Hackers and the Media: A Love-Hate Thing

Presented at DEF CON 7 (1999), July 10, 1999, 11 a.m. (50 minutes)

For hackers, contact with the media is both exciting and frustrating. Everybody loves to grab that 15 minutes of fame and set the record straight, but the media has this annoying habit of getting things wrong, at least from a hacker's point of view. Mainstream reporters feel the same way -- hacking is cool, sexy, and guarantees readership. But hackers are so evasive, way too full of themselves, and then there's this godawful technology to try to understand. How can reporters and hackers work together, or at least understand each other?

Presenters:

• Michael J. Martinez
  Michael J. Martinez reports on technology for ABCNEWS.com. In addition to covering more mainstream issues, Martinez has written about hacker culture, the VX community, the Pentagon's "cyberwar" problems, and the Melissa virus. His articles have been featured on Slashdot and the Hacker News Network.

Links:

• https://infocon.org/cons/DEF CON/DEF CON 7/DEF CON 7 video/DEF CON 7 - Martinez - Hackers And The Media - A Love Hate Thing.mp4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gA7n_WUQaM

Similar Presentations:

• DEF CON 12 (2004) / Hacking the Media, and Avoiding Being Hacked by the Media
• H2K (2000) / Hackers and the Media
• DEF CON 13 (2005) / Hackers and the Media- Misconceptions and Critical Tools To Combat Them