The New Rules of Journalism?
Friday, March 23, 2007
Amanda Congdon, ABCNews.com video blogger, was making headlines this week as controversy broke out about her other role as a spokesperson for Dupont in their “infotainmercial”. When folks questioned whether her dual partnership goes against the ethics of journalism, she asserted on her own personal blog that “under the "blogger" title… I am not subject to the "rules" traditional journalists have to follow.” Legally, in this case, she is in the clear. Both ABC and HBO – for which Congdon has a show in the works – approved the Dupont commercials. In Matea Gold’s article yesterday in the LA Times, Jeffrey Schneider, a spokesman for the ABC news division, explained that she is a contributing commentator and not a “journalist”, implying that she is not expected to be fair and neutral in her commentary on news. From a certain perspective, this rationale is sound. We as “non-journalists” are entitled to our opinions in our professions and, for the most part, our side projects are our own. However, from another perspective – the one that takes context and history into consideration – we have come to expect that our media, whether it be commentators or traditional journalists, are not to be bought or forced to report through ulterior motives. Congdon raises this issue in her blog, asking: “Isn’t that what new media is all about? Breaking the rules?” Perhaps some rules. The “new media” is online and it consists of blogs, commentators, and traditional print and broadcast media, which is still very much premature. Next to the journalists and media business executives, no one knows this reality better than us public relations practitioners. With this shift, news reporting will certainly experience a transformation. The expectations one has for ABCNews.com is completely different than those one has for their neighbors’ blogs. In essence, we expect all contributors of global authoritative sites like ABCNews.com to maintain the golden standard of neutrality, which involves being barred from accepting any form of inexplicit payments from corporate America. Yet Congdon’s affiliation with Dupont is not reflected on her ABCNews.com bio. If this core expectation is not met, then trust will be lost in the offending media. In the LA Times article, Jeff Jarvis, director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York's new Graduate School of Journalism, says it best: "Your readers and viewers are going to judge you and your credibility based on your actions and your transparency about them…A lot of the old rules are rules for a good reason." Labels: blog, new media
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