Future reporters--big taters and little tots
The Post has an article today about how the Gannett newspaper chain is trying to reinvent themselves as a wideflung, distributed local paper. They are doing this by using technology to push their reporters out in the field with digital appliances to report in real-time, both for the print and the web editions. Newspapers increasingly feel that they need to have rapidly updating websites, and who knows? They're probably right.
Some papers are pushing the edge even further by enlisting amateurs to snap pix and take videos.
This has dangerous ramifications for as Michael Richards found out last week, someone always has a camera these days.
It was bad enough from a privacy perspective when the big potato newspapermen made decisions to let the newsworthiness of their story trump any thoughts of individual privacy rights. The Geraldos of the world get away it because they have big lawyers.
But what about the little taters, the local reporters that have been newly empowered with their digital cameras, laptops and mileage allowance? And what about the amateurs, the tater tots? I suspect that these wannabe journalists will not even consider the privacy rights of their targets because success for the observer trumps privacy for the observed every time.
Posted on December 04, 2006
