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Online content: when to change?

August 29, 2007 in ethics, Learn

I’ve written previously about the rising numbers of people who are coming back to college media outlets asking for removal of information contained in online archives (see the 2006 edition of Keeping Free Presses Free). I also wrote about a possible solution for those folks (see online identity management). Now, Online Journalism Review has posted an article by a college media adviser about this issue: Rewriting history: Should editors alter or delete online content?

My answer: It depends, as I explain below.

Below the fold, I’m including part of the Keeping Free Presses Free article entitled “Legal and Ethical Issues in Online Journalism,” for further information. I don’t think the publication is online.

Read the rest of this entry →

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Online identity management and college media

July 2, 2007 in ethics, Learn, management

Judging from frequent posts to the CMA listserv, more and more former students are attempting to get college media outlets to remove news items from their online archives. The Washinton Post may have pointed out a way for college media to divert those requests with an article about online reputation management firms: Calling in pros to refine your Google image.

Google’s ubiquity as a research tool has given rise to a new industry: online identity management. The proliferation of blogs and Web sites can allow angry clients, jealous lovers or ruthless competitors to define a person’s identity. Whether true or not, their words can have far-reaching effects.

Charging anything from a few dollars to thousands of dollars a month, companies such as International Reputation Management, Naymz and ReputationDefender don’t promise to erase the bad stuff on the Web. But they do assure their clients of better results on an Internet search, pushing the positive items up on the first page and burying the others deep.

The most frequent reason former students seek out the campus press is because of what I’ll politely term “youthful indiscretions” that show up in police blotter stories. Five years away from college, these former students find that those police blotter items show up high in search engine results.

From various discussions, it’s pretty clear that student media outlets aren’t going to erase history, so the only real avenue for change would be for these individuals to push the offending item farther down in the search results by getting online and becoming more of a digital presence – through their own web sites, comments on weblogs, and social networking sites. There’s nothing inherently wrong with trying to ensure that relevant, current information shows up at the top when people search your name.

So next time someone asks you to remove something from the digital archives, after you decline their request, you might point them to this article from the Post, which can help explain how they can manage their online identity.

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Talk about ethics

April 25, 2007 in blogging, ethics, Learn

Dr. Bob Carey at Digital Rangefinder brings up a great point about ethics that extends beyond the photojournalistic realm where he’s focused: We have to talk about them for them to become shared practice.

So if you’re working at a newspaper, magazine, a wire service, or a student; talk to your colleagues and professors about ethics. Ask what is acceptable and if you are walking in the gray zone.

I think the main point Bob is making (read the rest of his blog post) is that talking about ethics shouldn’t be something we just do in a “training session” or in a classroom at the end of the senior year. We should talk about ethical decisions in the same environment where we talk about headline type, ledes and story ideas. Not necessarily a “web-centric” focus here, but certainly something that we need to discuss as we’re utilizing the web more and more.

UPDATE: I just saw this again at Journalistopia, and it’s worth a read: Journalism ethics in an understandable nutshell.

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Ohio U. Blogging & Online Journalism Ethics conference

April 7, 2006 in Conferences, ethics

Today, I’m in Ohio. The keynote speaker, Dan Gillmor, is about to speak. You can watch a video of his speech here

I’ll have more to say later.

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Interactivity and the great unknown

January 25, 2006 in ethics, industry news

For those who aren’t aware of the case, the Washington Post’s online division experienced firsthand the curse of interactivity recently. A report on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer lays out the details and features an interview with washingtonpost.com executive editor Jim Brady.

Here’s part of Brady’s response:

I think basic rules of decency is what we’re looking for: No profanity, no personal attacks. Don’t pose as somebody else when you put your name on the site. Just follow the basic rules, and if you follow those basic rules, you can attack the Post and its journalism as much as you’d like. We’re just asking you to try and stay civil and because a lot of people want to participate in civil debates, and the minute they see name calling, they think, why am I here, I’m just going to go to somewhere else.

And we want The Washington Post Web site to be a place where people will have a conversation that discusses facts and doesn’t, you know, disintegrate into name calling and baiting in a sense.

New York blogger/media exec. Jeff Jarvis uses the Post’s experience to discuss interactivity.

Journalism Professor Jay Rosen has an interview with Brady as well, and an extensive round-up of other bloggers who commented on the issue in this weblog post .

How is the Post’s experience relevant to college media? Given the often shaky nature of student press rights, will interactivity invite more meddling by campus administrators?

I know that some college news sites have experimented with online forums (mostly unmoderated). Should blog comments be handled the same way? Should journalists respond to readers in the comments to a weblog post? What benefit is gained from allowing public comment on news stories? What costs?

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