The Utah State Courts is excited to host the Conference of Court Public Information Officers (CCPIO) August 5 – 7, 2013 in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake is a beautiful, safe, vibrant city with the Wasatch Mountains to the east and the Great Salt Lake to the West. Accommodations for the meeting are provided by Little America Hotel, which is located in downtown Salt Lake and just across the street from the Scott M. Matheson Courthouse. For those who want to stay an extra day or two, Utah has five national parks within a four to five hours drive of Salt Lake. Register now: 2013 CCPIO Conference Packet

For more information, check out the following websites:

http://www.visitsaltlake.com/

http://saltlake.littleamerica.com/

http://www.utah.com/

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.  – A survey report released today gives the judicial community in the United States its first year-to-year comparison spanning three years of data unraveling how social media and broader changes in the media industry are impacting state and local judges and courts.

The results of the 2012 CCPIO New Media and the Courts Survey reveal several major conclusions:

• The participation of judges in the survey continued to climb, as did their use of the technologies surveyed
• The percentage of judges who strongly agree that their own use of the technologies in the survey poses no threat to professional ethics has doubled since the first year of the survey. This applies whether the technologies are used in personal or professional lives.
• The percentage of judges who strongly agree that courts as institutions can use the technology without compromising ethics has also doubled since 2010.
• The percentage of judges who strongly agree that new media are necessary for public outreach has doubled since 2010.

The survey was conducted by the Conference of Court Public Information Officers, an organization of more than 100 communications professionals working in state and federal courts in the United States and worldwide. Partners in the project include the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va., the nation’s leading center for research assistance to the country’s state court systems, and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

The survey findings are part of a national collaborative research project now entering its fourth year, which for the first time measured the impact of new media on the courts, and identified the cautious approach courts have taken toward new media out of concern for possible adverse effects on professional ethics and court proceedings while identifying the opportunities these new communication tools afford the judicial system to enhance public understanding of the courts.

The complete project report, “2012 CCPIO New Media Survey, New Media and the Courts: The Current Status and A Look at the Future” is available on the CCPIO website.

More than 15,000 individuals in the court community were invited to participate in the electronically distributed survey. Of the 623 individuals who completed the survey, 238, or 45.6 percent were judges, magistrates or other hearing officers, up 12 percent from the 2011 survey. The majority of the respondents were court system staff.

“The research reflects the high importance judges and courts place on understanding social media technologies and the impact they are having inside and out of courthouses across the nation,” said Thomas Hodson Director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. “Judiciaries’ increased drive to support transparent courts and an informed citizenry through outreach and transparency has shifted court’s focus to methodically experiment with these technologies.”

Survey results explore use rates by court personnel and courts as institutions of social media profile sites like Facebook, microblogging services like Twitter and visual media sharing sites like YouTube.

Some of the hesitancy by courts to embrace social media may be explained by differences between the court and social media cultures:

• New media are decentralized and multidirectional, while courts are institutional and largely unidirectional.
• New media are personal and intimate, while courts are separate, even cloistered, and by definition independent.
• New media are multimedia, incorporating video and still images, audio and text, while courts are highly textual.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A survey report released today gives the judicial community in the United States its first year-to-year comparison data to further unravel how social media and broader changes in the media industry are impacting state and local judges and courts.

The results of the 2011 CCPIO New Media and the Courts Survey reveal:

• While more judges report using social media profile sites than last year, they still cautiously approach their use of social media profile sites in their professional lives in order to avoid compromising professional codes of ethics.
• Judges also appear to recognize that the surge of social media use is permeating every aspect of citizens’ lives. An increasing number of judges report verbalizing routine juror instructions that include some component about digital media use during trials.
• It also appears that the institutional use of social media profile sites is gaining acceptance. The survey shows a 7.6 percent increase in the number of respondents who agree that courts as institutions can maintain a social media profile site without compromising ethics.
• In addition, there was a concurrent 5.1 percent increase of those who report working at a court that maintains such a site.

The survey was conducted by the Conference of Court Public Information Officers, an organization of more than 100 communications professionals working in state and federal courts in the United States and worldwide. Partners in the project include the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va., the nation’s leading center for research assistance to the country’s state court systems, and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

The survey findings are part of a national collaborative research project now entering its third year, which for the first time measured the impact of new media on the courts, and identified the cautious approach courts have taken toward new media out of concern for possible adverse effects on professional ethics and court proceedings while identifying the opportunities these new communication tools afford the judicial system to enhance public understanding of the courts.

The complete project report, “2011 CCPIO New Media Survey, New Media and the Courts: The Current Status and A Look at the Future” is available on the CCPIO website at www.ccpio.org.

More than 15,000 individuals in the court community were invited to participate in the electronically distributed survey. Of the 713 individuals who completed the survey, 238, or 33.4 percent were judges, magistrates or other hearing officers, up 2 percent from the 2010 survey. The majority of the respondents were court system staff.

“The research continues to clearly show that judges and courts recognize the importance of understanding new media and the value in communicating in new ways to build public trust and confidence in the judicial branch,” said Thomas Hodson Director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. “The slow methodical steps courts are taking represent a respect for the unique challenges and opportunities presented through social media technologies.”

Survey results explore use rates by court personnel and courts as institutions of social media profile sites like Facebook, microblogging services like Twitter and visual media sharing sites like YouTube.

Some of the hesitancy by courts to embrace social media may be explained by differences between the court and social media cultures:

• New media are decentralized and multidirectional, while courts are institutional and largely unidirectional.
• New media are personal and intimate, while courts are separate, even cloistered, and by definition independent.
• New media are multimedia, incorporating video and still images, audio and text, while courts are highly textual.

For More Information, contact:

Co-Chairs 

Chris Davey
Director of Public Information
Supreme Court of Ohio
(614) 387-9250
c.davey@sc.ohio.gov

Karen Salaz
District Administrator, 19th Judicial District
Colorado Judicial Branch
(970) 539-8307
karen.salaz@judicial.state.co.us

WILLIAMSBURG, VA –A first-of-its-kind nationwide survey on new media and the courts shows that state judges and court staff recognize the potential impact of social media on the administration of justice and are taking a close look at both the ramifications and opportunities.

More than a third of state court judges and magistrates responding to the survey said they have used social media either in their personal or professional lives. But the survey also found that nearly half of the judges who responded disagreed when asked if a judge —in a professional capacity—could participate in social networking sites without compromising ethical codes of conduct.

While only a fraction of courts around the country have established their own social networking sites, almost all the respondents agreed that judges and court employees needed to be educated about so-called ―new media‖—from Facebook and Twitter to smartphones—and learn how their use might impact day to day operations in their courthouses.

The survey findings were part of a yearlong national collaborative research project which for the first time measured the impact of new media on the courts, and identified the cautious approach courts have taken toward new media because of the effects on ethics, court proceedings and the ability of these new communication tools to support public understanding of the courts.

The project was conducted by the Conference of Court Public Information Officers, an organization of more than 100 communications professionals working in state and federal courts in the United States and worldwide. Partners in the project include the National Center for State Courts located in Williamsburg, VA, the nation’s leading center for research assistance to the nation’s state court systems, and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

The complete project report, “New Media and the Courts: The Current Status and A Look at the Future” is available on the CCPIO website at www.ccpio.org.

More than 16,000 individuals in the court community were invited to participate in the electronic survey, of the 810 individuals who completed the full survey, 254 or 31.3 percent were judges or magistrates. The majority of the respondents were court system staff.

“The report’s findings clearly show that judges and courts recognize the importance of understanding new media and the value in communicating in new ways to build public trust and confidence in the judicial branch,” said Thomas Hodson Director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, a collaborator in the study. “But courts face unique challenges and opportunities unlike other areas of government, so studying the impact on the integration of new media technology is a significant step.”

The report details a new media environment characterized by: (1) emerging interactive social media technologies that are powerfully multimedia in nature and have the potential to alter the delicate balance between open courts and fair trials; (2) fundamental and continuing changes in the economics, operation and vitality of the journalism/media industry that courts have traditionally relied on to connect with the public; (3) broader cultural changes in how the public receives and processes information and understands the world.

The report documents the history of new media, the different types of technology impacting courts, and offers a forecast and recommendations for courts in furthering the use of new media.

Much of the information for the development of the survey was gathered using an online community through the social media site Ning at www.ccpionewmedia.ning.com.

Survey results explore usage rates by court personnel and courts as institutions of social media profile sites like Facebook, microblogging services like Twitter and visual media sharing sites like YouTube.

Among those findings: Some of those findings include:

• Nearly half of judges (47.8 percent) disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “Judges can use social media profile sites, such as Facebook, in their professional lives without compromising professional conduct codes of ethics.”
• More than half (56 percent) of judges report routine juror instructions including some component about new media use during the trial.
• A small fraction of courts (6.7 percent) currently have social media profile sites like Facebook; 7 percent use microblogging sites like Twitter; and 3.2 percent use visual media sharing sites like YouTube.

Differences between the court and social media cultures may explain some of the hesitancy by courts to embrace social media. The report found that:

• New media are decentralized and multidirectional, while courts are institutional and largely unidirectional.
• New media are personal and intimate, while courts are separate, even cloistered, and by definition independent.
• New media are multimedia, incorporating video and still images, audio and text, while courts are highly textual.

The report concludes by forecasting more courts will develop official presences on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites. The report also recommends that CCPIO administer the survey annually to look for trends.

For More Information, contact:

Co-Chairs 

Chris Davey
Director of Public Information
Supreme Court of Ohio
(614) 387-9250
c.davey@sc.ohio.gov

Karen Salaz
District Administrator, 19th Judicial District
Colorado Judicial Branch
(970) 539-8307
karen.salaz@judicial.state.co.us

While from a business perspective, this video is a great primer on the basics of social media. How does all this translate for courts?

Michael Sommermeyer, court information officer for the Clark County (Las Vegas, Nev.) Courts talks about the implications of Twitter use in courtrooms.