Living Above the Fold

Across the country, curious jurors are defying court instructions and causing mistrials as they text, Tweet, and surf the Web about the cases they’re deciding. The issue has created such a disruption that it’s generating new court policies and even California legislation.

Banning Google From the Jury Box (California Lawyer, August 1, 2010)

Consumers have plenty of online services they can use for locating a lawyer to hire. But when litigators need to employ specialists—such as arbitrators, mediators, or expert witnesses—they often fall back on leads from colleagues they trust.

Rating Litigation Services (California Lawyer, May 1, 2010)

In today’s weakened economy, lawyers across the country are looking for new ways to drum up business—and Web-based tools are expanding in response. Alongside established online legal directories, new Internet-based businesses that provide assistance with marketing and referrals offer lawyers even more ways to land new work.

Attorneys Use New Online Tools to Find, Refer Work (California Lawyer, April 1, 2010)

I’d been hearing a lot about how businesses could use Twitter to boost their branding and sales.  But I hadn’t heard much about how charities and non-profits could use the same technology to help raise funds for worthy causes.  On April 14, actor Hugh Jackman pledged to give AUS $100,000 to the charity that could best convince him, via Twitter, that it was deserving of the award.  He later announced that, unable to decide, he had chosen two winners to split the prize: Operation of Hope, a medical foundation that donates surgical procedures to children in developing countries born with facial deformities, and Charity: Water, a non-profit dedicated to providing safe drinking water in developing countries. That led me to look at some ways that non-profits could use Twitter to draw attention to world problems and help work toward solutions.

How Charities Harness Social Media to Raise Awareness, Money (PBS Mediashift, April 28, 2009)

I was inspired to investigate this topic after hearing Cardinal Sean Brady of Ireland called on Irish Catholics to spread positive prayers via Twitter, texting or email.  It made me wonder about the other ways that people of faith might use social networking to reach out and proselytize.  It seems like the Internet, not being a push medium like TV, might not be the ideal way to reach people who aren’t already interested in a topic.  What I found was quite the opposite!

Religious Evangelists Spread Faith Through Social Media (PBS Mediashift, June 4, 2009)

Hey cats and kittens!

Remember that photo of Sarah Palin toting a rifle while posing in her bikini? In this article, I took a closer look at that (Oh ho ho, get it?) and other hoaxes and urban legends getting circulated as truth online. Check it out here:

How Forwarded Email Jokes, Hoaxes Evolved with Social Media (PBS Mediashift, January26, 2008)
And if that’s not enough to entice you, we’ll also tell you about that YouTube video that makes you gouge your own eyes out. Or does it!? Spooky!

It was only long after I completed this article that I realized the term I was groping for in describing that eye-gouging video was the motif of harmful sensation.  A good phrase to have in your verbal repoitore to impress people at parties.

This is one of my favorite articles.  There are blogs dedicated to everything these days, but this is one blog subculture that I didn’t know much about going in.  I have a sneaking suspicion that some of you may find it interesting to learn about the thriving world of zombie blogging…

Zombie Bloggers Create Communal Horror Stories (PBS Mediashift, June 29, 2009)