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.