In a thoughtful segment, Al Jazeera's Listening Post asks: What is it about the images of this disaster that has failed to evoke the same compassion as others have done?  Even the celebrity news website Jezebel has noted the quiet reaction. In this New York Times report, the relationship between media coverage and international response is clear. A column in the Guardian argues a steady drip of terror-obsessed media coverage has affected how people feel. Yet Huffington Post columnist Ethan Casey feels blaming the media is a cop-out for a recession-distracted western audience with narrow attitudes about the Islamic world.

While the leaking of Afghan war documents has been criticized in some Canadian columns, on the pages of J-Source WikiLeaks is described as citizen journalism we need and a new form of asymmetrical journalism. Founder Julian Assange, a self-described ‘person of interest’ to U.S. authorities, explains his decision to provide advance viewings to select outlets. The mainstream media partnerships weren’t completely comfortable: Assange later criticized the New York Times for its handling of the data, including checking with the White House before publishing and not providing a direct link to the documents. An alternative strategy could have been dribbles instead of dumps. Here are links to compare the special reportage sites: New York Times, Der Spiegel, the Guardian.

To get an inside track, the G8/20 Toronto Community Mobilization website is a hub for activities ranging from bike block actions to radical street parties. Rabble.ca has a G8/20 ‘one stop shop’ of alt media coverage, and has published a guide to independent journalists covering the event, including what to do when CSIS comes calling. The Toronto Media Co-op, a division of Dominion News, is reporting on the People's Summit, while OpenFile offers coverage from a local perspective. The G20 Alt Media Centre is already abuzz with reports, tweets, photos and video from the streets. There are also individual activists like Krystalline Kraus and Stefan Christoff blogging and tweeting from ground zero, and a lively online debate about the relationship of the bank bombers to social movements. Journalists who want to dig further into the banquet of issues on offer will find a virtual library of resources at the G8 Information Centre provided by the University of Toronto and Munk School of Global Affairs.

To tweet or not to tweet? The Canadian Association of Journalists has issued draft guidelines for responsible tweeting. Verification and accuracy have become one of the top issues in the journalistic use of social media, according to this backgrounder to social media. The CAJ also led a lively discussion about the do's and don'ts of social media.

What would Marshall McLuhan say about Twitter? In his absence, a group of Korean number-crunchers have completed a study replete with impressive graphs and an intriguing question: is Twitter a social network or a news medium? In a separate February experiment, five journalists locked themselves up in a farmhouse with only social media to inform them about the outside world. Their conclusion: "You are who you follow."

If that’s the case, why not follow J-Source? Today our tweets are a little older and wiser.   

On May 28 the Canadian Association of Journalists opens its national conference amid trying times. The Winter 2010 issue of Media Magazine – the CAJ’s house journal – contains a candid look at how the organization became strapped for cash, including the fall-out of ‘the Stevie Cameron affair.’ In addition to critical financial woes, the CAJ recently seemed out of step over the Supreme Court source protection ruling, declaring defeat where others, like Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, saw victory. When president Mary Agnes Welch published an open letter stating the organization was in crisis, J-Source readers weighed in on what the CAJ should do.

Obviously, people care enough to have an opinion. Over the years, the CAJ has provided quality training, networking and advocacy for its members, in addition to publishing Media Magazine and developing a Code of Ethics. Special educational events like January’s Innovate News conference help journalists stay ahead of the curve. The upcoming Montreal conference will include a full roster of seminars, on topics such as collective action for safety training and story-telling for broadcast.

Whether or not CAJ can maintain its relevancy – and solvency – in the years to come remains in the hands of its members. As Welch put it in her letter: “The CAJ is only as strong as you make it.”