blog ethics in a post-debate era
On the heels of the Eason Jordan affair,it seems that everyone is taking blogs much more seriously. That said, the once popular debate about the differences between blogging & journalism come to mind. Sure, Jay Rosen said that was soooo 2004. But I'll still bring it up for old times sake.
Regardless of whether there is empirical proof, the media purports that the bloggers can have a very real & powerful reach. That means that when an A-list blogger starts to talk about something, the entire community of blogs listens.
So if media organizations, in order to retain their credibility, are supposed to disclose their conflicts of interest - should bloggers? Is it okay for bloggers to get paid for writing about a topic, even if they aren't paid for the direction that content goes in (positive or negative). What about technology bloggers who get neat little toys for free in hopes that they'll want to post about the new gadget?
These things happen all the time in the mainstream press.Media discloses conflicts of interest, journalists are paid for their work & editors get goodies in the mail from marketing & pr folks in hope to get some publicity.
So now that some bloggers are being treated like journalists, what do we expect from them?
Go read JD Lasica's new article in the Online Journalism Review about ethics for bloggers & think about it.
So it's time for some self-disclosure here. My conflict of interest here is that I know JD & think he's a great guy. Yeah, I want you to go read his article. But more than that, I think this topic is relevant & something we should all think about if we are going to be critical consumers of the media - which now includes blogs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Well, the cross agenda setting effect between blogs in Taiwan and China is very strong, especially between technical/internet comment blogs. Though I do not witness any possible "paid bloggings", the mechanism might be already functioning undergrond. The question may soon not be whether bloggers should get paid to write, but who pay them on what certain topics in which way. Bloggers tend to examine the mass media and want to be critical audience, and bloggers' info. spreading power is also getting noticed by the mass media. It is just about time for us to start counting the tricks that might show in front of us.
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