Online Media Ethics

Advertising continuously poses new and unclear ethical problems in new media. Lately, the focus has been primarily on how to generate revenue effectively online without sacrificing journalists’ highly valued and often elusive “street cred.” In a recent posting on Poynter.org’s Biz Blog entitled “Paying for the News: Five Seeds for the Future of Journalism,” Rick Edmonds discussed how journalism could continue thriving for the next five years. Unsurprisingly, two of the five elements in achieving a lasting success have posed major ethical dilemmas in the online medium, which, as the newest mode of journalistic communication, is still a largely untested and unknown venue. The first recommendation affecting particularly the online medium is to collaborate and partner, the second suggestion is to target and customize.
To collaborate and partner with other organizations, newsgathering or otherwise, inherently raises issues because a chief duty noted in the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics, along with most in-house newsroom guidelines, is to act independently. This proposition would allow other organizations to originate content that would appear on a news outlet’s page. This is not a simple matter of linking to more information on another site, but of putting essentially foreign content, possibly complete pieces, on a web site to allow for advertising success. Edmunds asked, “Can you capture the benefits of commercial and content collaboration without losing essential journalistic independence?” the answer is a resounding “no.” Perhaps a more realistic and permissible option would be to go through a company that recommended businesses that were willing to pay for placement. However, every posting made with origins like these would have to be prominently labeled as such advertising, and if money is the primary focus, the ratio of this ad content will be competing with the outlet’s actual journalism. This suggestion has the potential to irreparably harm journalism because it risks any and all remaining credibility.
The second disconcerting suggestion is to target and customize advertising to the reader, similar to social networking sites. Most major media outlets should be concerned with who is reading their coverage, however there is not a broad enough spectrum of readership to apply this properly. Mass media is targeted, generally, at adults with steady incomes and homes, not teenagers or college kids, who are genuinely interested, but normally not considered major news consumers. Additionally, when advertising is set to match story topics or site sections, there is likely to be less trust given by the reader because the content is being obviously monitored and dictated to make money, and not to necessarily distribute news. If readers could choose to see or hear about events, businesses and services, there would be more transparency and therefore more believability.
Overall, journalists should be less concerned with making profits from advertising, and focusing more on delivering the news. Journalism is a business, but sacrificing credibility and transparency to stay afloat will only have increasingly detrimental and adverse effects. Working to become credible through new media will pay off far more than spending time on ad schemes.

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Podcasts

Three podcasts to which I subscribe and usually enjoy are National Public Radio's "This American Life", Discovery Channel Video Podcast, and The Onion Radio News. Each of these blogs works as a medium because they have specific functions, but can be taken in at leisure.

"This American Life" highlights American culture, human stories and things that cross most people's minds but are rarely discussed otherwise. It's an in-depth look at a weekly topic, whether the episode is about discovering real-life tales of twins switched at birth or subscribers to Modern Jackass. Because it's a lengthy program, clocking in at about an hour every week, it's easiest for me to catch as a podcast.

The Discovery Channel's video podcast "FYI" is a series devoted to making major historical events, scientific occurrences or places into bite-sized videos. It's a great way to pick up facts and broaden one's worldview. I subscribe to it because I always end up learning something without having to watch a two-hour special, and I'm also terrified that I will forget all of those little random things that I learned in elementary school. It's sort of a highlights reel of topics like the construction of Pyramids, the history of the Eiffel Tower, meteor impacts or even the evolution of mosquitos.

There is very little that I find more satisfying than satirical coverage from America's Finest News Source, The Onion. Fake news that can simultaneously be cruel, hilarious and telling, is a definite pick-me-up for those who both follow and are fed up with actual news.

Podcasts are an increasingly valid form of expression because technologically savvy audiences only want to listen to what interests them. It allows for a customization of received information based on individual tastes. If a user likes a specific anchor's newscast, or an opinion writer's voice, he can choose to hear or watch information from that one outlet. This poses a risk for journalists overall, because people can choose celebrity gossip over news that directly affects their world. Better, more interesting coverage is necessary to convey information that is comparably less sexy than what the Jonas Brothers ate for breakfast.

Bloggers v. Journalists

To say that all bloggers are journalists is like saying that all quadrilaterals are squares. Without being too technical or geometric, certainly some quadrilaterals are squares, but some are rectangles, some are trapezoids, or parallelograms, and the list goes on. Simply because someone publishes words, or, in any case, makes them public, that does not make them a journalist. The main difference between a journalist and the everyday blogger is the purpose in sharing the published information. According to Poynter ethicist Bob Steele, the principles of journalists are to seek the truth and report it as fully as possible, to act independently and to minimize harm. There are certainly some bloggers who adhere to this set of ethical codes, or ones similar to it, but many self-published commentators are not concerned with reaching mass audiences or how their postings are perceived by the public.

Blogs have a unique accessibility because they are readily available and give every writer a chance to voice their positions, perceptions and ideas, with the possibility of an audience. Traditional journalism, however, prizes a lack of bias and strives for balance in storytelling, having a particular focus on not only telling both sides of a story, but all sides. Blogging allows for commentary, editorializing and utter disregard for any point of view aside from that of the writer.

Blogger and journalist Chad Graham writes for The Arizona Republic and blogs for its online business section. Graham said that the best thing about blogs is that they have the space and license to offer analysis and some opinion, without being a full-on editorial. "Journalism is becoming more opinionated overall, and readers want that," Graham said. He views the average blogger, that is one unattached to a mass medium, more as a commentator as opposed to a journalist, unless that blogger is collecting and reporting original news.

Mass media employing blogs as a new form of communication to online users becomes useful for breaking news and more entertainment and features-minded coverage, both of which are suited to smaller posts and frequent updates. Because they are using blogs within their sites, which also posts traditional articles, ethics are more important than ever for major newspapers and television stations that have web sites. Separating themselves from bloggers without ethical codes is paramount to remaining trusted news outlets.

Based on the precedent set when video blogger Josh Wolf was held in prison for refusing to give up tapes of a violent protest that he shot, bloggers who do not have a major company backing them are not journalists. Taking pictures, video or any other type of recording and posting or commenting on it does not make someone a journalist. Therefore, not all journalists are bloggers, and certainly not all bloggers are journalists.