With Great Blogging Comes Great Responsibility
by Ewan Spence
Anyone follow Formula One? Last month there was an Arbitration/Court case regarding McLaren and Ferrari, and corporate espionage regarding the design of the McLaren car. The actual mechanics of the case aren’t important for this article – what is important is how the result was announced. Because the majority of online websites and Formula 1 blogs somehow managed to jump the gun and while they got the verdict right, they all managed to enhance the punitive punishment given to McLaren.
The power of blogging, especially in covering news and current affairs, carries a great responsibility. In the case of this news, most of the news and blog sites received the first rumours of McLaren being excluded – the main news sites (such as the BBC) held off until the official statement regarding the case; the internet news sites and blogs all jumped on the ‘scoop’ and went ahead with the wrong verdict. And once one site had published the wrong news, every other site took that as the starting gun, and that was that. Confusion reigned for the next hour.
The Internet is one of the fastest reacting media there has ever been – the competitive blogosphere even more so. Within minutes, a message can go from one single website to being public knowledge around the world, with real-world effects. A recent spoofed message from an alleged Apple employee led to a story appearing on a leading gadgets weblog that caused a marked (albeit temporary) depression in Apple’s stock on Wall Street. As with any news, the headlines get a huge amount of coverage, the retraction garners one line on del.icio.us.
As the idea of citizen journalism becomes more accepted, and “news†can be posted with words, pictures and video from mobile phone handsets around the world, the news sites are under constant pressure to scoop each other. In a world where reputations can be made by getting the first post by just a few seconds, the ethos and ethics of strong fact checking, legal advice, and robust editorial guidelines that are present in old media may not be translating into the new world.
It’s the responsibility of everyone on the web to take care what they post, be responsible, realize that the ability of the web to touch everyone is a strength and a weakness in the same breath.
