Comments on: Defending public as a journalistic doctrine

By: kargo

kargo — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:17:25 +0000

Defending public as a journalistic doctrine « BuzzMachine great article thank you.

By: Mike Manitoba

Mike Manitoba — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:37:52 +0000

Here’s an unpredictable comment:

Mayonnaise soldiers filet disco phenomena.

By: Rob Levine

Rob Levine — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:57:25 +0000

>>>Can we make it a goal to have an unpredictable comment?

Sure – you first!

By: Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:33:05 +0000

If you’d read my book and my blog, you’d know that I have often said that Google is not transparent as it should be. Can we make it a goal to have an unpredictable comment?

By: Andy Freeman

Andy Freeman — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:25:29 +0000

> My point is: what’s public is political. And as journalists we need to understand that politics is about power relationships.

Quite right.

And any day now we’re going to hear about Senator Dodd’s wife’s “day jobs”. And we’re going to hear about the power couples where one is a journalist and the other is….

By: Rob Levine

Rob Levine — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:37:20 +0000

>>>Now I’d been told by German friends that Holland is different from the more closed societies in Europe, as folks leave their front windows and doors open, ashamed of and hiding nothing.

I had always heard that this was a Calvinist thing – people showing they had nothing to hide – that was enforced by religious norms. What a pity if fear of God gave way to fear of GOOG . . .

By: Rob Levine

Rob Levine — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:31:50 +0000

>>>it can’t make the search algorithm public or it will be gamed and become useless

I’ll show them mind if they show me theirs . . .

Hell, I’d settle for them laying out their privacy policy in more clear detail!

Can we at least stop saying that this company is transparent?

By: Adrian Monck

Adrian Monck — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:48:02 +0000

My point is: what’s public is political. And as journalists we need to understand that politics is about power relationships.

By: John

John — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:53:10 +0000

If Street View and like pubic images, whether posted to Flicker or any other searchable repository, are deemed public domain so that public officials are prosecuted after being ‘caught with their hands in the cookie jars’, then they will become much more secretive. Perhaps a duh, but how this resolves legally and culturally will be interesting and significant.

By: Steven N. Fettig

Steven N. Fettig — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:17:29 +0000

Jeff, I agree with almost all of the sentiments of your post other than the totality of the statement “No, public is public.” The very definition of what is and has been public is being radically expanded by technology like Google’s Street View. While I knew that walking down a Manhattan street that I could – at any point in time – be captured by the cameras of fellow citizens, the police/law enforcement, or ATMs, etc., I did not necessarily expect (or understand) that the same could happen with a Google Street View camera and have that picture sent into the living rooms of billions of people.
When I was thinking about this, I asked myself, what is the difference? The difference is that public is no longer local, but world-wide. Being a relatively open person (I have a blog, twitter account, facebook account, etc, etc), I still cringe at the idea that my image could be captured and disseminated so *easily.* I can’t say that I have thought this through enough, however, to say whether or not it is right (at first glance, I would have to fall back on your sentiment that public is public) – but we can’t simply maintain that it is the same as our past understanding of what public is. The change is quick and brutal – but not necessarily wrong or bad. But, the argument must be made to remind people of public vs. private so that they don’t assume things to be so or so and ruin it for the rest of us.
The transparency issue you raise is unquestionably one of importance. I would argue that in order for the government to be able to block images in the interest of national security, that it will have to make a request for every, single, stinking image they want to be blocked. No broad brushes here. Transparency is certainly not what Iran’s ruling party is about and I imagine we can all agree that that is not good.

By: Lyle

Lyle — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:40:36 +0000

Rob,

You can be sure that search algorithm has a funky little variable for buying off politicians, transparency groups and the rest.

By: Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:33:27 +0000

You’re making it into an emotional debate of good guys and bad guys. I say this is a principle: What’s public is public. If we journalists allow cracks in that, we hurt our ability to report news.

By: Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:31:44 +0000

Rob, it can’t make the search algorithm public or it will be gamed and become useless. You know that.

By: ugugu

ugugu — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:16:13 +0000

i would argue, also public space needs some sort of privacy. would it be wise to publish all videos from iran? i doubt it. i have not seen all videos available, but somehow people in iran seem to understand, that publishing videos can also be a risky thing, especially if faces can be identified.

By: Rob Levine

Rob Levine — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:05:17 +0000

I’ll welcome Google’s street view when it makes public its search algorithm.

Fact is, Google is not all that transparent about the most important parts of its business.

By: Adrian Monck

Adrian Monck — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:27:16 +0000

I applaud the public intent – but Jeff, we also live in a world where much is unpublic (CEO health issues?).

The public on the receiving end of Google’s beneficence may well reject a useful gift because they perceive the gift as beimg ‘imposed.’

This is where Google meets politics, and journalism feels more comfortable articulating local opposition than defending a global corporation – even when the ‘greater good’ may or may not be served by the latter’s endeavours.

By: Martin Langeveld

Martin Langeveld — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:26:45 +0000

Dutch journalists should be cool with Streetview after this incident in which (alleged) muggers were caught because of evidence captured on Streetview: http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2277122.ece/Google_Streetview_helps_catch_Dutch_muggers

By: Walter Abbott

Walter Abbott — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:29:46 +0000

Jeff,

I started a blog a little over a week ago with the intent of covering local news – city council, school board, etc. I am working on a story which. if my hunch pans out, will be significant for our region of the state. It would have been impossible to do without Street View.