Is DisclosurePolicy a first step towards a blogger code of ethics?
If you've been reading any blogs at all in the last year, you've probably bumped into some facet of the 'should bloggers get paid' discussion or its stepchild 'if you're paid, should you tell your readers?' There's a definite tension in the blogosphere on this subject, and I htink that part of it is frankly philosophical: should blogging be "free" and unencumbered, or should commerce rear its head and bring us into the world of advertising, marketing, product placement and, in a word, commerce?
Blogs are an interesting publishing medium in this regard because they're new and they're reasonably egalitarian: you can start writing smart content and become a "player" in just a few months if you understand how the system works. You can't really do that in magazine publishing, TV production or commercial movies, by contrast.
Nonetheless, magazines have "advertorials", newspapers have the completely bogus mock-reporting of their "Auto Supplement", and even movies have crass and pervasive product placement now. We don't see Angelina Jolie stop and say "MMm... sure is a good can of Coke!" then whisper behind her hand "Disclosure: Coke paid me $3 million to say that!" but people don't seem to have a problem with it. Time magazine will have an eight page advertorial that's designed to look almost identical to the editorial content, yet people still subscribe.
So what i believe needs to happen is that us bloggers need to craft a Best Practices for Disclosure, but when PayPerPost, a company in the middle of this tiny tempest, takes a stab at it with its arguably clumsy DisclosurePolicy.com, do bloggers suggest smarter alternatives? No. Predictably, they just cast stones...
Please continue reading my long essay on this subject: PayPerPost Creates DisclosurePolicy, Bloggers call it Absurd?
Blogs are an interesting publishing medium in this regard because they're new and they're reasonably egalitarian: you can start writing smart content and become a "player" in just a few months if you understand how the system works. You can't really do that in magazine publishing, TV production or commercial movies, by contrast.
Nonetheless, magazines have "advertorials", newspapers have the completely bogus mock-reporting of their "Auto Supplement", and even movies have crass and pervasive product placement now. We don't see Angelina Jolie stop and say "MMm... sure is a good can of Coke!" then whisper behind her hand "Disclosure: Coke paid me $3 million to say that!" but people don't seem to have a problem with it. Time magazine will have an eight page advertorial that's designed to look almost identical to the editorial content, yet people still subscribe.
So what i believe needs to happen is that us bloggers need to craft a Best Practices for Disclosure, but when PayPerPost, a company in the middle of this tiny tempest, takes a stab at it with its arguably clumsy DisclosurePolicy.com, do bloggers suggest smarter alternatives? No. Predictably, they just cast stones...
Please continue reading my long essay on this subject: PayPerPost Creates DisclosurePolicy, Bloggers call it Absurd?
posted by Dave Taylor at
9:32 AM
