Journalists vs bloggers : image ethics in videoblogging

• Main Author: Jacques Rusanna Yves Del Mundo Gimeno
• Other Authors: Bradley C Freeman
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Journalism::Ethics and religion aspects
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/18866
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Habermas (1989) believes that as the society continues to evolve, social beings tend to make changes in the way they interact with each other. At the same time, changes in societal norms become apparent with the introduction of new technologies that facilitate mobilization and wider reach. This exploratory study looks into how the Internet is changing communication in terms of ethical concerns with information dissemination as the foremost role of journalists, and how it is conflicting with bloggers who take upon themselves the responsibility of informing the public. More specifically, this study focuses on the ethics of video sharing (also known as video blogging) of human rights videos on websites like YouTube and how this popular activity is becoming a challenge to mainstream journalists when such videos accompany the news. This study made use of three methods. In order to find out if YouTube provides adequate guidelines for proper video sharing, a content analysis of 11 human tights videos on YouTube was conducted. A survey of 379 YouTube users was conducted to find out what they think of having a code ethics for video sharing. An analysis of the videos of Daniel Pearl’s beheading and Emad al-Kabir’s torture was conducted to look into the conflict between journalists and bloggers when it comes to the ethical treatment of human rights images for public consumption. Overall findings show that there are videos on YouTube that compromise the privacy and security of subjects in the videos; a majority of the respondents favor a code of ethics for video sharing; and unethical video sharing practices pose a challenge to mainstream journalists.