MSM Can Learn from the Hat Tip
How apt. A Financial Times editorial appeared on the last day of the WeMedia conference (”Excuse me while I borrow liberally“) commenting on how the mainstream media should learn from bloggers to show attribution for ideas and provide transparency - the hat tip. While observing the recent cases of high-profile plagiarism, Tim Harford considers something bloggers have done well:
In a world where it is easier than ever to shovel someone else’s ideas into your own work, and where it is also easier than ever to detect when this has been done, readers are becoming more relaxed about whether a work is original and simply ask if it is useful, enjoyable or beautiful. Blogs are so liberally peppered with other people’s work that bloggers have developed a code to acknowledge an intellectual debt: HT, the hat-tip.
We should expect to see more writers grabbing other writers’ ideas, and more honesty about the fact that this is happening. That can only improve the quality of journalism, commentary and even novels. Stealing with acknowledgement is not only polite but economically efficient.
Therefore, HT: Tyler Cowen, Krishna Guha, Malcolm Gladwell, John Kay, Laurence Lessig and Charles Nevin.
This is just one of many example how grassroots bloggers, Wikipedians and citizen journalists have created conventions within the community to increase transparency and to fairly acknowledge original work of others. The MSM should realize that it’s a cultural two way street. Citizens are becoming involved in the practice of journalism by adopting professional media industry norms, but the online cultural norms of netiquette (or perhaps blogiquette) can provide examples of better practices for the traditional media.
(For good reading about a history of traditional media outlets using blog material without attribution, see The Huffington Post, The Raw Story, Majikthise and USC’s Online Journalism Review)
TAGS: wemedia wemediafringe citizenj
May 6th, 2006 00:39
I couldn’t read the whole article, but from what I could see, he’s slightly missing the point. Bloggers don’t steal, they quote. There’s a nuance of language in there that is important. Quoting someone is beneficial to them, as it gives them acknowledgement that they have written something notable - an acknowledgement that is enhanced by the link which allows people to go back and see the original. Stealing from someone implies that there is a victim who has lost something because of a blogger’s action, which implication I think many bloggers would find insulting.
I would have liked to have read the whole article to see if this is really what he is saying, but alas, it’s behind a paywall.
May 9th, 2006 12:27
It’s a myth that journalists don’t use other people’s work. In fact, they sit all day watching the “wires” from Reuters and AP. Reuters and AP watch local TV, and scan local papers. Without the “wires”, journalists would be lost. The stories which the papers cover on any one day are remarkably similar. The press are a “pack” and always have been.
May 15th, 2006 03:55
Learning from blog etiquette…
“The source of information must, as a rule, be identified”, the Norwegian press code of ethics admonishes. This is one of the rules that are supposed to increase the public’s trust in the media. The web is the best medium……