Monday, October 6, 2008

Citizen Journalism Update #3: Dumb and Dumber



When it comes to citizen journalism, we’ve seen the sordid (cell phone videos of some candid PR blunders), the scandalous (uploads of porn to citizen journalism “news” sites) and now, the stupid.

Apple stock recently took a beating based on an unfounded story that CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack.

The citizen journalist who posted the story now faces possible jail time (“Dumb”). Much of the outrage is coming from Apple stockholders whose portfolios took a hit based on the fictional story (“Dumber”).

It’s unclear if someone is posting these bogus blurbs for recreation or compensation. Should someone be shorting the stock and manipulating prices via erroneous stories, heads may roll.

Anyone graduating high school must pass basic math and English courses. Can we please add media literacy to that list?

Read more at Wired.

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