suggestions and let the idiot-media run with it. Via Jack Shafer: Like sportswriters, political reporters, financial news staffers, reporters on the police beat, and other breaking-news artists, foreign correspondents must tell their story with economy and describe what has happened as opposed to why something happened. “Typical Mindbending $#*! By the North Koreans” may accurately describe the latest provocation or retreat by Pyongyang, but it’s not the way breaking news generally gets framed… …A brief survey of North Korea news clips reveals a spate of clichés… Pyongyang reliably remains defiant; talks have resumed or been proposed, canceled,or stalled, while a U.S. envoy seeks to lure the North back to those talks to restart the dialog; North Korea is bluffing,blustering, or is engaging in brinksmanship; tensions are grim, rising, or growing—but rarely reduced, probably because when tensions go down it doesn’t qualify for coverage; North Korea seeks recognition, respect, or improved or restored relations, or to rejoin the international community, or increased ties to the West that will lead to understanding; deals with North Korea are sought; North Korea feels insulted and is isolated by but threatens the West; the Japanese consider the North Koreans “untrustworthy“; the West seeks positive signs or signals or messages in North Korean conduct but worries about its intentions; diplomats seek to resolve, solve, respond to, overcome, defuse, the brewing, serious, real crisis; the escalating confrontation remains dangerous; the stakes are high, but the standoff endures. The reliance on stock phrases indicates a lack of imagination on the part of foreign correspondents (and their editors), who if they are serving old wine they should find some new bottles from which to decant it. But it also confirms Shafer’s First Law of Journalistic Thermodynamics, which states, “Copy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change form.” North Korea coverage reiterates itself in language that is as pale as dead coral because, of course, the North Koreans insist on echoing themselves, even when acquiring new weapons, such as nuclear bombs and missiles. We’re in no position to ask the North Koreans to speak their minds more articulately (or honestly) but we’re within our rights to ask our favorite hacks to dump the hackneyed. Alex Pareene, Salon, Pretending to Know about North Korea. Jack Shafer, Reuters, The Enduring Cliche’s of North Korea Coverage. Image: Korean peninsula at night, 2012, via NASA/Wikimedia Commons.

How We Talk About North Korea

Via Alex Pareene:

[North Korea] is the sort of story that our news media is absolutely awful at covering. Most people on cable news are brainless idiots hired primarily for their ability to talk on camera for long periods of time without saying “uh” that often, and even when they have a simplistic-but-workable grasp of domestic affairs they rarely know shit about the rest of the world. North Korea is a secretive hermit state that even the CIA can’t penetrate, and every report on the capabilities and motivations of the primary actors there will by necessity involve a lot of guesswork…

…This rampant uninformed speculation seems harmless until you recall the sort of effect hysterical uniformed speculation has had on America’s foreign policy in the past. It became clear in the run-up to the Iraq War that the news media was a very useful tool to get the public on board with wars. Through insinuation and misdirection, the false notion that Saddam Hussein was in some way responsible for 9/11 was spread with very few examples of actual lies from the administration — they just made the suggestions and let the idiot-media run with it.

Via Jack Shafer:

Like sportswriters, political reporters, financial news staffers, reporters on the police beat, and other breaking-news artists, foreign correspondents must tell their story with economy and describe what has happened as opposed to why something happened. “Typical Mindbending $#*! By the North Koreans” may accurately describe the latest provocation or retreat by Pyongyang, but it’s not the way breaking news generally gets framed…

…A brief survey of North Korea news clips reveals a spate of clichés… Pyongyang reliably remains defiant; talks have resumed or been proposed, canceled,or stalled, while a U.S. envoy seeks to lure the North back to those talks to restart the dialog; North Korea is bluffing,blustering, or is engaging in brinksmanship; tensions are grim, rising, or growing—but rarely reduced, probably because when tensions go down it doesn’t qualify for coverage; North Korea seeks recognition, respect, or improved or restored relations, or to rejoin the international community, or increased ties to the West that will lead to understanding; deals with North Korea are sought; North Korea feels insulted and is isolated by but threatens the West; the Japanese consider the North Koreans “untrustworthy“; the West seeks positive signs or signals or messages in North Korean conduct but worries about its intentions; diplomats seek to resolve, solve, respond to, overcome, defuse, the brewing, serious, real crisis; the escalating confrontation remains dangerous; the stakes are high, but the standoff endures.

The reliance on stock phrases indicates a lack of imagination on the part of foreign correspondents (and their editors), who if they are serving old wine they should find some new bottles from which to decant it. But it also confirms Shafer’s First Law of Journalistic Thermodynamics, which states, “Copy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only change form.” North Korea coverage reiterates itself in language that is as pale as dead coral because, of course, the North Koreans insist on echoing themselves, even when acquiring new weapons, such as nuclear bombs and missiles. We’re in no position to ask the North Koreans to speak their minds more articulately (or honestly) but we’re within our rights to ask our favorite hacks to dump the hackneyed.

Alex Pareene, Salon, Pretending to Know about North Korea.

Jack Shafer, Reuters, The Enduring Cliche’s of North Korea Coverage.

Image: Korean peninsula at night, 2012, via NASA/Wikimedia Commons.

Happy Birthday, Joseph Pulitzer! Today in 1847, the legendary Joseph P. was born. He’s also the namesake of Columbia J-school and we’re getting cupcakes on his behalf today, so here’s a nod, a smile, and a question in his direction.—Jihii Q: How does the half-Jewish, half-Roman Catholic man from Hungary behind yellow journalism get to be remembered as the father of great American journalism and a great American journalism school? A: His contributions outweigh his slip-ups, he was incredibly enterprising, and he got a lot of things done.  For starters, he wanted to be in army but was rejected on account of his sickliness till he met a bounty recruiter for the US Union Army, enlisted in the Lincoln Cavalry for a year, then worked his way to St. Louis as a muleteer, baggage handler, and waiter. His journalism career began with a job at a German language daily, and some significant hops, skips and jumps later (including ownership of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch), he bought the The New York World, which was in dire financial states. The yellow journalism period came into full play during a four month long circulation battle with William Randolph Hearst’s Journal.  Pulitzer.org: In the view of historians, Pulitzer’s lapse into “yellow journalism” was outweighed by his public service achievements. He waged courageous and often successful crusades against corrupt practices in government and business. He was responsible to a large extent for passage of antitrust legislation and regulation of the insurance industry. Notable accomplishments include tremendous improvements in circulation of both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The New York World, innovations such as the first extensive use of illustrations in the paper, exposing tremendous corruption, crazy news stunts (such as the time he raised public subscriptions for the building of a pedestal at the entrance to the New York Harbor for the Statue of Liberty to be emplaced), and of course, Columbia J-school and the Pulitzer Prizes. Read his full bio here. Image: via Kenmore Stamp Company.

Happy Birthday, Joseph Pulitzer!

Today in 1847, the legendary Joseph P. was born. He’s also the namesake of Columbia J-school and we’re getting cupcakes on his behalf today, so here’s a nod, a smile, and a question in his direction.—Jihii

Q: How does the half-Jewish, half-Roman Catholic man from Hungary behind yellow journalism get to be remembered as the father of great American journalism and a great American journalism school?

A: His contributions outweigh his slip-ups, he was incredibly enterprising, and he got a lot of things done. 

For starters, he wanted to be in army but was rejected on account of his sickliness till he met a bounty recruiter for the US Union Army, enlisted in the Lincoln Cavalry for a year, then worked his way to St. Louis as a muleteer, baggage handler, and waiter. His journalism career began with a job at a German language daily, and some significant hops, skips and jumps later (including ownership of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch), he bought the The New York World, which was in dire financial states. The yellow journalism period came into full play during a four month long circulation battle with William Randolph Hearst’s Journal. 

Pulitzer.org:

In the view of historians, Pulitzer’s lapse into “yellow journalism” was outweighed by his public service achievements. He waged courageous and often successful crusades against corrupt practices in government and business. He was responsible to a large extent for passage of antitrust legislation and regulation of the insurance industry.

Notable accomplishments include tremendous improvements in circulation of both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The New York World, innovations such as the first extensive use of illustrations in the paper, exposing tremendous corruption, crazy news stunts (such as the time he raised public subscriptions for the building of a pedestal at the entrance to the New York Harbor for the Statue of Liberty to be emplaced), and of course, Columbia J-school and the Pulitzer Prizes.

Read his full bio here.

Image: via Kenmore Stamp Company.

Income Growth, or not, 1966 to 2011 Average income growth for Americans in the bottom 90% increased just $59 in real terms from the 1960s to today. For those in the top .01%, it increased $18,362,740. Put that in a chart, represent the 90% as an inch and the bar for the top .01% would tower 4.9 miles above it. Read more at Tax Analysts, Income Inequality: 1 Inch to 5 Miles. H/T: BoingBoing.

Income Growth, or not, 1966 to 2011

Average income growth for Americans in the bottom 90% increased just $59 in real terms from the 1960s to today. For those in the top .01%, it increased $18,362,740.

Put that in a chart, represent the 90% as an inch and the bar for the top .01% would tower 4.9 miles above it.

Read more at Tax Analysts, Income Inequality: 1 Inch to 5 Miles.

H/T: BoingBoing.

Current events really only matter to the extent that they can fill this cultural standing wave that’s looking for a particular kind of content to fill it. It means that what’s driving our fascination is more primal or emotional or cultural than it is actual.

Douglas Rushkoff, author of the new book, Present Shock, in an interview with Nieman Lab.

In the interview, Rushkoff gives voice to so many of the things I have been feeling about news consumption: that making sense of news events is increasingly difficult because newspapers don’t fit the bill and live-blogging is confusing as ever; that Facebook invites misrepresentation; that the NY Times consumption experience is becoming increasingly frenetic because they have so many different versions of it. The Wall Street Journal (and I agree here), on the other hand, stays better anchored in time:

The Wall Street Journal has held onto a lot of what the nightly newscast provides, shockingly even with Murdoch at the helm. There’s this sense that they understand. There’s a periodicity to what they’re doing, so they stay anchored in time. The New York Times, on the other hand, it’s so hard to even comment on them, because there are so many New York Timeses happening simultaneously. It’s schizophrenic. I don’t even know how to consume it anymore.

The larger point is this (summed up by Mathew Ingram):

Rushkoff isn’t the only one to notice this: for me, the tension between those two modes of information delivery — the real-time stream and the fixed-in-time reservoir — was best described by Robin Sloan, author and former Twitter staffer,in an essay about what he called “stock” and “flow.” Those terms come from the world of economics, where people are used to talking about stored value (such as cash and other monetary instruments, or physical resources) and the real-time fluctuation in the value of those things: i.e., the trading of currency or the sale of goods.

Sloan said at the time that the idea of stock and flow was “the master metaphor for media today,” and I think he was right. We are all caught between the stream and the reservoir — because we want to be part of the real-time flow, but we also want to capture the value that comes from taking the time to analyze that flow.Atlantic editor Alexis Madrigal wrote about this challenge in a recent piece on the life of a digital editor, but it is something we all struggle with, whether we are theNew York Times or just someone trying to keep up with the news.

FJP: Finding a path through the media madness is a pretty enormous life goal of mine. Looking forward to reading the book.—Jihii

Flipboard’s Personalized Magazines I finally played with the new version of Flipboard’s iOS app, which allows users to create their own magazines. In the first 24 hours, over 100,000 were created by users.  Here’s much more info about the new app. FJP: Sort of a dream come true for me. My media habits are generally to bookmark things to read throughout the week on Pocket (formerly Read Later), which is a prettily designed place to store bookmarks and access them across devices. But at the end of a week I never get through what I’ve saved and thus have a backlog of tons of articles. Flipboard’s magazine works in a similar way—you can create content specific magazines by bookmarking things from all over the web or within your Flipboard readings. So, planning to try this out by creating a weekly magazine of my to-reads. Look out for an in-depth review once I get more playtime on this thing.—Jihii Image: Screenshot of the beginnings of this week’s magazine by @jihiitea

Flipboard’s Personalized Magazines

I finally played with the new version of Flipboard’s iOS app, which allows users to create their own magazines. In the first 24 hours, over 100,000 were created by users. 

Here’s much more info about the new app.

FJP: Sort of a dream come true for me. My media habits are generally to bookmark things to read throughout the week on Pocket (formerly Read Later), which is a prettily designed place to store bookmarks and access them across devices. But at the end of a week I never get through what I’ve saved and thus have a backlog of tons of articles. Flipboard’s magazine works in a similar way—you can create content specific magazines by bookmarking things from all over the web or within your Flipboard readings. So, planning to try this out by creating a weekly magazine of my to-reads. Look out for an in-depth review once I get more playtime on this thing.—Jihii

Image: Screenshot of the beginnings of this week’s magazine by @jihiitea

North Korean Political Rallies are Mesmerizing

Via The Telegraph:

Chanting “Death to the US imperialists” and “Sweep away the US aggressors,” soldiers and students marched through Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang on Friday during a 90-minute rally…

…State media reported early on Friday that leader Kim Jong-un had called an emergency military meeting to order the army’s rocket unit to prepare to strike the US and South Korea in case of a “reckless provocation” by Washington or Seoul.

FJP: The video comes via the Associated Press which opened the first Western bureau in North Korea last January.

And so it was the other day when the provost at Indiana University announced she was going to “improve” the university’s award-winning School of Journalism by running it out of Ernie Pyle Hall and mashing it into the College of Arts and Sciences where the scholars in charge will have their way with it. The provost said the journalism education reform we’ve been writing about was part of the reason for change. Yet from all appearances, she knows nothing of our work.

Eric Newton, Knight Foundation. Do Universities Hear the Critics of Journalism Education?

Newton’s piece is an effort to clarify the Knight Foundation’s work on the future of journalism education, which encourages universities to expand their programs, not shrink them, as Indiana University is doing.

The bottom line:

Is journalism education getting the message?  We’ve been talking about  four transformational trends.” Great journalism schools 1. connect with the rest of the university; 2. innovate with digital tools and techniques; 3. master more open,collaborative approaches,  and become not just community information providers, but “teaching hospitals” that inform and engage their communities.

Is that message getting through? The first reaction was: We’re doing it! But then schools showed us journalism with no engagement, which is pretty much like hospitals with doctors and medicine but no patients. When we explained, the second reaction was: We can’t do all this! If we teach gizmos, we can’t teach journalism. Wrong again. To teach journalism in the digital age you have to teach both journalism and the digital age — and use modern tools to do it. That’s why the schools that are serious about this are getting bigger, not smaller.

Accompanying the piece is a graphic depicting three layers of journalism education. Schools must do well at the bottom layer in order to climb to the next. 

For more, see the report on the Carnegie-Knight Initiative of the Future of Journalism Education.

President Barack Obama, who vastly expanded U.S. drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas under the cloak of secrecy, is now openly seeking to influence global guidelines for their use as China and other countries pursue their own drone programs

Via Reuters:

“People say what’s going to happen when the Chinese and the Russians get this technology? The president is well aware of those concerns and wants to set the standard for the international community on these tools,” said Tommy Vietor, until earlier this month a White House spokesman.

FJP: Standards.

Mostly Cloudy During Sunshine Week

To coincide with Sunshine Week, the Sunlight Foundation released their Open Legislative Data Report Card. Some states are doing well, many aren’t, with most scoring a Gentleman’s C or below.

Grades are based on what Sunlight calls the Ten Principles for Opening Up Government Information. For this report card, their criteria is based on six: completeness, timeliness, ease of access, machine readability, use of commonly owned standards and permanence.

The Society of Professional Journalists takes a different tact to explore government openness as they examine what obstacles reporters face when interviewing employees of federal agencies:

[A] survey of journalists who cover federal agencies found that information flow in the United States is highly regulated by public affairs officers, to the point where most reporters considered the control to be a form of censorship and an impediment to providing information to the public. According to a survey of 146 reporters who cover federal agencies, conducted by the Society of Professional Journalists in February 2012, journalists indicated that public information officers often require pre-approval for interviews, prohibit interviews of agency employees, and often monitor interviews. Journalists overwhelmingly agreed with the statement that “the public was not getting all the information it needs because of barriers agencies are imposing on journalists’ reporting practices.”

Meantime, over at the Washington Post, Josh Hicks gives a rundown of what’s going on with FOIA requests:

The Center for Effective Government said Wednesday that the administration’s rate of response to FOIA requests had improved in 2012 but that the percentage of replies with redacted information had grown.

“While processing has gone up, we see a record-setting rate of partial grantings,” said Sean Moulton, the center’s director of open-government policy.

Federal agencies averaged a “C-minus” grade for FOIA compliance in Cause of Action’s analysis, also released Wednesday.

The group sent identical FOIA requests to 16 federal agencies in April. In its report, it said that one-quarter of the agencies provided no information and that the average response time for the others was 75 business days — more than double what the law requires.

Reporters filing FOIA requests with the Commerce Department have to wait even longer. The average turnaround time there is 239 days.

And then there’s national security and whistleblowing. We’ll let the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald take it away. The gist of it runs like so:

Along with others, I’ve spent the last four years documenting the extreme, often unprecedented, commitment to secrecy that this president has exhibited, including his vindictive war on whistleblowers, his refusal to disclose even the legal principles underpinning his claimed war powers of assassination, and his unrelenting, Bush-copying invocation of secrecy privileges to prevent courts even from deciding the legality of his conduct.

Looking for more opinion and updates on Sunshine Week? Visit The SPJ or SunshineWeek.org’s opinions page.

Images: Screenshots, best and worst of the Sunlight Foundation’s Open Legislative Data Report Card. Select to embiggen.

Harvard Searches Faculty Email over Media Leaks Last year, there was a cheating kerfuffle (outlined in The New York Times) at Harvard University regarding a take home test. Private information about the scandal leaked to the media, and the school took it upon themselves to peruse the emails of resident deans to see who blabbed. Now, before you go stating the obvious about academic freedom and privacy rights, let the university attempt to quell your concerns: VIa Harvard’s Website: Consequently, with the approval of the Dean of FAS and the University General Counsel, and the support of the Dean of Harvard College, a very narrow, careful, and precise subject-line search was conducted by the University’s IT Department. It was limited to the Administrative accounts for the Resident Deans – in other words, the accounts through which their official university business is conducted, as distinct from their individual Harvard email accounts. The search did not involve a review of email content; it was limited to a search of the subject line of the email that had been inappropriately forwarded. To be clear: No one’s emails were opened and the contents of no one’s emails were searched by human or machine. The subject-line search turned up two emails with the queried phrase, both from one sender. Even then, the emails were not opened, nor were they forwarded or otherwise shared with anyone in IT, the administration, or the board. Only a partial log of the “metadata” - the name of the sender and the time the emails were sent – was returned. The school only searched the subject lines of emails for queried phrases. How are your concerns? Quelled? Now, consider this… Via The Chronicle: One of the deans was told of the search shortly after it occurred. The others were left unaware that administrators had searched their e-mail accounts until the Globe questioned Harvard officials about the incident late last week. So, even if one were to accept Harvard ‘s subject-line-search as harmless, the fact remains that some deans weren’t even notified that this was happening.  Via Associations Now:  When dealing with a media leak, how can you be sure to keep in mind the privacy of your members and leaders so that if such a situation arises, it doesn’t have to reach this point? Or should it ever be allowed to reach this point?  Unfortunately, that’s where we are. Lewis Maltby, head of the National Workrights Institute, says people shouldn’t be surprised by employer snooping. “Almost every every major employer in America today reads employee email,” he told NPR in an interview about the Harvard snoop. “And if you haven’t been told by your boss that someone is reading your email, that’s just because they haven’t told you.” Image: via The Harvard Gazette.

Harvard Searches Faculty Email over Media Leaks

Last year, there was a cheating kerfuffle (outlined in The New York Times) at Harvard University regarding a take home test. Private information about the scandal leaked to the media, and the school took it upon themselves to peruse the emails of resident deans to see who blabbed.

Now, before you go stating the obvious about academic freedom and privacy rights, let the university attempt to quell your concerns:

VIa Harvard’s Website:

Consequently, with the approval of the Dean of FAS and the University General Counsel, and the support of the Dean of Harvard College, a very narrow, careful, and precise subject-line search was conducted by the University’s IT Department. It was limited to the Administrative accounts for the Resident Deans – in other words, the accounts through which their official university business is conducted, as distinct from their individual Harvard email accounts. The search did not involve a review of email content; it was limited to a search of the subject line of the email that had been inappropriately forwarded. To be clear: No one’s emails were opened and the contents of no one’s emails were searched by human or machine. The subject-line search turned up two emails with the queried phrase, both from one sender. Even then, the emails were not opened, nor were they forwarded or otherwise shared with anyone in IT, the administration, or the board. Only a partial log of the “metadata” - the name of the sender and the time the emails were sent – was returned.

The school only searched the subject lines of emails for queried phrases.

How are your concerns? Quelled? Now, consider this…

Via The Chronicle:

One of the deans was told of the search shortly after it occurred. The others were left unaware that administrators had searched their e-mail accounts until the Globe questioned Harvard officials about the incident late last week.

So, even if one were to accept Harvard ‘s subject-line-search as harmless, the fact remains that some deans weren’t even notified that this was happening. 

Via Associations Now: 

When dealing with a media leak, how can you be sure to keep in mind the privacy of your members and leaders so that if such a situation arises, it doesn’t have to reach this point?

Or should it ever be allowed to reach this point? 

Unfortunately, that’s where we are. Lewis Maltby, head of the National Workrights Institute, says people shouldn’t be surprised by employer snooping. “Almost every every major employer in America today reads employee email,” he told NPR in an interview about the Harvard snoop. “And if you haven’t been told by your boss that someone is reading your email, that’s just because they haven’t told you.”

Image: via The Harvard Gazette.

Introducing Pope Francis

Formerly, Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina.

Yes, Wikipedia is already updating.