We have entered into a new age of media. People no longer have to rely on local newspaper or even print media to know what is going on the world around them. They now have a plethora of options; from 24/7 news channels on television, national newspapers to blogs and internet sites. We have more access to information now in the 21st century than there ever was before. More and more people are getting their news daily from online blogs than from print newspapers.
In a recent survey it was poled that close to half of all respondents got their news form internet resources with only ten percent of the people getting their information from newspapers[1]. However there is a discrepancy on the laws that the government has put forth for newspapers and print media and that which is allowed to be published on the internet. This is an issue because there are many people with access to what is being published on the internet but very little check on what is being published. This can severely damage credibility of individuals or the brand image of a company even if the information is completely false or taken out of context. This also begs the question of who is at fault; if a damaging website is found, is it the responsibility of the search engine it was found by or the individual website’s creator.
Through court cases the government has been able to determine what constitutes slander in the print media. Newspapers rarely overstep their bounds for fear of the repercussions. Although these censoring laws are in effect for internet use they do not have the same effect, for they have not been applied in the same way. Because of this ambiguity it has been up to the public sector of the internet in many cases to self censor. As much as the government has not gotten involved with this particular issue there is one subdivision of the government that does have very exact rules on the matter; this sector is the military and the censorship of its troops.
[1] "More Americans Turning to Web for News." ZDNet. 28 Feb. 2008. 05 Mar. 2008
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E-paper maximized the publisher’s revenue by attracting the advertisers and increased in reader’s rate. Through digitization technology, print versions of news papers can be circulated globally and readers can access from any where. Most of the publishers are circulating their publications over web, RSS, pod cast, mobile by their own or with the support of www.pressmart.net kind services for digitization services.
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