Bloggers should grow up and implement a code of ethics

A long, long time ago, blogs were born as a way for people to create online diaries and provide intricate details into who they were dating or what they had for lunch that day. Now, blogs are ubiquitous and are written about every topic under the sun. And like all young children that reach adolescence, they become a little bit ornery and rebellious. Parents establish guidelines to keep their teenagers in check and out of trouble. Nobody wants to hear about the police picking up their child, or lawyers calling bloggers to say “You’ve been served” with a libel lawsuit. And so, that’s why there needs to be a code of ethics established in the blogosphere.

 

1. What happens when your child, a student, copies another person’s work, or publishes something false on a research paper? If they get caught, they could face disciplinary actions for plagiarism or falsifying research material. These penalties follow that student from the classroom to the boardroom or newsroom. Bloggers’ big daddy, the journalists, have to follow these rules, or else suffer the consequences, which could be getting fired. So blogs acting as journalists need to develop the same set of guiding principles that other journalistic organizations follow.

2.When youngsters get upset at something, they may not know how to accurately air their complaints. They may yell, scream, or lash out for the wrong reasons. Forbes discussed how attack blogs can go a bit beyond their civil scope:

A supposed crusading journalist launched an online campaign long on invective and wobbly on facts, posting articles on his Web log (blog) calling Halpern “deceitful,””unethical,””incredibly stupid” and “a pathological liar” who had misled investors.

Bloggers need to show transparency when they go “on the attack” of whatever issue they find discomfort with.

3. Finally, the last point doesn’t necessarily deal with ethics as much as it deals with legitimacy. Every teen wants to prove to their parents that they are going to follow in mom and dad’s footsteps, or even do better. For example, parents love when their child brings home A’s on the report card – it shows that their son or daughter is going to make it in this brutish world. So if bloggers are going to demand that they are considered the “press” and fall under the 1st Amendment protections, then they need to step up and show their parents, the journalists, that they will adhere to the same standards that newswriters must pursue. First Amendment Center.org brings up this discussion.

We all want to see blogs succeed. It is absolutely wonderful that millions of Americans have taken to blogs to provide insights and examples into whatever issue they fancy. But life is not so simple. You don’t just get behind a car and start driving; you have to learn how to do it properly. There are traffic signs and laws in place so that drivers do not cause unnecessary harm to others. This is the same as what is needed by bloggers – a code of ethics in place so that our young adults can be honest, rebellious and free, but also have the ability to grow gracefully with age.

Questions:

1. How can bloggers differentiate their code of ethics from journalists?

2. As blogs become engrained in peoples’ daily lives, how can the education system teach subjects like libel, defamation, copyright violations, etc.?