If Sarah Austin is the future of journalism, I have hope that accuracy, authenticity and accountability may yet survive. Yesterday, Sarah tumbleblogged something she posted 16 days earlier that I missed: “Blogging Code of Ethics.”
Now there’s a strange concept: Blogging and ethics. It’s strange because I’ve seen too many blogs acting as marketing fronts—and too many others scraping other sites’ content and reposting it for profit. In neither case does much fact checking go along with the blogs. I identified the problem in posts “The Difference Between Blogging and Journalism” and “Gossipers of the InterWeb.”
All eight of Sarah’s codes are excellent, but the first is most appropriately first. The complete list [typos and grammar corrected]:
- Fact Check: Don’t spread rumors. Double check your facts.
- Update: If news changes or stories progress, update old posts and text with current and relevant information. When you make a mistake or make incorrect statements reverse and update them. Don’t update and erase. Update with a line through or note.
- Tell it how it is: If there are stories, images and/or videos being posted, mixed-mashed, photoshopped or damaged report those findings in ways that could have a false representation of the event that actually took place.
- Disclosure: Avoid letting advertisers influence content. If a company is paying for posts, that needs to be disclosed.
- Ego: Don’t ever begin to believe that you’re better, smarter or more priveledged than your audience. They will see it as arrogance and you will lose them, quickly. Your fans are everything. without them, you’d be nothing.
- Minimize harm: Don’t call names. Have integrity and credibility.
- Honest and Fair: Don’t plagiarize; link to where you get your ideas
- Be accountable: Treat others how you wish to be treated, have a mission, admit to mistakes and typos, be wary of doing favors for advertisers so they don’t influence the content.
If most bloggers or journalists lived by Sarah’s code of ethics, there would be more accurate information dissemination and less spread of gossip and rumor.
Sarah is founder of the Pop17 vlog, which some more seasoned journalist might dismiss as fluff. I find Sarah’s approach refreshing and her on-air demeanor to be perky and endearing. That she applies a reasonably good code of ethics to her work is all the better.
Editor’s Note: This post was moved to joewilcox.com from oddlytogether.com on Sept. 27, 2010.