Net News Ethics
Online Journalism Review:
“http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?ID=643″>A Scorecard for Net News
Ethics. This piece was published on 9/20 in the wake of the
WTC/Pentagon attacks. It doesn’t address weblogs specifically, but
it’s great reading for anyone interested in the idea of weblogs making
the leap from homepage to news journalism.
I think the type of news reporting seen happening on weblogs can be
roughly defined as “nonlinear reporting.” In my short experience with
news writing, news traditionally goes through a multistep process on
its way to the public:
1. Initial report
2. Confirmation
3. Verification (fact-checking)
4. Composition (writing)
5. Editorial review
6. Publication
7. Clarification (or in some cases, Retraction)
A weblog allows a writer to go immediately from Step 1 to Step 6
(stopping briefly at Step 4) without the benefit (or in some people’s
view, hindrance) of the intermediate steps. Publication usually
happens immediately after the Initial Report, with the other steps
only occuring when readers begin to respond, assuming there’s a method
of response. I have to agree with
“http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001 00:00:00 AM/10/11/232538/32″>Rusty’s
sentiment that highly collaborative nature of sites like
“http://www.metafilter.com”>MetaFilter and
“http://www.kuro5hin.org”>kuro5hin help solidify the “trust”
factor of those sites by drawing upon the resources and knowledge of
the community to verify or challenge the postings.
A lot of attention has been focused on weblogs “scooping” the
traditional news outlets. True, word travels faster in cyberspace
without all that pesky fact-checking and review, so it’s hard for me
to see this as a good thing beyond Step 1. But that’s not to say
weblogs can’t improve as credible news sources. Weblogs are already
faster; can they become better?
On a related note,
“http://a.wholelottanothing.org/archived.blah/10/01/2001 00:00:00 AM/#703″>Matt is
a bit upset to be quoted out of context in this
“http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-000081859oct14.story”>LA
Times article on weblogs. It sounds like the reporter had already
came to a conclusion and was simply looking for facts to support
her view. See, even Big Media can’t be trusted.
This will probably be my last mini-treatise on weblogs for awhile, as
I have stuff to do and some people seem to believe I’ve declared a
weblog jihad. The first meeting of the Silicon Valley
is taking place this coming Tuesday.
Previously: “Constrained” by Objectivity