The summary from slashdot:
Quote:
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A new survey has revealed that Americans overwhelmingly support strong censorship for blogs, even though a substantial amount have never actually been to one. Eighty percent of the 2,500 respondents did not believe that bloggers should be allowed to publish home addresses and other personal information about private citizens. However, more than one-third of respondents had never heard of blogs before participating in the survey, and only around 30 percent of participants had actually visited a blog themselves.
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The article:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communi...9187965,00.htm
Quote:
Blog censorship wins support
By Renai LeMay, ZDNet Australia
13 April 2005
Most Americans believe bloggers should not be allowed to publish sensitive personal information about individuals, according to a new survey.
Web hosting company Hostway this week released the results of its poll of 2,500 respondents on blogging. Eighty percent of respondents did not believe that bloggers should be allowed to publish home addresses and other personal information about private citizens.
A further 72 percent favoured censorship of personal information about celebrities, and 68 percent information about elected or appointed government officials such as judges or mayors.
However, more than one-third of respondents had never heard of blogs before participating in the survey, and only around 30 percent of participants had actually visited a blog themselves.
While Americans were concerned about free speech, the survey revealed more moderate attitudes when it compared bloggers to journalists.
Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said bloggers should have the same rights as traditional journalists, while 27 percent did not express an opinion. Free speech rights are protected under the first amendment of the US Bill of Rights, which says the US Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. Such rights are not enshrined in the Australian Constitution.
Despite the fact most respondents classed bloggers in the same category as journalists when it came to free speech, the survey revealed bloggers are not taken as seriously as traditional media.
For example, 39 percent said they found blogs less credible than newspaper articles, although an additional 32 percent said they either did not know or had no opinion.
The survey also tapped into patterns of blog usage, revealing most people used blogs to obtain information about politics or current events. This news may not come as a surprise to US political bloggers, who recently mobilised against a move by the country's Federal Election Commission (FEC) which would have imposed harsh rules on the blogging community.
The FEC is currently in the process of extending campaign finance rules to the Internet -- a process that involves, among other things, deciding if bloggers qualify as journalists.
Opinions were split on official company blogs, which have been in the news due to the high-profile sacking of Google employee Mark Jen, who claimed he was sacked for blogging about the company just 11 days after he started work there.
In contrast to Google, many prominent companies officially support the blogging efforts of their employees. Sun Microsystems and Microsoft in particular are noted for their company blogs.
While a majority of survey respondents agreed it was acceptable for a company to censor what appeared in the blogs of its employees, almost half said it wasn't acceptable to actually fire an employee for a controversial blog posting. And only a quarter of respondents supported the company's right to do so.
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OK, let's run through this again...
80% say blogs should be subject to censorship.
70% basically have absolutely no clue what a blog is like, having never been to one (yet feel qualified to make a decision regarding the free speech rights of bloggers!)
and 30% haven't even
heard of blogs before (but, again, feel comfortable making decisions regarding their freedom of speech)!
52% (of which, it is fair to say 70% have never seen a blog, bringing the statistic of
informed people down to 16%) believe bloggers should have the same rights as traditional journalists. First of all, that means at least 32% REALLY have no clue what they're talking about, because traditional journalists can publish information about private individuals, such as address, etc. Second of all, that means 52% also believe bloggers should be held to the same responsibilities as journalists (with rights come responsibilities), of which include equalt time laws, etc.
And to put the nail in the coffin, most people use blogs for political information?! (Yet, of course, 32% admit they're not credible.) It's no wonder so many people have no clue what's going on in the country - politics or otherwise - and do little more than repeat spoon-fed talking points!
It's very distressing to me 1) that people are so quick to jump on the censorship bandwagon and 2) that they're willing to do it when so many of them really have no clue what they're talking about. What are your thoughts?