Right before and after launching this SUGAR SHOCK! Blog in early June, I’ve become impassioned and incredibly curious about this mode of communicating and informing folks via daily Internet posts.
A blog such as this one is a living, breathing (so to speak) Internet entity that far surpasses the capabilities of my websites, such as my two-year-old SugarShock.com.
Lately, as I’ve been reading fellow bloggers’ posts, I"ve been thinking a lot about the bloggers. What’s their education? What drives them? How accurate are they? Do they link freely to sources? Where do they get their information? Are they ethical?
Well, thanks to Blogcritics.org, I learned about an interesting new Ethics In Blogging study just released by three undergrads from the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
The student researchers surveyed 1,000-plus bloggers via e-mail. In particular, they examined the following ethical issues:
- Truth-telling
- Accountability
- Minimizing harm
- Attribution
Interestingly, the last time I pondered the subject of ethics in depth was while taking an ethics in journalism class while getting my master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. That fascinating course helped pave the way for a course I’ve since followed — I always aim to be accurate, accountable, honest, newsworthy, and full of integrity. I’m also fastidious and bordering on compulsive to make sure my facts are correct. And I always give credit where it’s due. They deserve it.
One thought on “Ethics in Blogging Survey”
This was very interesting — and I think most bloggers strive to properly attribute their information. I personally have edited many of my posts based on feedback that I found was inaccurate. I have a very visible disclaimer that makes it clear I’m not anyone special 🙂 — just someone reading the news and making a note of it. The greatest issue for me is time pressure — just not enough time to do anything justice!
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