At a discussion here at USC this week, Dan Gillmor suggested that shield law definitions need to change to focus on the act of journalism, rather than trying to define who is a journalist. I agree. Nevertheless, we in the United States live in a political environment where our elected officials now value corporate and government power over the rights of individuals, and the ability of institutions to operate in secret over the public’s right to know. Which creates an even greater need for aggressive journalism from reporters, offline and on. Even if they have to risk jail time to deliver it.

And I do think Laura Handman’s input is useful. Back in March I assembled a list of points about responsibility to readership that any growing journalism effort ought to try and make available– just as newspapers provide circulation information to the ABC.