Ode to Blogging: The Good, The Bad, The Unethical
June 21, 2013
Ode to Blogging, the good blog, the bad blog, and the unethical blog. Individuals create blogs to convey their ideas, opinions, and passions. The content of an individual blog is usually designed around the author’s personal style, ideas, and at times their emotions (Handley & Chapman, 2012). So, what happens when an individual allows their emotions effect what is written on their blog? First let’s talk about the good blog.
When an individual writes a good blog, he or she takes responsibility for the content by demonstrating honesty, transparency, and respect for others (Tchividjian, 2009). The good blog speaks to its intended audience and creates a forum for discussion. It recognizes” the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or a television show may reach zero people or millions of people” (Gupta, 2011).
What constitutes a bad blog? A bad blog reflects its authors’ inability to capture the attention of its targeted audience. Either the blogs' author is nontransparent or the blogs content has no relevancy for its targeted audience. Even if the blogs author publishes a blog adhering to ethical writing practices such as being truthful, transparent, and respectful to others privacy, it also has to attract the attention of its targeted audience. In other words the bad Blog does not reach out and touch someone’s similar passion, so it just exists in cyberspace. For example, HubPages.com provided five examples of a bad blog; bad blog is an understatement, these five blog posts should go down in blog history as bad blogs gone ugly, uglier, and ugliest.
And finally, how do we describe the unethical blog? The contents may be an invasion of privacy and nobody wants their privacy invaded, not only is it unethical but, it can be harmful as well. When individuals publish information that is consider to be an invasion of privacy (intimate details of others) (Tchividjian, 2009) the posting of those intimate details can put them in harms way (Newser, 2013). For example, Blogger Christopher Fountain allowed his personal and/or political emotions affect his better judgment when he decided to post the home addresses and phone numbers of the 50 Journal News employees including the newspapers publisher Janet Hasson Blogger Posts Newspaper Staff Addresses over ‘Gun Map’ ( Newser, 2012). And if that wasn’t enough, Fountain “included Google Map shots of Hasson's house, complete with interior photos” (Newser, 2012). If Fountain’s initial intent was to generate some discussion regarding the current “Gun Control” controversy he certainly did just that; along with unethically invading the privacy of everyone depicted in his post. After all, if Fountain wanted to target a specific audience regarding “Gun Control” all he had to do was design a blog targeting people who share his opinions about “Gun Control”.
Just as it is important for an individual to make sure that their blog, and any social media publications for that matter, are following ethical guidelines, corporations hosting blogging sites and social media must have a code of ethics that they follow. Social networking sites “have been targeted, especially in mass media, as potential hosts for a broad spectrum of ‘cybercrimes,’” (Vallor, 2012) and many times the company does not have the proper security in place to protect its customers personal information. Also, companies like to share a person’s personal information under the auspices of giving them a more personal online experience, but when has the sharing of an individual’s information gone too far? Does the company have the right to send your personal likes and associations to other companies without your permission? Sadly, the answer is, yes they do. By using a social network, the user gives up certain freedoms for privacy to the control of the company they are using. The responsibility of the company to handle the individual’s private information needs to be taken seriously and acted upon with the utmost ethical behavior and guidelines.
A good corporation will treat a person’s personal information and rights to their intellectual property as they would want their own rights of privacy to be treated. Only worrying about the “bottom line” and ignoring the fact that a person might not want their likes, dislikes and personal information to be spread to affiliated companies is unethical and a spit in the eye of the customer. As well, an ethically sound company will not look upon a customer’s blog as an open door for the spread of links and pop-ups of material or merchandise. How a company treats its customer’s privacy and personal information is a direct reflection on the ethical soundness of the corporation and should be given the proper consideration, less they become the facilitators of negligent actions.
Weather it is an individual trying to spread their thoughts or a corporation trying to run a business involved in social media, a solid ethical foundation must be followed. The individual must make sure that they are truthful, transparent, and respectful and the corporation must insure that a person’s privacy is at the forefront of the companies inner-workings. It is easy to think that you are behind a vale of privacy when using social media, but what is said and done on the net can affect people. The bottom line is this, individuals and corporations should both adhere to ethical practices when posting information to their Blog or other online media vehicle of choice. So, go forth America and Blog; Blog to the east, Blog to the west, but Blog ethically, the entire world is watching.
References
Examples of a Bad Blog.
(2009). Retrieved from
http://zball24.hubpages.com/hub/10-examples-of-a-bad-blogGupta, S. (2011). Exploring Social Responsibility Through Social Media. Retrieved from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/71947164/exploring-social-responsibility-through-social-media
Pennock, T. (2009). Ethics and Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.ruderfinn.com/blogs/ethics/2009/07/ethics-and-social-media.html
Russell, M. (2012). http://zball24.hubpages.com/hub/10-examples-of-a-bad-blog. Retrieved from http://www.newser.com/story/159955/blogger-posts-newspaper-staff-addresses-over-gun-map.html
Global Media Journal: Indian Edition, 1-15.
Vallor, Shannon, "Social Networking and Ethics", The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N.
Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/ethics-social-networking/>.
7 comments:
What an awesome idea, a blog about blogging. I have never thought about that. It is like an essential "how to". I like how you touched not only on the ideas of good and bad content but the ethical aspect as well. Some people do not realize a well written blog with great content (capturing content) could still be bad in a ethical since.
Jason & Zena- Good reminders about ethics/blogs. A US survey showed that even when users have the ability to set their privacy settings so that strangers cannot view their sites, more than 95% do not change their privacy settings (Joinson, 2008). Blogs can be read by friends as well as larger audiences! Prof J
I agree that too many people do not use their privacy settings accurately. I know that some of my less than computer savvy family is always talking with me about how someone found out something about them from their various accounts and they cannot figure out why. When I ask them, most of them do not even know that there are privacy settings. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that their privacy is secured.
That's an awesome blog about blogs! You had great breakdowns of the good, bad, and unethical blogs. I'm still learning about blogs and I never knew that there were so many differences with blogs. Thank you so much for covering this subject!
I Love The Picture! Clint Eastwood – What A Relic… “The individual must make sure that they are truthful, transparent, and respectful and the corporation must insure that a person’s privacy is at the forefront of the companies inner-workings.” What if the world would take this and apply – Truth / Respect – Into everyday life, what a change the world would take for the better. One can dream right Great Work You Two!
Jason and Zena this is a great blog. With everyone agreeing with you, let me offer a counter point. Blogs in my opinion are a personal reflection of ones beliefs. It is not a news story and does not necessarily have to be true. After all many of our opinions are not true, they're ideas based on experiences and emotions. Thus when one is blogging it is an opportunity to make their opinions known and start a dialog around them. Also in the example that you gave of Mr. Fountain's blog the information he shared was already public information. He made all of the info readily available, but he himself did not invade their privacy. He simply compiled the info for others to access in a more efficient way. Was it mean, sure. But was it an invasion of their privacy, no. Overall I believe that blogs are more of a personal perspective and not a news worthy source of information.
I really enjoyed this blog. We have spoken a lot about blogging, and our final assignment was to make a blog, so what better idea than to blog about blogging?! The use of blogs has become very popular over recent years; I like to think of them as public diaries. Through blogs, we are able to “convey ideas, opinions, and passions.” However, what makes a successful blog, a bad blog, and an unethical blog? This blog did a great job of sharing all of these answers. Before forming blogs, it is important to know all of this information.
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