Comments on: 6 steps to make blogs ethical

By: nkb4

nkb4 — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:54:58 +0000

Very true – you both make good points. I think we all just need to be responsible for ensuring our own blogs are ethical. Supporting other ethical bloggers too will hopefully spread the success and the non-ethical bloggers will change their ways.

By: Jason C

Jason C — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:47:51 +0000

The idea about being unable to enforce this code is also an idea that I really like. If a blogger belongs to an ethical society than they essentially paying more the follow the rules than they are to actually take part in the medium. That just sounds absurd and completely against the whole idea of being a blogger.

By: KC Cowen

KC Cowen — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:22:34 +0000

I don’t think that bloggers would respond particularly well to these rules. The characteristics of a blogger: individualist, non-conformist, anti-establishment, self-starter, would probably have a hard time with adhering to and responding to the phrase “set of rules”. But I think that the phrasing “code of ethics” may prove to be easier for these bloggers to shallow. It will be difficult to transition over from a laissez-faire attitude to restrictions and enforcements being implemented on their creative works. Only time will tell if a code of ethics is possible…

By: khairup

khairup — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:13:39 +0000

Sorry for coming in so late into the discussion.

Good post! When I read the 6 steps, like most others here, I think most of the bloggers already follow that rule. Just as they don’t have many incentives to keep up their ethical behavior, they don’t have incentives to not be ethical either. I think bloggers that are popular also set standards for other blogs to follow and most popular blogs follow these rules already. I think, if popular blogs follow these rules, newer blogs that want to gain a considerable audience will follow their example.

By: nkb4

nkb4 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:16:48 +0000

You all make some good points. I think it’s beneficial to the online world to spread the news of this code of ethics, however it definitely isn’t possible to monitor it. There will always be more ethical, respected and trustworthy blogs than others and nothing can be done about that – I probably speak for all of us when I say, I definitely won’t trust a blog unless they cite and link their sources. They simply aren’t credible without doing that.

Since we can’t control it, the best thing we can do is give our “business” to the ethical blogs and write our own blogs how we want others to be written as well.

Thanks for all your comments!

By: noltes2

noltes2 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:01:14 +0000

I also agree that bloggers that already have built up a following do follow these standards. It would be interesting to ask those bloggers what their guidelines are and if they mention what they are to their readers. It’s fair to say that if their were a hoax website full of believable lies some would buy it, but the great majority (like what we discussed regarding Wiki’s) would point out it’s falsity. It’s our obligation as bloggers to do that.

By: noltes2

noltes2 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:58:36 +0000

There are so many different types of blogs out there I think it would be difficult to ask that anyone holding a blog to join an ethical organization, such as PRSA. There are two ways to ensure legitimacy: joining an organization that regulates for you, or following certain guidelines as the one’s you listed above. The downfall to a volunteer basis, is it’s hard to ensure “everyone” follows the guidelines, so it would still be hard to determine who’s credible and who’s not…

By: paks2008

paks2008 — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:45:26 +0000

I agree with the statement that the fact that “the greatest strength of the Internet is that it is uncensored, unmediated and uncontrolled. But that is also it’s greatest weakness.” When people are able to just say whatever they want online without worrying about the repercussions, it’s enough to make anybody even a bit skeptical about what they read. The rules stated here are pretty much common sense. I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to ask of bloggers to follow such rules. It’s the responsible thing to do.

By: kendra4

kendra4 — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:05:53 +0000

I agree with Jason concerning his “hang up” — most people that want to be considered good bloggers already take these necessary precautions. This leads to my next point, there is no way to enforce a code of ethics but on a volunteer basis (unless you work for a company or corporation that does enforce guidelines of what they publish), so how do we police individuals that do no follow the code? Why would we try to implement a code of ethics if there is no way to actual enforce them, besides maybe that person’s audience would be smaller than others??

By: Jason C

Jason C — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:46:49 +0000

I think that most bloggers who are concerned with being valuable members of the reporting community mostly already do this. That is probably my hang up with this whole code of ethics. People should be free to make the decision for themselves. If they want to be seen as legitimate than they should already be doing these things. However, they should not be forced to live up to a written standard. After all tabloid newspaper have just as much readership as regular newspapers and they a spouting complete lies. Its kind of like the “invisible hand” theory of economics, the system will work itself out.