That evening as Digitella sits in front of her laptop, a blank blog post on her laptop screen, she wonders why she chose to study citizen media. Her debate earlier that day with Tek about blogging and journalism (that has not been resolved) proved to Digitella that citizen media is a vast abyss of information and unresolved arguments. Now, she has to post her first blog entry as a news blogger and she has no idea what her first topic should be.
Suddenly, Digitella’s digsmate Mo flings open the bedroom door and tosses a newspaper onto Digitella’s lap. “You have to read this,” she says breathlessly pulling up a chair.
Digitella’s eyes widen as she scans the headline Male Hooker names top clients
Male Hooker names Top clients. “I don’t believe it,” she says.
“Yeah, I thought it might make a good first entry,” Mo smiles, before leaving the room.
Digitella scans the article and then, fingers poised begins her blog entry:
“Blogging and journalism. The debate has been going on since the development of blogs at the end of the last century. An article I have just read raises big issues in the blog/ journalism debate:
1. the credibility of blogs as a source of news
2. the lack of accountability of bloggers when what is written crosses the boundaries of legality.
In the article, a former male sex worker has posted a personal blog claiming that a number of prominent South Africans paid him for sex. He named 11 of them so far and the information has spread like wild fire among SA news media organisations. The Sunday Times, IOL and Media24 are just a few traditional news companies who have run news articles about this.
The journalist who wrote this article is unable to establish the credibility and truthfulness of the sex worker (if in fact he/she is even a sex worker) because the blogger in question is anonymous. The journalist left a comment on the blog and was contacted by someone called Skye who “claimed” to be the blogger – does the journalist know this for a fact? No. Is the journalist able to find out? Not likely.
I then ask the question: how can you run an article when you are unsure of the blogger’s motives, and truthfulness? The only information the journalist has is the blog post (which may just be a work of fiction – an identity constructed, a fantasy lived out in cyberspace) and the men who are all flat-out denying it. It seems to me the article shouldn’t be about the blogger’s allegations, so much as it should be about what bloggers can and cannot get away with posting.
A lawyer has said that both the publisher and blogger can be sued for defamation – but the website has covered its behind by denying any responsibility in what bloggers publish on their site. And, without an identity, it is unlikely this blogger is going to be sued. How then do we make bloggers accountable?
Good ole Patricia De Lille has recently called for tighter control over Internet bloggers (I can already hear the chants of “freedom of speech” “freedom of expression”) – but, she does have a point. If we are to consider blogging as a form of journalism, shouldn’t it be held to the same legal and ethical standards as traditional journalism?
The question is: with nearly 60% of bloggers blogging anonymously and blogger sites denying responsibility how do you hold users accountable for what they say?”
Digitella sighs heavily as she posts the entry … wondering to herself what the response to the entry will be. She switched off her computer thinking that the battle is only just beginning …
Tune in next week to find out how Digitella’s entry is received.
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