Jarvis: 3 ethics the news media can learn from bloggers

Blogger-Prof Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine is on tonight’s NewsHour on PBS, interviewed as part of a discussion about the mix of facts of opinion in the media today, and whether that’s a good thing or not.

Jeff offers up “three ethics” that the news media can learn from bloggers:

(1) The ethic of corrections: Be honest about your mistakes and correct errors quickly.
(2) The ethic of the link: Don’t take my word for it, here’s my source material, here’s where people are disagreeing with me.
(3) The ethic of transparency: Be transparent about your motives and biases.

Sound advice, and precepts that you can find at resources like the Center for Citizen Media’s Principles of citizen journalism project.

I wouldn’t have been a good participant on tonight’s segment because I actually agree with both the speakers, Jarvis on the myth of objectivity and the needs for the news media to embrace the ethos of openness found in the blogosphere, and Callie Crossley, contributor to “Beat the Press” at Boston’s WGBH, who held out for news organizations making it clear what are the facts and what are your opinions, a distinction still worth making, in my view.

JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.