What the Blogs Say: Ventnor, Weiner, Nieman, top BBC tweets

Hyperlocal journalism is thriving in some places through community-based sites like the Ventnor Blog. But what happens when lively discussion by contributors turns to defamation - and the organisation behind the blog doesn't have the resources to monitor what's posted?

That's the issue examined by Judith Townend in her Meeja Law blog - in relation to a row between the Ventnor Blog (VB) and the Isle of Wight Council.

The council objects to the VB post-moderating users' comments (after they have been posted). VB says the council could just use the 'Report this Comment' button if it objects to something, rather than going to the expense of issuing legal letters and threatening to remove the VB's press credentials for council events.

VB protests that there "aren't enough hours in the day" to read everything that's posted; and it has asked its readers to moderate their own comments:

"Having to deal with the 'you naughty things' letters from the council's legal department is a dreadful drag, as well as throwing yours and our taxes down the drain, so please do us a favour and refrain." 

VB has told Meeja Law that it plans to seek advice from the NUJ about the council's correspondence.

Two items from the US caught my eye this week: 

Jeff Jarvis breaks his self-imposed ban on discussing the Anthony Weiner story ("because I didn't think it was worth the attention") after being persuaded to take part in a TV show about it.

He says he was wrong to give Weiner the benefit of the doubt - "so what if he had a stupid picture on his phone and accidentally tweeted it, so long as he wasn't sexually harassing anyone?" - because it turned out he had lied, and it became the familiar story of the cover-up being worse than the crime; "Richard Nixon's most important legacy".

Conclusion, for Jarvis:

"The only sane way to operate in one's life today - as a public figure especially - is as if *anything* you do can and will be seen by *anyone*. I would still like to think that eventually this will lead to an assumption, a default of transparency.

But then, I keep forgetting to calculate into this view the forgetful, venal stupidity of the public official."

The shape of that new, transparent media world is being outlined in a project highlighted by Maurice Cherry in the 10,000 Words blog. It's a new resource from Nieman Journalism Lab called Encyclo, which describes itself as an "encyclopedia of the future of news".

Encyclo is already a pretty authoritative guide to the companies and media organisations that are likely to have a big impact on the future of journalism - whether the BBC, the New York Times, Gawker Media or Apple - providing good background and context on media businesses.

Finally, closer to home, BBC-types eagerly clicked through to freelance journalist Dave Lee's post on "Ten BBC tweeters you might not follow yet but should". Dave's 'unofficial survey' concluded that:

"BBC people on Twitter are more innovative, richer and better-looking than their non-Twitterfied colleagues."

For the record, his BBC ten were:

Chris Hamilton - @chrishams - Social Media Editor

Matthew Davis - @ME_Davis - US Editor, BBC News online

Adam Blenford - @adamblenford - Washington-based Reporter, BBC News online

Jeremy Bowen - @jfjbowen - Middle East Editor

Nathalie Malinarich - @nmalinarich - World Editor, BBC News online

Alex Hudson - @aj_hudson - Reporter, Producer, Question Time tweeter

Iain Mackenzie - @iMacUK - Technology Editor, BBC News online

Gary Duffy - @Duffygary - UK Editor, BBC News online

Lewis Wiltshire - @LewisWiltshire - Editor, BBC Sport website

Phil Coomes - @philcoomes - Picture Editor, BBC News online

And finally @bushhousemice (below) - 1,308 tweets, 826 followers!