Media Linking

Should the media be allowed to link to outside media like Digg?

Media should be allowed to link their stories to sites like Digg because its purpose is to share and discover with others. Isn't that what the concept of the internet is? Roger Simmons and John Cutter of the Orlando Sentinel have created headlines that are Web friendly so they get picked up by major search engines. This is good advertisement for their headlines and the companies they work for.

I think the internet is a growing source for news and this sort of journalistic behavior should be expected. Kelly Dyer Fry commented in the The New York Times , "People aren't just reading one story," she said. "They'll click deeper because of this, and I can load ads deeper into those pages. It really beefs up the site." This brings up a valid point for advertisers as well because it allows them to gain traffic on their sites too.

Some believe that linking to outside media is unlawful or copyright infingement . According to Erik on his blog inthefieldonline, "The underlying idea of the web directly implies that philosophically it should be perfectly fine linking to other sites, thereby directly or indirectly giving them the credit for the content. If you are not storing their content, I will have a very hard time understanding why that would mean infringement of copyright."

I believe if you give credit to the author where it is due, there should be no issue. This statement sums up the way I feel about how the media landscape is changing. Why is media linking to their sites a problem if it is not offensive or plagiarizing others ideas?