NEW MEDIA AND THE COURTS THE CURRENT STATUS AND A LOOK AT THE FUTURE A REPORT OF THE NEW MEDIA COMMITTEE OF THE CONFERENCE OF COURT PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICERS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR STATE COURTS AND THE E.W. SCRIPPS SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AT OHIO UNIVERSITY Available Online at http://www.ccpio.org/ and http://ccpionewmedia.ning.com/ RELEASED AUGUST 26, 2010 PRINTED IN SEPTEMBER, 2010 FIRST PRESENTED AT THE CCPIO 19TH ANNUAL MEETING AUGUST 9-11, 2010 ATLANTA CCPIO is the only professional organization dedicated to the role of court PIOs in the United States and worldwide. The organization provides training, networking opportunities and professional enhancement tailored to the unique duties of PIOs. You are invited to visit the CCPIO website at http://ccpio.org/index.htm. Copyright 2010, Conference of Court Public Information Officers. All Rights Reserved. Authors The authors of this report are Christopher J. Davey, director of public information for the Supreme Court of Ohio (CCPIO treasurer); Karen Salaz, district administrator for the 19th Judicial District of Colorado (CCPIO vice president) and Thomas Hodson of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, in collaboration with the National Center for State Courts. Also on the CCPIO New Media Committee: Steve Schell, communications coordinator, Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts, and Kathryn Dolan, public information officer, Indiana Supreme Court. Regina Koehler, public information officer at the Supreme Court of Ohio, wrote and edited passages and processed and charted the survey data. Acknowledgements CCPIO also gratefully thanks the following individuals and organizations for the valuable assistance they provided, without which this report would not have been possible: Jesse Rutledge, NCSC vice president of External Affairs, for substantive consulting on the project and for lending material support from NCSC; David Rottman, NCSC principal court research consultant, and Nora Sydow, NCSC knowledge and information services analyst, for reviewing and improving the survey instrument; Gregory S. Hurley, NCSC knowledge and information services specialist, for statistical assistance with the survey; John Davidow, executive editor for new media at WBUR public radio in Boston, for extensive consulting and support; Steven C. Hollon, administrative director for the Supreme Court of Ohio, for supporting the research effort by court staff; Carol Taylor, publications manager of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and Bret Crow, public information officer at the Supreme Court of Ohio, for editing the report, and the dedicated staff of the Office of Public Information at the Supreme Court of Ohio for countless acts of good will and understanding. The committee also thanks the judicial associations that assigned representatives to the project and the members of those associations who agreed to participate: Steven C. Hollon (president, Conference of State Court Administrators), David Slayton (National Association for Court Management), Sandra Hemphill (National Association of Women Judges), Bruce Hermes (Court Information Technology Officers Consortium), Joseph R. Sawyer (National Association of State Judicial Educators), and John Oliver (National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks), as well as the students of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University for their editorial assistance. 2 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 6 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 11 The Court Community Responds to New Media ...................................................................... 11 What Is New Media? ................................................................................................................ 14 New Media and the Courts: Unique Challenges and Opportunities ......................................... 18 The CCPIO New Media Project ............................................................................................... 21 Project Outline ...................................................................................................................... 21 Functionality-Based Categorization ...................................................................................... 22 Three Areas of Impact on the Courts .................................................................................... 23 Seven Categories of Technology .......................................................................................... 26 Technology Overview ................................................................................................................... 28 Social Media Profile Sites (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning) .................................. 28 Popular Service Providers ..................................................................................................... 28 Court Challenges ................................................................................................................... 29 Recent Statistics .................................................................................................................... 29 Effects on Court Proceedings................................................................................................ 33 Effects on Ethics and Conduct for Judges and Court Employees ......................................... 34 Effects on Courts‘ Ability to Promote Understanding and Public Trust & Confidence in the Judicial Branch...................................................................................................................... 34 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 35 Court-Related Social Media Profile Site Samples ................................................................ 35 Microblogging (e.g., Twitter, Tumblr, Plurk) ........................................................................... 37 Popular Service Providers ..................................................................................................... 37 Effects on Court Proceedings................................................................................................ 38 Recent Statistics .................................................................................................................... 38 Effects on Ethics and Conduct for Judges and Court Employees ......................................... 39 Effects on Courts‘ Ability to Promote Understanding and Public Trust & Confidence in the Judicial Branch...................................................................................................................... 40 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 41 Court-Related Microblogging Examples .............................................................................. 41 Smart Phones, Tablets & Notebooks (e.g., iPhone, Droid, Blackberry)................................... 43 Popular Devices .................................................................................................................... 43 Court Challenges ................................................................................................................... 43 Recent Statistics .................................................................................................................... 43 3 Effects on Court Proceedings................................................................................................ 44 Effects on Ethics and Conduct for Judges and Court Employees ......................................... 45 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 45 Smart Phones, Notebook and Tablet Samples ...................................................................... 45 Monitoring and Metrics (e.g., Addictomatic, SocialSeek, Social Mention, Google's Social Search, Quantcast) .................................................................................................................... 47 Popular Service Providers ..................................................................................................... 47 Effects on Court Proceedings................................................................................................ 48 Recent Statistics .................................................................................................................... 48 Effects on Ethics and Conduct for Judges and Court Employees ......................................... 49 Effects on Courts‘ Ability to Promote Understanding and Public Trust & Confidence in the Judicial Branch...................................................................................................................... 49 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 49 Court-Related Monitoring and Metrics Examples ................................................................ 50 News Categorizing, Sharing and Syndication (e.g., blogs, RSS, Digg, Reddit, del.iciou.us) . 51 Popular Service Providers ....................................................................................................