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  Anonymous Coward, 5 Jun 2003 @ 5:01pm

  
  

  Cuts both ways

  It could be that ethical standards of traditional media declined in the first place because the internet made profit margins slimmer, and media is under pressure to cut costs.
  
  For now, bloggers are patting themselves on the back for playing the watch dog/underdog role, but we'll see what happens when people start performing conspiracies by blogging -- e.g. a journalist who did quote correctly is accused by multiple bloggers of misquoting.
  

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    Mike (profile), 5 Jun 2003 @ 5:03pm

    
    

    Re: Cuts both ways

    Absolutely. But, hopefully, any such mischaracterization on either side will get called out quickly.
    
    It's certainly not a perfect way of doing things, but it's more likely to get out the full story.

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      Anonymous Coward, 5 Jun 2003 @ 5:10pm

      
      

      Re: Cuts both ways

      >Absolutely. But, hopefully, any such mischaracterization on either side will get called out quickly.< br>>It's certainly not a perfect way of doing things, but it's more likely to get out the full story.
      
      I'm not so sure. If the story takes place in a setting that is difficult to verify, it's easy for bloggers to make up a "full story". It will be easy for professional propagandists to infiltrate the web culture and make up realistic-sounding stories. We may be entering an era of a credibility crisis, in which nobody is trusted to have an objective view.
      

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        Mike (profile), 5 Jun 2003 @ 5:52pm

        
        

        Re: Cuts both ways

        I'm not so sure. If the story takes place in a setting that is difficult to verify, it's easy for bloggers to make up a "full story". It will be easy for professional propagandists to infiltrate the web culture and make up realistic-sounding stories. We may be entering an era of a credibility crisis, in which nobody is trusted to have an objective view.
        
        Well, that's exactly the point, isn't it? If the story is difficult to verify, then it raises doubts.

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  • 

    Anonymous Coward, 5 Jun 2003 @ 5:06pm

    
    

    Fake photos too

    Back during the Yugoslav conflict, a British journalist took a picture of a Bosnian heroin addict through the fence of a chicken coop and called it a "concentration camp photo", leading Western nations to anti-Serbian frenzy. Future bloggers will have all the more opportunities to make fake photos that "expose" whatever.
    

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  Sue, 6 Jun 2003 @ 9:51am

  
  

  Reporting truth

  I've been a journalist for almost 20 years now (eek!). Most of the people I know TRY to be as accurate and truthful as possible, but there's a lot of time pressure, scoop pressure, financial pressure and managers who loves young go-getters. Unfortunately there's very little nurturing, mentoring, dues paying or ethical discussions until something like Jayson Blair happens.

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