Final #PoynterEthics panel, on storytelling: @kellymcb Kenny Irby, @tomthuang & @zephoria. twitter.com/stevebuttry/st…
— Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry) October 23, 2012
I was privileged to participate today in the symposium Journalistic Ethics in the Digital Age at the Paley Center for Media in New York, presented by the Poynter Institute and craigconnects.
The symposium was part of an effort to update the Guiding Principles for the Journalist, developed 25 years ago, when Bob Steele was Poynter’s ethics leader. After I argued unsuccessfully that the Society of Professional Journalists should update its Code of Ethics, I was pleased to join Poynter’s effort to update the guiding principles (which overlap closely with the SPJ code).
I’m not going to blog at length about the event itself tonight. I livetweeted it. You can browse my tweets from today to see what I had to say, read all the tweets in the #PoynterEthics hashtag or read Poynter’s Storify account from lots of us who were livetweeting or watch the video highlights.
I also recommend the proposed guiding principles by Craig Silverman, who was there, and the account by Mathew Ingram, who was watching the livestream, of our discussion about the search for the truth.
I also recommend reading essays that are contributions to the book on digital journalism ethics that will accompany the new principles, to be edited by Poynter’s Kelly McBride and Tom Rosenstiel of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. I have not yet read these papers, though the authors summarized key points from them today:
- Clay Shirky’s We are indeed less willing to agree what constitutes truth
- Eric Deggans’ Why ethics and diversity matter: The case of Trayvon Martin coverage
- danah boyd’s The ethics of fear and how it undermines an informed citizenry
I will probably blog in the next week or two with some reflections on the day’s discussions and/or the new guiding principles. But I want to think about that a while before blogging further. But this might be an appropriate place to share links to past posts that I wrote in my continuing effort to contribute to the discussion of journalism ethics, particularly relating to digital issues:
Sharing stories with sources before publication is risky, but can improve accuracy
Aggregation guidelines: Link, attribute, add value
Journalists should be personable but professional in social media use
Unnamed sources should have unpublished opinions
4 reasons why linking is good journalism; 2 reasons why linking is good business
A quiz to teach journalists about plagiarism and attribution
Questions and answers about journalists’ opinions in social media
Digital First journalists: What we value
You can quote me on that: Advice on attribution for journalists
Our cheating culture: Plagiarism and fabrication are unacceptable in journalism
‘He said, she said’ stories fail to seek the truth and report it
My version of Craig Silverman’s accuracy checklist
Tips on verifying facts and ensuring accuracy
Humanity is more important and honest than objectivity for journalists
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