The Ethics of Social News Gathering

Author: Benjamin van Loon

Date: December 8, 2015

Link: https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/ethics-social-news-gathering

First Impressions: The essay probably talks about how social news gathering could be unethical in a way that, people are creating content that is related to news sites but are not accurate.

Quote: “With UGC now a newsroom standard, it’s important to update the ethics of newsgathering and journalism.”

Reflection:

User generated content is one of the reasons why there is so much fake news in social media platforms. One of the popular UGC I see on platforms like Facebook are articles being posted by different pages that looks so intriguing that people will believe that it is a reliable source. Some have similar titles as to the real news article online, which makes people think that it is a real news. Big companies like Facebook has already adjusted to these standards, as mentioned in their F8 2019 Keynote. They added a feature in their mobile app, it is a button connected to each article seen on Facebook, wherein you can see where the news came from, the author, and the date published. All the important information will be seen for the user to verify if it is a credible source. Since Facebook is a platform well known for spreading fake news, it is a good thing that they are implementing these features. Users should also be informed with features like these, so that they would know how to utilize these features to avoid being misinformed with the news that they saw. Users should also know how to verify the content, they can’t just rely on the company to filter the news for us.

5 Things I Learned

1. Users should know how to verify content before sharing it online.

2. Facebook is working on the fake news being posted on their platform.

3. User generated content is one of the main sources of fake news.

4. UGC is now a standard part of the journalist’s news gathering toolbox.

5. Without the news industry, there would be no news and without financing, there would be no news media.

5 Integrative Questions

1. Why is UGC considered a journalistic standard?

2. Does UGC raise privacy concerns, when it comes to other media sites using their content?

3. Since UGC is considered a journalistic standard, how do ugc creators combat plagiarism?

4. How does a newsroom with tight resources develop the expertise to make strong ethical decisions about social newsgathering?

5. How can these facts be verified?