Sree Sreenivasan, a professor at Columbia, has been pitching journalists for three years now to develop their own personal Web sites. In the latest installment, on Poynter Online, he notes that Australian journalist John Martinkus was able to establish through a Google search that he was, indeed, a professional journalist, prompting his Iraqi kidnappers to release him. Sreenivasan also points to Adam Nagourney, a New York Times political reporters, who appears to be the victim of a fake blog produced in his name.

Of course, I am not saying having a personal site will save your life or prevent pranksters from having a good time pretending to be you. But as a journalist, our identities and our bylines are our most valuable assets. Why leave it to others to define who you are?

Sreenivasan points to his own site where he maintains a list of journalists with Web sites.