Online Ethics

The ethical issues in online journalism are many. I feel the dilemma is between the new generation and previous generation of journalists and journalism. The scary part is that new journalists might become used to the laissez-fair attitude of online journalism.

One problem I do have is reporters may still be acting as though they are above the fray, but many reporters are starting to have blogs. Up until now, journalists have worked hard to not have their opinions strewn throughout their work. Now, if any readers have any suspicions of a story being slanted or biased, they simply have to locate the reporters blog and possible confirm suspicions.

The Society of Professional Journalist’s Code of Ethics says to act independently. It says to remain free of associates and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility. I feel as though personal blogs do just that.

There is a Wall Street Journal article I found online titled “Should Newspapers Sponsor Blogs Written by Reporters?” The story is about Matt Marshall, a reporter for San Jose Mercury News who also writes SiliconBeat, a personal blog sponsored by the Mercury News and co-written by technology reporter, Michael Bazeley.

“Unlike their work for the paper, the reporters’ blog posts generally aren't reviewed by an editor,” the article states. “Other posts on SiliconBeat have included rumors and the use of anonymous sources that typically wouldn't make it into the Mercury News, and the two sometimes inject opinions into their posts.”

Although this seems troubling, I’m torn about this situation. Journalists are also human beings with basic rights and I always seem to be grappling with that issue. I believe whole-heartedly in the first amendment, which would guarantee the right for a journalist to own a blog and actively use a blog. Just because we are journalists, are we not allowed to have blogs? If we are, do they need to be edited or screened or written under some sort of alias? If that’s the case, I don’t see the point. Why be blogging about something like a personal opinion if you can’t really give a personal opinion? I feel as though it should be all or nothing. However, I do realize that prior generations of journalists have worked hard to be unbiased and keep their stories un-slanted. Perhaps they refrained from posting signs in their yard endorsing a certain candidate. Perhaps they kept themselves from wearing certain T-shirts or putting certain bumper stickers on their car. Those were the rules then, so why are they not followed now?

Christia Gibbons has been a newspaper reporter and editor for more than 25 years. She has a blog as a freelancer, but it's not about news. She is also a news writing instructor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

Gibbons says in an e-mail she believes blogging is great for columnists, but is concerned with general assignment and beat reporters keeping a blog.

“It's one thing if the blog is kind of a notebook of odds and ends on the beat that are interesting but aren't big enough to write an entire story on,” she says, “and it's quite another when the reporter offers an opinion on something they are covering.”

Gibbons says our credibility and neutrality as journalists are already taking big hits by an untrusting readership. She then asks why we would want to do something that could feed into such a thing.

“As journalists, we shouldn't be trying to be like everyone else and blog, we should stick to the basics of accuracy, fairness and balance,” she says. “If we don't, who will? And if we don't, how will people know what information to trust?”

That is a good point, the point that got me thinking about this entire issue, which I believe to be an issue of online ethics.

A good test case could come of this. What if a journalist is offered with the idea to write a blog by his or her editor? What if the journalist is uncertain by the problem it could present, or about the opinions he or she could display online? Should the journalist take it?

What if the reporter knows he or she could keep a blog and it not be found by their editors? Should he or she go through with it or is it just best to know what’s right? It’s hard to answer these questions nowadays with the issue of blogging and so many people being on the fence about it.

As the internet changes, the world of journalism will change, too. Time will tell what many will eventually think of reporters keeping and publicizing their own blogs.

Movie Time!

John's Tuesday

Photo: Lauren Cusimano

Pod-cast-ing.

My podcast!

I felt funny talking to my computer in class.

Three Podcasts

Jordan, Jesse GO!

www.maximumfun.org/listen

Jordan Morris and Jesse Thorn will bring anyone out of a bad mood. The podcast is said to be about adulthood and coping with growing up. By that I mean what it means to become your adult self and shed all the compulsions and ridiculousness of the younger you without turning into a jerk. Be careful, it might suck you in and might start spouting JJGO-isms to everyone and they will not know what to think of you. There is a whole culture to this and the best thing to do is to find a JJGO! friend. Mine is Leanne.

You Look Nice Today: A Journal of Emotional Hygiene

youlooknicetoday.com

You Look Nice Today goes along the same lines as Jordan, Jesse GO! In fact, they’re all friends. However, YLNT is a collaboration of three guys who met on Twitter and started a podcast. They host the show from three different towns as each member stays in their house to do the show. The show is cultural commentary and also hilarious. Merlin is an “internet celebrity” with a few sites such as youlooknicetoday.com, 5ives.com and 43folders.com.

The Moth Podcast

www.themoth.org/podcast

This is a new one I described to after hearing about it on This American Life. The Moth is an eight or 10 or 15-minute sound clip of a person telling a life story, usually in New York City. The stories are usually very funny and informative as well as inspiring and touching. People talk about the time they survived a mugging, traveling to the Amazon because of a curse, spending time in Savannah, GA. Really anything. It can be a tearjerker but it is very entertaining and maybe even a little pretentious.

Are bloggers journalists?

As we have learned in this Online Media class: “the best blogs compile and comment on news and information and breaking news blogs offer updates that allow readers to see how the story has changed.” In the sense of online news, this is relevant. Online news for a paper’s Web site is updated on a regular basis. Considering this fact, bloggers are similar to journalists. Journalists also compile the news for stories and comment on the news such as with editorials and what-have-you. Therefore in these ways, journalists and bloggers are similar. However, in most other ways they are not.

In the first place, and this hits close to home, bloggers do not necessarily have to go to school. According to the B.A. requirements for an undergraduate major in Journalism and Mass Communication, one must have 39-40 semester hours of credit in the Cronkite School, 12 credits in broadcast, print, digital or public relations specializations, three credits in any upper division unrestricted JMC/MCO course, and not to mention 80-81 credits in general studies requirements. That’s a crap load of school as we all know.

After a student completes these requirements and even before, he or she can go on to graduate school or a career in journalism as a legitimate server of the public. Bloggers may serve the public, but they lack the credentials to be taken too seriously. They lack the strategic and ethical training that the rest of us have had to go through. Not to mention, if a journalist has a red mark on his or her record, they will have trouble finding a job. Journalists who have cut corners, plagiarized, fabricated or illegally obtained information will most likely be black listed.

Conversely, any yahoo can create a blog and slamming any topic they want with all kinds of bad attitude and snide remarks.

Chad Graham is in the no man’s land of blogging and journalism. He’s a business report and a blogger for Biz Buzz at The Arizona Republic. He said newspapers are willing to be more risky than ever before to get online audiences. “I’ve been in the media for 10 years and up until now you were not allowed to give your opinion,” he said. “Journalism is becoming more opinionated and I think that’s what readers want.”

However, I don’t think journalists have much to worry about in terms of being substituted with a Chatty-Cathy.

“I consider bloggers more commentators on the whole,” Graham said. “I don’t think they can ever replace the people who go out and gather the news.”

It was reported on Feb. 25 in PRWeek US by Dan Gillmor that Joshua Micah Marshall won the 2007 George Polk Award as founder of the Talking Points Memo blog. As many may know, the Polk Award is an American journalism award. Be that as it may, some bloggers can be considered journalists while others are most certainly not.

Bloggers have been arrested, such as with the five American bloggers that were arrested in Beijing while reportedly covering a pro-Tibet demonstration in Aug. according to TECHWEB. It also reported in April 2007 Malaysian authorities were planning to make bloggers first register with the government before blogging. Bloggers are obviously causing a stir, and so do journalists. Reporters Without Borders are protecting these guys, but these are the bloggers with the same intentions as journalists in my mind. These aren’t the bloggers that make insane and insensitive claims that affect people’s lives just as much as journalists could have.

Rachel North is a story and an example of bloggers getting out of hand. She was a part of London’s 7/7 in the underground tunnels. She began blogging about her experience with the attacks and her survival according to BBC News. She was then attacked a called a liar by other bloggers who believed she was part of a conspiracy, that the explosions were not the work of terrorists but of the government.

In many ways, bloggers can be regarded as hope for the future of journalism as it turns to online audiences and younger crowds. However, the very essence of journalism such as integrity, credibility and legitimacy hang in the balance in the meantime. So no, bloggers aren’t journalists.