By Lucy Smart
The credibility of bloggers worldwide was brought into question last week when Wall Street Journal blogger and reporter Ben Charny misinformed readers that Apple CEO Steve Jobs would headline the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010. With scant evidence to back up these claims, and no reliable source, rival bloggers were quick to dismiss the post, while readers were left wondering what to believe.
While it’s often an extremely fast paced, insightful form of news, blogging is largely unregulated, leaving many readers to question the reliability of what they are reading. Indeed, as David Gelles reports in his FT Tech Blog, the lines between advertising, marketing and editorial are less defined in the blogging world and while a few posts are falling under increased scrutiny, the majority of bloggers are failing to disclose their relationships with the companies and individuals they mention.
The Federal Trade Commission is currently considering appropriate guidelines that would hold bloggers liable for untruthful statements made on blogs or social media sites. Other self-regulating sites, such as Womma, have published ethics codes, while the new self-policing group Blog with Integrity is encouraging bloggers to reassure readers by claiming their incorruptibility.
But is it too soon to regulate blogs and other forms of new media? A set of rigid rules from the FTC could be too premature and too severe for an industry that is still developing. Half the attraction of bloggers is they often offer a fresh view on topics because they are free to express themselves openly. While it’s obviously wrong to publish outright lies, bloggers may become reluctant to publish their opinions if they fear being sued.
There is no doubt that there are regulatory issues that need to be addressed in the blogosphere – but while it is possible that blogs could be regulated by self policing bodies, it is questionable how effective these will be.
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