Community journalism is mainly focused on uncovering certain local events or problems. Such sort of civic participation and public communication promotion requires actual presence within this special community, and that is generally a risky path. That’s why the choice of the hosting solution can significantly help with safeguarding some crucial aspects.
It doesn’t actually matter where you are choosing a dedicated server or a cheaper hosting solution for launching your website. Just try to follow the major safety recommendations that we are going to share in the article.
What are the benefits of web hosting for journalism?
To begin with, a web hosting service is necessary for the users to share their content via the website. There are various types of available hosting solutions, and every option has both pluses and minuses. When choosing the type of hosting needed, you should try to evaluate your budget, approximate traffic volume, and other factors.
When talking about the security in journalism, it is highly important to choose a web provider that offers a better security level. This may be achieved by conducting an anonymous payment for the chosen hosting plan with cryptocurrency. By doing so, you can be sure that no one can actually track your payment and connect it with your online platform directly.
Moreover, most hosting solutions can be protected even more with the use of firewalls, SSL certificates, encryption, and conduction of the regular backups. The best thing is that if you don’t have tech skills to manage all these processes, most providers offer professional assistance for a reasonable price.
Tips and tricks to safeguard your content even more
The most basic thing is to find a reliable provider that can offer you a level of anonymity you might require. In case, during the ordering process of the hosting service, you are asked to share your full name, real address, credit card details, and more – that doesn’t sound secure, right? So, once you have found a web provider with a great reputation that doesn’t require all these personal details, you are on the right track.
Here are additional recommendations that might be helpful:
- Don’t share any of your private information on your website, even in the section for the contact information. If you need some kind of interaction with your readers, you might mention an anonymous email address without the specification of your real name. And even if you don’t want to hide your identity, you surely have some colleges or sources that should be protected. Consider not only your personal safety, but also the identification of others in your content, which should be done with caution.
- Check your social media account. We share so much information online that our professional work can be easily tracked, as well as some personal information. Delete all the unnecessary personal stuff, and don’t share your articles on your personal webpage, so no one can track your identity as a journalist. Also, discuss this topic with your friends and family so they won’t expose your personal information online. That may sound like too much, but online attacks and violence are a real thing that can be somehow managed.
- Communication should be secured. Regular changes of passwords and the usage of strong passwords sound like unnecessary steps. However, it is extremely important to add a simple security level that can tremendously impact online journalism safety. Also, it is recommended to use 2-factor authentication and other methods of protection.
- Use managed hosting solutions in case you don’t have a professional IT expert in your team. When choosing a managed solution, you don’t need to worry about all of the management aspects, constant monitoring of performance, and immediately reacting to issues, so you can focus all your efforts towards journalism. Professional team can work with proactive security methods, scale resource when needed, work with backups, and spicks of traffic activity. There is so much that should be done and managed, and why not delegate these tasks to professionals?
- To anonymize your personality even more, there are several helpful tools that can be used. For instance, VPN, ProtonMail, and Tor can significantly help with safeguarding your online communication and online activity in general.
Summing up
Protection of community journalists is extremely important and should be properly planned to create the safest possible environment. One of the major steps that could be done right away with minimal effort is to choose a reliable hosting provider and order a managed hosting solution. This process takes only a couple of clicks if not considering the search process. Don’t waste your time on unreliable web hosting providers – choose the best one with the highest level of protection, and you will definitely notice the difference!
This content is brought to you by the FingerLakes1.com Team. Support our mission by visiting www.patreon.com/fl1 or learn how you send us your local content here.