CONTENT AGGREGATION PRACTICES: RIGHT FROM WRONG? PRESENTATION BY: MICHELE MOREHOUSE

OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION Subject and Case Explanation of Study Utilitarianism Theory Development What is aggregation? Types of aggregators Aggregation Practices Implications of Aggregation Legalities of Aggregation Future Research

CASE STUDY AGGREGATOR: THE HUFFINGTON POST VS. CONTENT ORIGINATOR: SIMON DUMENCO

FOCUS OF STUDY Purpose: Provide evidence through qualitative and quantitative research to support the fact that there is a difference in ethical vs. unethical practices of content aggregation, especially when the news organization controls it. Who is to blame? Lee? Or the Huffington Post?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. Why does the Huffington Post aggregation practices affect Dumenco and other journalists? 2. How will their actions affect how information is aggregated? 3. Why would the Huffington Post go out of their way to defend that their aggregation practices are unethical in the case of Simon Dumenco? 4. How does the Huffington Post ensure that the licensed content agreements are not violated? The Huffington Post Demographics

UTILITARIANISM 1. Rationale of rightness and wrongness 2. Interpreting quality over quantity for the greater good 3. Understand how everyone is entitled to his or her fair share of good 4. How to distinguish the consequences of an action towards decision making that maximizes the good for all

FLAWS OF UTILITARIANISM Considered a weakness by Bentham and Mills VS. Considered a strength in my own argument

WHAT IS AGGREGATION? Aggregation: is the action of extracting information from multiple sources to be distributed from a single place. Forms of Aggregations: 1. Written Content 2. Audio: Podcasts 3. Visual: Images or videos

TYPES OF AGGREGATORS 1. Feed Aggregators 2. Specialty Aggregators 3. User-Curated Aggregators 4. Blog Aggregations

FEED AGGREGATORS A website that contains materials from a number of websites organized into various “feeds” Displays headline of a story followed by link to original source. Example:

SPECIALTY AGGREGATORS Website that collects information from a number of sources on a specific topic or location. Headline of story, displays the name of the website where content originated from. Limited topic and focus, limited sources Examples: Techmeme and CQPolitics

USER-CURATED AGGREGATORS Website that features user-submitted links Portions of text are taken from a variety of websites Examples: 1. Blog posts 2. YouTube Videos 3. Traditional media sources

BLOG AGGREGATORS Third party content to create a blog about a given topic Who do you think?

AGGREGATION METHODS 1. Third-party content as raw material for blogger-written content 2. Synthesizing a story through a number of sources into one 3. Linking to the original content

WHAT METHODS DOES THE HUFFPO, PRACTICE? Website: organized like a traditional news publication webiste. Front Page: Features links from different types of content: 1. Original articles from Huffington Post Writers 2. AP Articles & Reuters (How?) 3. Third-party content Example: Simon Dumenco –Ad Age

IMPLICATIONS OF AGGREGATION 1. Individual Autonomy 2. Content Aggregation Standards Example: Council for Ethical Blogging and AggregationCouncil for Ethical Blogging and Aggregation 1. Legal Ramifications

LEGALITIES OF AGGREGATION Who is protected? Aggregator or the originator?

LAWS ASSOCIATED WITH AGGREGATION Copyright Act of 1976 Fair Use Doctrine “Hot News” Misappropriation

FUTURE RESEARCH 1. Good Aggregations Practices 2. Evolution of the Council of Ethical Blogging and Aggregation 3. Development of the Utilitarianism weakness through the scope of it in itself being a flaw

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Please ask away!