Rebecca Blood on Weblog ethics
In response to CyberJournalist.net's discussion of Weblog ethics, "The Weblog Handbook" author Rebecca Blood says that "weblogs are not a new form of journalism, and shouldn't aspire to be so--I think we're stronger (and more important and more interesting) as something different, and trying to fit us into a pre-existing mold, to my mind, misses the point."
She points to the standards for Weblog ethics she proposes in her book -- all excellent ones to follow:
1. Publish only has fact 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.
"In thinking about ethics for weblogging, I discarded the journalistic standard of accuracy and fairness," she says in her reply. "That's unrealistic, and not really in the spirit of what we're doing. The standard I arrived at was transparency, and I derived each of guideline from that principle."
May 13, 2003 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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