SoylentNews

The Evolution of Internet Journalism

posted by Dopefish on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:30PM   
from the freedom-is-not-free dept.

combatserver writes:

"While The Guardian and The New York Times reported on the NSA targeting of data leaked by popular mobile apps, independent sources produced highly-detailed articles--accompanied by source material--that paint a much broader picture of NSA capabilities and intent. Recent restrictions imposed on journalists--a result of corporate influence, editorial decisions, and threats against journalists--combined with the ease of establishing a website, might be driving a new era in journalism.

The Intercept recently announced a shift towards independent reporting with the creation of their own news outlet, free of the constraints imposed on journalists by 'Big Media' and governments. Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill have joined forces to provide the world with an alternative, perhaps blazing a path towards a fundamental change in how news is reported and distributed. SoylentNews can play a significant role in this shift towards journalistic freedom--we share many common core-ideals, and can give voice to independent news sources.

The Big Question: How will 'Big Media' and governments react to this shift in journalism?"

• Re:Obvious AnswerRe:Obvious Answer (Score: 3, Insightful) by dilbert on Tuesday February 18 2014, @01:56PM

  by dilbert (444) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @01:56PM (#1603)

  I agree with your assertion the government will react poorly, but I think an equally important question is "How will people ordinary people react?". Since 'The Intercept' will initially be focusing their reporting on the Snowden files, I'll focus my comments here on the same story. I'm deeply concerned about the egregious privacy violations the NSA and for-profit corporations have been pursuing. I've been following the story since it broke last June. I've changed many of my computing behaviors and advocated for my friends and family to do the same, but nobody seems to care. For example, I wanted to start encrypting all my emails, but my family would never be able to use encryption. To counter this, since the majority of my family emails only other family members, I rolled my own mailserver knowing that since most emails wouldn't leave the box (and using SSL between the browser and webmail client), the emails wouldn't be unencrypted on the wire to be sniffed, or ready to be subpoena or data-mined from/by the corporations. People in my family tried it out for a few days, but none of them are currently using the server (some haven't even logged in more than once). They're content to use gmail/outlook/yahoo. The 'cost' of updating their contacts with a new email address is too great! Besides, they have nothing to hide, right? So it's great that Greenwald/Poitras/Scahill are doing this type of reporting, but so what? Normal people don't care about things they perceive are too abstract/scary/whatever. Is this type of journalism going to be read by the vast majority of people? If they do stumble across it will they care? It makes me sad, but I doubt it.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		3

• Re:Obvious Answer(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2014, @06:34PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2014, @06:34PM (#1786)

  I feel your pain. Maybe buy them all personal emails at neomailbox.ch (or whatever), then set their current email addresses to forward everything to neomailbox, and reply only via neomailbox; over time, stop using their current emails? Good luck.

  Parent