These are the slides I used for an API Upholding and Updating Ethical Standards webinar for the Minnesota Newspaper Foundation.

1. Upholding and Updating
Ethical Standards
Steve Buttry, API and Gazette Communications
Minnesota Newspaper Foundation webinar, April 8, 2009
Supported by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation
© 2008 The American Press Institute. All rights reserved.

2. How we engage the community
 Opinion (forums, comments, blogs)
 Citizen journalism (blogs, self-
reporting, contributing photos)
 Conversation (moms, sports fans,
entertainment sites)
 Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr,
YouTube, local social networks)
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3. What are your concerns?
What worries you most as your
organization invites users to contribute
content and engage with you and each
other online?
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4. Remember time-tested ethical principles
Seek truth and report it
Minimize harm
Act independently
Be accountable
SPJ Code of Ethics
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5. Remember time-tested ethical principles
Seek truth and report it as fully as
possible
Act independently
Minimize harm
“Guiding Principles for the Journalist,” Bob Steele,
Poynter Institute
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6. Questions to guide ethical decisions
1. What do I know? What do I need to know?
2. What is my journalistic purpose?
3. What are my ethical concerns?
4. What policies and professional guidelines should I consider?
5. How can I include other people, with different perspectives and diverse
ideas, in the decision-making process?
6. Who are the stakeholders? What are their motivations? Which are
legitimate?
7. What if the roles were reversed? How would I feel if I were in the shoes
of one of the stakeholders?
8. What are the possible consequences of my actions?
9. What are my alternatives to maximize my truthtelling responsibility and
minimize harm?
10. Can I clearly and fully justify my thinking and my decision?
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7. Questions for exercises
Premise for exercises: You are the top
editor of your news organization
Questions for exercises:
 What do you to about this right now?
 What to you to do to address any
issues this incident raises for the future?
 How, if at all, do you deal with this
issue publicly?
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8. Not that there’s anything wrong with that …
You have encouraged robust, open discussion on your web site and have been
successful in generating lots of comments (and traffic) for your political writer’s
blog. You require registration but not identification for comments. You also
welcome users to start their own blogs on your site and you host a half-dozen
political blogs by community members. A comment from “hetero” on one of the
community blogs claims one evening to have proof that the local congressman
is a regular customer of a gay bar in Washington (“hetero” does not describe
what the “proof” is). The congressman is a sponsor of a proposed constitutional
amendment to ban gay marriage and features family photos prominently on his
official web site. An hour later, “disgusted” claims to know a man who used to
be a regular sex partner of the congressman. The community blogger treats
both of the claims as fact and denounces the congressman, saying he should
resign. Other commenters join the fray, some denouncing your paper for
publishing unsubstantiated trash and others speculating further about the
congressman’s sexuality, political votes and political future. By the time you
become aware of the digital fracas by about mid-morning the next day, you
have several dozen comments, thousands of page views and it’s been linked to
by a dozen blogs.
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9. Not that there’s anything wrong with that …
 What do you to about this right now?
 What to you to do to address any
issues this incident raises for the future?
 How, if at all, do you deal with this
issue publicly?
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10. Not that there’s anything wrong with that …
The plot thickens:
As you and other editors are starting to discuss what to
do, you learn that your political reporter has commented
on the fuss in his blog, not speculating about the truth of
the comments but saying that whether the allegations
are true or not, they could damage the congressman’s
future. He criticizes people for commenting on blogs
using bogus screen names. You also receive a call from
the congressman, demanding that you remove the blog
and all the comments from the web site. He won’t
comment on whether they are true.
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11. Not that there’s anything wrong with that …
 What do you to about this right now?
 What to you to do to address any
issues this incident raises for the future?
 How, if at all, do you deal with this
issue publicly?
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12. Accused online
Your web site requires registration with a valid email
address before commenting. You allow users to
comment under screen names. A man and his wife
come to your office complaining that a comment on a
story in which he was mentioned accused him of
rape, without naming a victim. The comment has
already been removed from the site by your staff. The
man demands to know who made the remark. The
user name is “truthseeker.” Your web staff has the
email address and IP address of the user, but you
don’t verify identity.
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13. Accused online
 What do you to about this right now?
 What to you to do to address any
issues this incident raises for the future?
 How, if at all, do you deal with this
issue publicly?
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14. Accused online
The plot thickens:
As you Google the phrase of the comment, you see
that the original comment appears in a search and
that a blog has linked to the comment and quoted
part of it.
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15. Accused online
 What do you to about this right now?
 What to you to do to address any
issues this incident raises for the future?
 How, if at all, do you deal with this
issue publicly?
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16. Anonymity vs. identity
Possible alternatives:
 Require real names (and verify)
 Require real name, allow screen name
 Use Facebook Connect
 Create user profiles on your site
 Link to previous comments, reviews
 Varying levels of ID – names for
bloggers, calendar, not for comments
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17. 17

18. Features of Newsmixer
 Uses Facebook Connect
 Q&A right in story
 Quips of 140 characters, use ID & verb
 Letters to the editor, rating system
pushes best ones to top
 Open-source software
 Developed by Medill New Media
graduate class
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19. Other user-contribution issues
 Online polls: Do you allow multiple
answers? Do you use disclaimers?
 When should you turn off comments?
 Should you ask for civility?
 When do comments become news?
 Do you allow staff members to
comment anonymously at other sites?
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20. Issues from 2006 Poynter conference
 Are there personal safety and privacy issues?
 Will anonymity increase the flow and exchange of
ideas or enhance the diversity of conversation?
 Do you have the capacity to monitor or clean up
inappropriate posts?
 Are there categories of content where anonymous,
user-generated content is essential or unacceptable?
 Is the community clear on the conditions under which
the anonymity is granted/limited?
 Does anonymity damage the credibility of the
information or debate?
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21. Ethics seminars for journalists
 We can bring this seminar to your
newsroom
 One or two-day seminars focused on
ethical challenges related to innovation
 Heavily subsidized, host pays nominal
fee plus meals and lodging
 Contact me or Elaine Clisham,
eclisham@americanpressinstitute.org
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22. Upholding and Updating
Ethical Standards
Steve Buttry, API and Gazette Communications
Minnesota Newspaper Association webinar, April 1, 2009
Supported by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation
© 2008 The American Press Institute. All rights reserved.