Online Journalism Review's Robert Niles writes that "there's no such thing as 'off the record' anymore," with the Internet making it nearly impossible to keep anything private, and with citizen journalism gaining popularity.

Political comments, drunken party pictures, anything can end up on the Internet thanks to Facebook, Myspace, discussion boards, etc. Niles compares the web to "life in a small frontier town, where everyone knows everyone else's business."

Case in point: U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama made comments on "a popular view among many progressives, notably articulated by author Thomas Frank four years ago in his book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?"," according to Niles, which in turn caused rival Hillary Clinton and other right-wing supporters to call him "elitist." Though this gathering supposedly didn't allow journalists, these comments reported for Huffington Post's "Off the Bus."

With citizen journalists and bloggers,  "any professional news reporter who agrees to respect an "off the record" request at a meeting is committing an act of unilateral professional disarmament," writes Niles. 

So why can't a professional journalist be a "citizen" journalist and gain access to events closed to professionals? After all, all journalists are citizens, argues Niles.

Ultimately, there really is no way to enforce an "off the record" request anymore. People may be forbidden from future events, but there are several other potential "citizen journalists" to fill in the shoes.

Do people now have to resort to watching what they say in public and censoring themselves? Niles seems to think so and while the Internet might increase formalities and cautiousness among people, it might "lead us in the opposite direction, where we deal with all this information about each other by ignoring it, in the way many people have learned to ignore public cursing, kissing and other displays that would have offended many more people a generation or two past."

As for journalists, Niles suggests that they keep reporting since the information will end up on the web anyway, and consolidate the information in a "smarter, sharper perspective than anyone else does."

Source: Online Journalism Review