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Bloggers as well as mainstream news media have been closely following the story of Nadya Suleman, the mother who gave birth to octuplets last week. Following ethics questions about the doctors who gave her fertility treatments, people began to question why Suleman was looking for a larger family in the first place since she already had six kids at home. Even baby product manufacturers are staying at arm’s length and haven’t offered any of the donations or support that usually follows famous multiples. In social media, moms are getting nasty about their feelings towards Suleman- a reminder of the dynamic nature of the online parenting network. continue reading

One journalist that should be required weekly reading for anyone in the PR and marketing fields is Jon Fine who writes a column for BusinessWeek magazine all about the business of media. During a conference on online communities, Jon and I spoke about several topics, including how journalism is evolving, whether local media will survive, and what advice he might offer to aspiring journalists and PR people about succeeding in this new world. He breaks down some of the myths about the separation of traditional and new media, and offers a great vision of what the journalist of the future might look like: