In the Miami Herald, journalism professor Edward Wasserman decries some of the publish-first, verify-later approach of digital media. While he's critical of many old-media values --- he is by no means a true believer in the good old days --- he worries too much is being discarded at once as the digital age arrives. He suggests the emerging culture is no less flawed than the one it seeks to replace.
"Online news has brought fresh concerns with such values as transparency and humility along with a vast new willingness to listen and allow others to speak," writes Wasserman, a professor in journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University.
"But in other respects, instead of righting the wrongs of the legacy news world, the 24/7 cycle risks deepening them and intensifying their potential to misinform and to harm. No, don't blame the technology; there's nothing about digital media that prohibits care, respectfulness, scrupulous handling of information, fairness-basic principles of journalistic professionalism.
"The damage isn't done by the new tools, but by the old villain of market calculation, the belief that haste pays, that racy and sensational disclosures drive traffic and now, if they're incorrect or one-sided, actually increase interactivity. Getting it first trumps getting it right."
"Online news has brought fresh concerns with such values as transparency and humility along with a vast new willingness to listen and allow others to speak," writes Wasserman, a professor in journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University.
"But in other respects, instead of righting the wrongs of the legacy news world, the 24/7 cycle risks deepening them and intensifying their potential to misinform and to harm. No, don't blame the technology; there's nothing about digital media that prohibits care, respectfulness, scrupulous handling of information, fairness-basic principles of journalistic professionalism.
"The damage isn't done by the new tools, but by the old villain of market calculation, the belief that haste pays, that racy and sensational disclosures drive traffic and now, if they're incorrect or one-sided, actually increase interactivity. Getting it first trumps getting it right."
