5 More Ethic Codes in the World of New Media

1.

“Do link back to Flickr when you post your Flickr content elsewhere.
The Flickr service makes it possible to post content hosted on Flickr to outside web sites. However, pages on other web sites that display content hosted on flickr.com must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on Flickr.”

──Flickr

Flickr has become one of the most popular website for people to share their photos. It's almost like Facebook's cousin in photography.

Unlike the traditional media, Flickr runs on content submitted by users. So Flickr's ethic codes are divided into "what to do" and "what not to do".

One of the unique ethic code for Flickr is that they emphasize that you should always link back to Flickr when you post your Flickr content elsewhere.

Posting and linking content from one site to another has never been easier. While the content still belong to the users who uploaded them in the first place, Flickr is the medium where those content stored and ultimately has become of a part of the whole package. So while users use the site, they should also follow this particular ethic code.

2.

Provide Context to Your Argument

──Yahoo! Personal Blog Guidelines: 1.0

Blogging is definitely the representative of new media. While most bloggers choose this medium because they are in control of what they say, they still are bound by some of the ethics. Like in the instance of Yahoo!, they paid special attention to the context of your argument.

Many readers might have no time to do a whole investigation into what you write about online, so the things you've written which lack adequate context to give the whole picture would easily mislead your readers.

3.

Be a Good Blogger

── American Red Cross

Online Communications Guidelines

Nowadays, many nonprofit organizations have incorporated new media into their daily operation. Like the American Red Cross, they have a set of special guidelines for online communications.

Among them, I found this "Be a good blogger" code especially interesting. What the Red Cross meant by being a blogger is that they want you to write interesting posts, and post regularly and show a unique personality. This is quite different from the traditional sense of a press ethic.

4.

Rec­og­nize that every­thing you write or receive on a social media site is pub­lic. Any­one with access to the web can get access to your activ­ity on social media sites. And regard­less of how care­ful you are in try­ing to keep them sep­a­rate, in your online activ­ity, your pro­fes­sional life and your per­sonal life overlap.

──NPR News’ social media policy

What the traditional press ethics told us is to draw a clear line of your work and personal life. However, with the introduction of social media, more and more private life of journalists are exposed to the public. And readers or listeners will link journalist's personal life and their working persona closely. So that's why NPR stressed that their journalists should watch out what they say on social media.

Actually this is one of the point that I have some question about. While journalists try to be objective in writing an article, they still have a life of their own. If journalists have to worry about what they say on social media will also affect their image and their organization's image, would it be too much burden and almost mission impossible?

5.

Avoid rais­ing ques­tions about your free­dom from bias

──Reuters’ social media guidelines

While journalists have long been taught that they should show no bias in their reporting, it's hard to conceal it with the introduction of social media. Because the main purpose of social media is to show who you are from what you put out on the internet.

So it's another big question for journalist living in the professional world and in the world of social media.