Category: Other

Why Aftonbladet rules online, and Expressen doesn’t

Nine times out of ten when I go online for quick news I prefer Aftonbladet.se before Expressen.se. I find Aftonbladet easier to navigate and that they give away more information for free. Today I can give you a good example of how Expressen at times are way behind “Sweden’s leading news portal”.

Last night, one of the most exciting football games this season was played at Old Trafford. The first Champions League semi final between Manchester United and AC Milan, and what a party it was. The game had everything and for a Man U fan like me, the finish was excellent when Wayne Rooney turned a possible defeat around to secure a 3-2 win for the Red Devils. Since the game ended late last night, media coverage in the morning papers were scarce. Aftonbladet on the other hand has the story online on its frontpage and at least four articles (here, here, here and here), plus additional facts and photos.

When I check Expressen.se, it is even hard to find the coverage. I click on the “Football” section of the site, and believe it or not – I have to scroll down 16 pages before I find anything about the game. The only article found online is a short piece, two paragraphs with a quote from the studio at TV6.

Next time I need a quick sports update, I will choose Aftonbladet.se again.

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Teens manage their online identities

Pew Internet & American Life Project today published a new report (pdf) called “Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks: How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace”. The report talks about what kind of information teens share on social networks and what they keep hidden from strangers (and/or parents).

“Many teens post their first name and photos on their profiles, they rarely post information on public profiles they believe would help strangers actually locate them such as their full name, home phone number or cell phone number.”

Of those whose profile can be accessed by anyone online, nearly half (46%) say they give at least some false information. Other interesting findings about the teens with online profils are:

– 82% of profile creators have included their first name in their profiles
– 79% have included photos of themselves.
– 61% have included the name of their city or town.
– 49% have included the name of their school.
– 29% have included their email address.
– 29% have included their last names.
– 2% have included their cell phone numbers.
– 6% of online teens and 11% of profile-owning teens post their first and last names on publicly-accessible profiles;
– 3% of online teens and 5% of profile-owning teens disclose their full names, photos of themselves and the town where they live in publicly-viewable profiles.

As a result, 63% of teens with profiles believe that a motivated person could eventually identify them.

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Respect the privacy of individuals

One of the reasons why it is so interesting to study blogs and the effect they have on mainstream media and businesses is that an entirely new group of people suddenly becomes influential. Many of these new opinion leaders are anonymous or at least only known to a select number of friends or relatives (50% of all Swedish bloggers were anonymous in 2006 – source: BlogSweden 2).

One of the most controversial Swedish bloggers two years ago blogged under the pseudonym of “Alicio” (not a favourite). Today, the most linked to blog in Sweden is Beta Alfa (a favourite), publisher unknown. Blog related services like Knuff, Nyligen, Intressant and others have become hugely successful and influential, and many are run by previously unknown entrepreneurs, in these cases by the unknown Johan Larsson.

Andreas Ekström today writes an article in Journalisten where he wonders who Johan Larsson is. With all that power and influence maybe we are all entitled to know more about this mystery man? And I agree that I am very curious myself about the person behind these terrific services. But on the other hand I have the deepest respect for the fact that he wants to keep his private life private.

Admittedly, if one single person sits on a database that allows him to analyze the behaviour and opinions of a large group of people, there needs to be some kind of control mechanism so that this power is not used in an unethical way. But that doesn’t mean that we have the right to know private information about this person. Remember that the ethical rules for the press state that media should respect the privacy of the individual and not publish information that isn’t evidently in the public interest. And I don’t think that personal information about Johan Larsson is.

Respektera den personliga integriteten
7. Överväg noga publicitet som kan kränka privatlivets helgd. Avstå från sådan publicitet om inte ett uppenbart allmänintresse kräver offentlig belysning.

Footnote: Johan responds.

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Interviewees who blog the interview

Kristine Lowe has some interesting comments about what happened when CNN decided to report about the death threats to blogger Kathy Sierra:

“Imagine your’re putting together a documentary, or just a news story for the screen, and all the people you feature in your story blog the entire transcript, or their key quotes, for fear your editing should misrepresent their positions. That’s exactly what happened when CNN put together their story, Dark side of the Net, on the recent firestorm in the wake of death threats against A-list blogger Kathy Sierra (Creating Passionate Users).”

Read more here.

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The involuntary blogger at DN

Dagens Nyheter (DN Kultur) introduces five new blogs and I was going to write a sulphurous piece about Jonas Thente’s warped attitude towards blogs. Thente writes that the blog is “a great way of escaping things like checking facts and stylistics”. Yeah, blame the pencil for poor stories. But then I decided not to. This all seems too much of a plan. Insult the blogosphere and have everybody talking about your blog. No, let’s ignore it if the blog doesn’t get any better than this.

Stationsvakt comments too.

UPDATE: Jonas: “I was only kidding”.

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