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The modern news consumer ignores Weblogs and online citizen journalism at his own peril. But not everyone has the time to keep track of what's going on the Web. With this blog we hope to track the highlights of what's being discussed online so when news breaks from the Web, we're ready.

Will Femia is a Weblog enthusiast who, through good fortune and dumb luck, was introduced to the form as his position as chat producer for MSNBC.com careered into obsolescence. On any given day, Will can be found having already spent an unhealthy amount of time squinting at a computer screen.

Send a message to Will at spotter@msnbc.com



That Amanda Knox video

Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 12:54 AM by Will Femia

I changed my mind about posting original links to the Meredith Kercher story because I watched a copy of the Amanda Knox YouTube video.

It makes the whole story feel so much more personal. It's amazing that the whole world can march through a digital crime scene and not disturb anything (though tainting the jury pool is another matter).

I also clicked the Seattle Crime Blog's excerpts of Amanda Knox's "FoxyKnoxy" MySpace profile and spent some time in the Italian blogosphere.


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Will, a journalism question regarding this story...I haven't followed it since it originally broke, but apparently there is a NY actress by the name of Amanda Knox which has caused a small bit of confusion and brought her some unwanted (though in the long run it may work for her) attention.  Is it standard journalistic practice to use a person's middle name in stories like these so that this sort of thing isn't likely to happen?  Obviously in assasinations this is the case (Mark David Chapman, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Boothe, etc.) but I've also noticed in a few local child killer cases they also make the point of using a middle name.  Is there a policy/rule of thumb?  Does it have anything to do with the shock value of the case?

KRW (Sent Wednesday, November 14, 2007 9:06 AM)

KRW, I don't know of a journalistic convention that calls for using three names so as not to inconvenience the innocent. I think the three name thing comes from the legal aspect of the story. Police use all three names when they're looking for someone. Courts use three names as well (Orenthal James Simpson). I think reporters pick up on that. I'll ask around here and let you know if anyone here disagrees with me.

Will Femia (Sent Wednesday, November 14, 2007 11:27 AM)

If the newsmedia didn't do the three-name thing, how would we know that giving a boy "Wayne" for a middle name would make him a serial killer?

Don Tuite (Sent Wednesday, November 14, 2007 11:31 AM)

That Italian site is a bit infuriating, if only because a) I don't speak Italian and b) I cannot seem to copy and paste it to enable me to translate it.

AJ, Ohio (Sent Wednesday, November 14, 2007 12:01 PM)

Will, you're right, including a perp's middle name comes from the cops, reporters just follow along.

Chuck (Sent Wednesday, November 14, 2007 1:03 PM)



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