Plenty for news organisations to think about in this piece looking at how misinformation can be spread online, in particular developing a strategy for dealing with ‘viral’ rumours:

“Having decided that a rumour can’t go unchallenged, a company needs to set out its terms of engagement.”

These situations provide further impetus for news organisations to establish a loyal following for its online brand – for instance, a third-party rebuttal of a rumour is stronger than a denial by the brand itself, argues the article.

Central to all strategies for handling the spread of misinformation about your organisation online, however, seems to be active participation in conversations about your brand (which in turn means carefull use and monitoring of social media and online forums).

Full story at this link…

• Alex Wood: What does the #IranElection Twitter trend tell us?
• Poynter Online: How news orgs hope to use new Facebook features
• David Cushman: The future of media is self-organised
• Death of Chinese ‘citizen journalist’ sparks online outrage
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – publicise your blog

The country’s government is proposing new rules on internet use, including compulsory registration for forum users and the removal of ‘slanderous or fraudulent’ articles for 30 days.

• Government proposals could cause press to regress, says OhMyNews editor
• Reuters: China becomes world’s largest Internet population
• World Association of Newspapers calls for press freedom in China
• BBC introduces registration scheme for blog comments
• South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper unveils new all singing, all dancing website

Over on the BBC dot.life blog Rory Cellan-Jones debates the pros and cons of Twitter – where does the professional cross with the personal? What’s public and what’s private on the web?

Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s technology correspondent, had a recent wake-up call when PR contacts tracked his Twitters. A light-hearted blog by Cellan-Jones on the topic of Scrabulous led to an equally light-hearted message to a Twitter follower, which was then quoted on another website in a more serious manner.

In the latest posting he writes, ‘It’s a ‘a useful reminder that Twitter – like so many other online forums – is a public place, and what you say there may be used in evidence against you.’ He thinks that perhaps he ‘can no longer afford to be quite so careless.’

Needless to say, Journalism.co.uk is now keenly following Cellan-Jones’ tweets. Follow us too: @journalismnews, strictly professionally of course…

• BBC dot.life blog: Twitter and the China earthquake
• #FollowJourn: @davanac/editor and developer
• BBC Radio 4 Today: Pay walls discussed with @ruskin147 and @emilybell
• dot.Rory: ‘When blogging meets policing’
• #followjourn: Toni Jones/associate fashion editor

Case studies: Online forums and groups on social networking sites can be a goldmine. Make contact individually or send out a group message depending on the sensitivity of the request and be polite – these are like members clubs. Tipster: Laura Oliver

Got a tip? Submit it here – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – a social events calendar
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• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – manage your site’s feed to social sites

A Chinese man, who used his mobile phone to film a confrontation between the authorities and protesting villagers in the country’s central Hubei province, was beaten to death by city officials, according to a report by CNN on Friday.

The death of Wei Wenhua, a 41-year-old construction company executive, has been widely condemned across online forums and news sites in China, the article states.

“Wei is the first ‘citizen journalist’ to die in China because of what he was trying to film,” a statement from press freedom campaign group Reporters Without Borders said.

“He was beaten to death for doing something which is becoming more and more common and which was a way to expose law-enforcement officers who keep on overstepping their limits.”

• NUJ release video showing police treatment of journalists
• CPJ releases ‘Attacks on the Press in 2008′ report
• Reporters Without Borders: Journalist killed in Brazil on World Press Freedom day
• China Daily launches English-Chinese mobile paper
• Mexican drug cartels silencing country’s reporters