It’s official: blogs are good for lawyers

May 29, 2008

Carolyn Elefant writes engagingly on Law.com about a number of things, not least the benefits of blogging. Here, with thanks, is an extract from today’s newsletter, in which she suggests that blogging really is good for lawyers.

A few months ago, I hypothesized that blogging could help lawyers beat the blues by giving them a tool to build connections and engage in conversation with others, and in so doing, eradicate the sense of isolation that can serve as a breeding ground for depression. Now, I’ve learned that there’s actually scientific evidence that lends support to my hunch. Over at Lexblog, Kevin O’Keefe points to an article by Jessica Wapner in Scientific American that recognizes the therapeutic value of blogging. Wapner posits that “self-medication may be the reason that the blogosphere has taken off.” Not only can expressive writing like blogging help cope with stress, but it can produce physiological benefits such as improved memory and sleep and a boost in immune cell activity. In addition, blogging may trigger a dopamine release similar to stimulants like music, running and looking at art.

Blade can only second that, though he recalls the words of one weary blogger, uttered at a conference deep within the labyrinth of a British broadsheet (one commendably at the vanguard of the mainstream media’s embrace of blogging): “I have a love/hate relationship with my blog. I love writing, yes, but it’s an addiction. Sometimes I feel it’s taken over my life. My wife certainly does.”

You have been warned.

Image courtesy of Business Week, a magazine which evidently says ‘yes’ to blogging.

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Good work by Rusbridger

February 10, 2012
scissors

The headline says it all: ‘Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger takes pay cut‘.

Dan Sabbagh’s piece says a bit more: said editor ‘emailed staff at the newspaper to say that his salary in the upcoming 2012-13 financial year will be £395,010, compared with £438,900 in the current financial year’.

Some voices say: ‘How worthy.’

Others opine: ‘Well, he would, wouldn’t he?’

But we say: good work by Mr Rusbridger. For the sake of the media’s survival, we hope that others in senior positions in the industry will follow suit.

Image of toolkit allegedly deployed by Alan Rusbridger courtesy of Flickr user LollyKnit.

From the inside of the maze, ethically outwards

February 9, 2012

Curious times in the media; strange days at The Times.

Would ‘Dacre Cards‘ – the system of licensing journalists proposed by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre – have prevented the embarrassment now palpable at the Times over the NightJack story?

Times editor James Harding’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry seemed heartfelt and contrite, albeit that the paper’s former long-serving and much-respected lawyer, Alastair Brett, seems to have been, er, rather dropped in it. Clearly, mistakes were made with regard to NightJack by young reporter Patrick Foster who, once he had hacked into NightJack’s account and thus discovered his identity, then embarked on a quest to expose it via legitimate methods. This, as Inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC put it, was “rather like working from the inside of the maze out”.

But had Foster been licensed via a Dacre Card, would this unsavoury episode in the Times’s history have been avoided?

We suspect not. A raft of laws were in existence at precisely the time when many News of the World journalists seemed to believe that they were entitled to hack any phone they liked. Those laws forbade them from doing so, and yet made no difference. Aside from the obvious objection to them – that they will squeeze out freelancers and citizen journalists – Dacre Cards would simply amount to something to circumvent.

What is really required is an ethical shake-up, from top to bottom. Society generally – not just journalists – needs a sense that some things are just plain wrong.

Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.