Blogging ethics

Many people read blogs as a source for information, many bloggers hold themselves to the same ethical standards that journalists do. However, many bloggers do not consider themselves journalists and do not like to be referred to as such. Therefore Rebecca Blood has proposed her own six standards of blogging for all bloggers to follow. When writing a blog, the writer should step back and read it as if he/she were the consumer and to see whether or not if it's believable and creditable. They should consider whether it is the right thing to say or not in their blog or if it is not true information. Will the information get someone in trouble? Maybe that statement should be rephrased or not written at all. Or maybe the writer thinks that that issue should be out in the open.
Rebecca Blood's Standards
Ms. Blood says that all bloggers should follow these simple ethical guidelines if they wished to have the same privileges and protections of professional journalists.
1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.
5. Disclose any conflict of interest.
6. Note questionable and biased sources.
Journalist's Standards
The ethical standards for journalism include fairness, accuracy, relevance, newness, and attribution.
Fairness
Reporters must approach information without bias and report it the same way. If an issue has two or more sides, they report all of them. Certain journalistic organizations approach the news from either left or right and most readers will read whichever is closer to their personal point of view. The only exception of the fairness credo is opinion columnists and reviewers. It is expected that they give their opinion. A possible exception is bloggers.
Accuracy
Journalists should simply get their facts right. All facts need to be reported correctly and the journalists must always double check their facts with multiple sources. Many consumers rely on a news source for information and if the reporters report something inaccurate then the consumer will want to go somewhere else to get their news. If the journalists get their information from the internet then they have a greater responsibility to double check their facts because the internet is known for hoaxes and inaccurate information.
Relevance
It should be important to the audience. Relevance is established by providing context for information. Context is related information that the average person may not know. This is why journalists are trained to know a lot about the world in general but also about the communities around them. This is what leads us to dismiss the so-called "entertainment journalism."
Newness
Provide information that hasn't been given before. That doesn't mean only covering "breaking news" but that they stories reported need to have new information in them. Even an event that happened a long time ago can still have new information in it that the average person doesn't know and should be reported. A story that takes a long time to develop can also be new.
Attribution
It is closely related to the concept of fairness. This means that not only do they report the facts but where they come from. This lets the readers decide how much credence to give those facts. If the journalists' information came from a website then they should link to that site in their story. The readers can then go see the source and judge its' credibility.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu