Open Publishing - Ethics

Contents 1 Definition 2 Ethics in Online Journalism 3 Tips for Reporting 4 Ethical Issues 5 See Also 6 References 7 Contributor

Definition

Generally, ethics is the study of standard that we use to judge things, while morality is the right or wrong of actions, behaviors, or decision. Ethics is used to criticize, define, promote, justify, and suggest moral concepts and to answer questions which are related to morality. For example, it tells what are right and wrong, what should be done and what should not. People face ethical problems and decisions everyday with either conscious or unconscious (Newall 2005).

Ethics in Online Journalism

Ethic that is discussed here focus on journalistic ethics. Online journalism is the fourth journalism which has been developed after radio, television, and printed media due to the growing of the Internet. However, the speed and anonymity that provided by the Internet can “play fast and loose�? with the ethics in this field (Osborn 2001). There are few researchers has devoted to the issue as there are few pure online journalistic efforts exist, compared to the amount of trivia, entertainment, and personal communication etc. However, it is an important issue as everyone could be a writer online today. Weblogs and many virtual communities provide Internet users lots of chance to publish their ideas and information. As Osborn says (2001), “new forms of journalism require new approaches to ethics�?. Ethics in the online journalism need to be altered based on the current ethical concept. The global availability of the Internet makes the process harder since it requires a shared set of values among all the online users.

Tips for Reporting

In order to maintain credibility and hold on to self-respect, online journalists should report honestly and accurately. The following are tips (USC 2005) that help online writers to avoid illegal issues and unethical mistakes:

• No plagiarism: plagiarism includes cutting, pasting, and copying of articles and other file format such as audio and picture without referencing. Writher should put on a link or reference when using others’ works.
  

• Disclose: tell readers how the information comes from and how the decision has been made to publish can inform readers to understand what the writer has been influenced by.
  

• No gift or money for coverage: this is important as the outcome that has been paid is called advertisement, but not report. Journalists should not receive any money from source in order to avoid any possible derivative problems.
  

• Tell the truth: writers should check the information and make sure that the coverage is true and accurate before publishing. The source of ‘someone else’ is not believable, and con not considered to be a real data.
  

• Be honest: be honest and transparent can win readers trust, and therefore enhance the credibility.

Ethical Issues

Online journalists usually use hyperlink to show some information, or use the links as references. However, people question that should the links be provided if it is not fully investigated by news entity. There are many other this kind of online ethical issues that have been discussed by people today. Establishing a set of self-regulation and ethics is a big challenge faced by online journalism (Osborn 2001).

See Also

• Open Publishing - Blogging for Business
  
• Open Publishing - Online Journalism
  
• Open Publishing - Open Content
  
• Open Publishing - Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
  

References

Osborn, B. 2001. Ethics and credibility in online journalism. bradleyosborn.com/z/RESUME/academic/ethics_and_credibility_in_online_journalism.pdf (accessed October 26, 2005).

USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review. 2005. Ethics. www.ojr.org/ojr/wiki/ethics/ (accessed October 26, 2005).

Newall, P. 2005. Ethics. www.galilean-library.org/int11.html (accessed October 26, 2005).

Contributor

--Chih-Yen Li 02:42, 28 Oct 2005 (EST)