Notes from discussion after the jump...

Neal: Don’t think is there is a difference in ethics for on-line versus print journalism. Problem is a rush to publish. Don’t always check all sources. Copyrights and plagiarism is a big problem on-line, definitely needs to be addressed.

Klein: No. Agreed there is no difference in ethics. Speed to publication can cause a problem. 24 hour ad cycle, not news cycle.

Scanlan: Agrees. Difference is mechanical vs. electronic. Ethics are things not covered by law. The questions that arise, plagiarism, etc. is so easy. Don’t willfully plagiarize, but there for the grace of God go I. It can happen. One ethical dilemma, story written about an alleged crime but never reported the accused was acquitted. What to do?

Students: Some say yes, write an updated story. Some say no.

Neal: Discussed managing anonymous sources and commenters on blogs and newspaper web-sites. It can be a full time job. Must be very careful.

Klein: Need to always have a URL to reference a quote used.

Neal: Gave an instance to an entry on Mountain Top Removal where the poster referenced back to his blog and not West Virginia Public Radio. Even though the poster did reference West VA PR on his site. TennViews received an email from West VA PR asking for a reference.

Scanlan: Twin perils in writing. Fabrication. Has cost many writers their jobs. John Hersey (?) wrote an essay blasting new journalism. The responsibility to professors is to do more than say never plagiarize. Must teach how to avoid it. More news organizations are footnoting (source notes) on-line. Wall Street Journal started it after 9/11 when writing about the demise of the twin towers. Try to balance accuracy and storytelling. Use a footnote if it is not intuitive.

Klein: Attribution tags. Where to place, how much to include.

Scanlan: Article versus a story. Writers concern about speed bumps. Lose continuity when have too many footnotes, attribution tags. Doing the right thing. Give credit when it is due.

Keith: Never differentiated between articles and stories.

A bit of discussion back and forth between articles/stories and attribution.

Audience: Privacy question re something specific reported on the web.

Scanlan: Servicing the higher purpose can outweigh the individual’s privacy, the individual’s need. Do no harm, but who is harmed?

Oleg from Belarus, visitor from former Soviet Union Republic in audience: Government try to control traditional media. Speed of development of web journalism, traditional or non. A source to express yourself. Government tries to discredit web journalism. Web journalism declines. No checks and balances. Russian President defined WWW as World Wide Garbage Box. To some extent it is true. How in these countries can they ensure the quality of web journalism?

Klein: Responsibility is mutual. Responsibility is that of consumer and the producers.

Neal: Blogs are self-correcting. Proactive in the peer review system through the self-policing.

Scanlan: Take that refuse/waste and recycle to make items of value. Teach ethical decision making as a process. Maybe someone needs to be the champion to help the industry move along, show the mistakes.

Visitor: So your solution is about individual self responsibility. Speaking about certain cultures and society. Something about 5,000 participants (protesters?). 1) People should self police but can they? 2) Very difficult to push a code of ethics. 3) Legislative changes very difficult. Web journalist not recognized as media. These 3 mechanisms do not work so affectively as in the US.

Audience: Isn’t what the visitor speaking of is the same thing as what the US went through when we were trying to break away from England? Many people were writing papers to pursue freedom that were not journalists.

Scanlan: He cannot speak for people are under a regime such as how the visitor’s live.

Audience (McNair): On-line content, privacy lines to worry about? Facebook, MySpace, pictures, etc.

Klein: Limits of on-line are attention span.

Scanlan: His daughter’s MySpace account talked about their family, uncles, etc. Asked his daughter if she really wanted them to see this stuff.

Neal: People are voluntarily giving up their privacy. It's a problem in society. When you scan your credit card or grocery discount card, they track everything you buy and sell it to other companies. Same thing with Facebook and Myspace. Younger generation not so concerned. Older generations more concerned about privacy and safety of financial info.

Audience: Is anything on the internet fair game as a news story?

Scanlan: Doesn’t know.

Klein: You are who you tell the world you are on-line.

How many Facebook accounts in the room? 30-50%
How many consider what to leave out? About half.

Audience: You can’t necessarily control what others put on-line about you. E.g. Guiliani’s daughter.

Audience( Harmon): Commenting on articles may be cause of less internal introspection of what we do?

Scanlan: He doesn’t think comments negatively affect writing.

Neal: Has seen McElroy at the Sentinel react to comments. That is a good thing. It is making the newspaper better.

Audience: Justifying what put on MySpace. As people grow and change their entries will get more mature (?).

Audience (Dorothy): Always has been distinct separation between editorial and advertising. It seems like that is changing. Like they are working together more. Is this an ethics issue?

Neal: Press-release journalism.

Klein: Needs to be a dialogue between the two in order to survive.

Audience (Dorothy): It seems to be more of a problem where editorials and advertising mix. More of a problem with web journalism. Not such a problem with respectable publications.