Howdy fellow bloggers,
What I understand from this article is that blogging is a powerful tool of freedom of expression that has inspired millions of ordinary people. Regular people take in and utilize information and consequently become energetic participants in a new kind of journalism - as referred to by US blog pioneer Dan Gillmor; “grassroots journalism… by the people, for the people.” (See weblog ‘We The Media’ By Dan Gillmor).
Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where mainstream media is censored or covered up. However, bloggers provide independent news at the risk of offending or jeopardizing the government and occasionally risking arrest. Plenty of bloggers have been persecuted or thrown in prison. A perfect example of this is blogger; Arash Sigarchi - who was sentenced to 14 years in jail for posting several messages online that criticised the Iranian regime. His story illustrates how some bloggers see what they do as a duty or obligation to their readers, not just a hobby.
However, in terms of guidelines and ethics - I feel that credibility is earned by being credible, not by following guidelines. The internet is available to everyone and it is up to the reader to determine who has a valid point or not. Standards or guidelines are meaningless - readers will determine who is credible or not on their own, ethical standards, not by a bunch of guidelines.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Sarah.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the notion that blogs should be considered credible based on credibility and that it is on the onus for the individual to determine what information contains validity or not. However, i'd like to put to you, what if a blog SEEMS credible or valid but is not? The internet caters for a majority who are not educated in academia who cannot usually differentiate between gray areas or loopholes in information on blogs. Not everyone is educated on how to pick up fallacious information or propaganda.
For example, some blogs and their content seem to be steeped in Chinese whisper-like information. This blog cites information from that blog which cites information from their blog and so on. Moreover, as you backtrack through all these blogs you'd find that the blog with the original post has been totally distorted. The TRUTH has been distorted which is a scary thought.
Therefore, as professional journalism has ethical standards so should citizen journalism. I think all citizen journalism information needs to be VERIFIABLE. Any commentary needs to be acknowledged. For example, a subjective commentary should not be written as if it is part of the information or in the third person - but written in the first person so that the reader can understand that the person writing is expressing their opinion. If not, all information as well as arguments should be free from fallacy, error and not mislead. Blog writers should aim to be honest, responsible, fair, accurate and non-discriminatory. They definetly should NOT plagiarise. Respect personal privacy. Moreover, they should be independent and if they have commercial considerations (including advertising) they should be disclaimed. Moreover, they should not let their commercial considerations pose a conflict of interest to their content.
So, what do you think now?
Luke (aka Klaus)