I was working on a class assignment podcast that I turned into a round-table discussion with professors about the ethics of having an opinion while being a journalist. You can hear it here: utexaspodcasts.com
Anyway, the question I came away with after this is one people have been grappling with since new media came around - does the blog/podcast media almost demand that journalists express opinions in order for them to work? And if so, how does that mesh with our often very strict rules about ethics. If you talk to the old guard it seems like many think its a slippery slope that will eventually ruin the credibility of the mainstream media, turning us all in Perez Hilton. Me, I don't know. I'm very wary though.
Mostly, I'm just cruising the web and trying to figure out what I think. Here's some links I'm perusing right now.
Here's what Poynter came up with on online ethics code at their conference.
(if you don't look at Poynter regularly, I strongly recommend it. Even if you don't agree with everything or anything, the thoughts bouncing around that site are great)
Here is the traditional Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
And if you're interested, here's a little something from a Poynter writer about when it's okay to retract something from the Web: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=129083
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
What this is all about
This blog aims to look at the place new media and internet politics, knowledge and issues have in the lives of the student journalist.
We are the foreguard in a new wave of media — one of the first generations of recent J school graduates who will help define what journalism becomes over the next decades.
Some say the newspaper is dead — I don't believe that's true, at least not yet. What I do believe is that we are treading a very fine line.
How do we move forward as writers in a world that doesn't want to read a 60-inch front page article when it can read a 6-inch blurb on the Web? A world that would rather read Perez Hilton daily than read the New York Times daily — A world where it seems very few people — even those within the system — believe that the daily newspaper is a viable, long term model for success
So where do we go from here?
Do we have a duty to completely adapt to the public's wants? Or do we have a duty to maintain a certain standard, putting our faith in the hope that as the internet age continues, people will relearn a desire to read the newspaper.
I think there are some changes that can be made to the system, but I am very cautious about it - where are the lines we draw in the sand on these issues? They seem to disappear whenever waves of new technology wash up on shore.
I'm not here to pass judgement. As a student, I'm open to almost all these new ideas (or at least the idea of many of these ideas for new media and Web journalism.) And maybe that's the place of the student journalist — some of us will try new things and fail miserably because people aren't ready for such radical changes as a return to activist journalism or else throwing out the idea of objectivism in favor or blogging, but maybe one or two of us will figure out a solid path for the rest.
Nuts and bolts, this blog will be about developments in the field, and things I learn, hear and ponder in my journalism classes at a major university with a prestigious journalism program.
Enjoy!
Jackie
We are the foreguard in a new wave of media — one of the first generations of recent J school graduates who will help define what journalism becomes over the next decades.
Some say the newspaper is dead — I don't believe that's true, at least not yet. What I do believe is that we are treading a very fine line.
How do we move forward as writers in a world that doesn't want to read a 60-inch front page article when it can read a 6-inch blurb on the Web? A world that would rather read Perez Hilton daily than read the New York Times daily — A world where it seems very few people — even those within the system — believe that the daily newspaper is a viable, long term model for success
So where do we go from here?
Do we have a duty to completely adapt to the public's wants? Or do we have a duty to maintain a certain standard, putting our faith in the hope that as the internet age continues, people will relearn a desire to read the newspaper.
I think there are some changes that can be made to the system, but I am very cautious about it - where are the lines we draw in the sand on these issues? They seem to disappear whenever waves of new technology wash up on shore.
I'm not here to pass judgement. As a student, I'm open to almost all these new ideas (or at least the idea of many of these ideas for new media and Web journalism.) And maybe that's the place of the student journalist — some of us will try new things and fail miserably because people aren't ready for such radical changes as a return to activist journalism or else throwing out the idea of objectivism in favor or blogging, but maybe one or two of us will figure out a solid path for the rest.
Nuts and bolts, this blog will be about developments in the field, and things I learn, hear and ponder in my journalism classes at a major university with a prestigious journalism program.
Enjoy!
Jackie
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