Ethical Conundrum: How much is too much?

Saving Ethical Journalism —

Aggregation and curation have become a normal part of online news processes. It seems acceptable to take a certain amount of content from a source, as long as you attribute properly and provide outside links, so there's no confusion about where you got the story.

The question is, how much content can you take before you actually felt like you were violating the intellectual property rights of the original author? 10%... 20%... 50% or more? How much is too much and how much is okay?

This is a legal question (10% is the rule in Australia, but U.S. Copyright law does not define a word count or limit), but it is also a question of ethics, perhaps even morality. Credible aggregator Jim Romenesko got flak from Poynter's Julie Moos in November for not putting quotation marks around direct quotes, but Mr. Romenesko's attribution was clear.

But how much information is okay to take, with or without quotation marks? After the frivolous Righthaven lawsuits were exposed for what they are, it seems aggregation can be a Fair Use, but how do we define "fair"?

Saving Ethical Journalism: No better time than now

Saving Ethical Journalism —

The golden age of journalism. What a phrase. And what a time to be living as a professional wordsmith. For anyone who is passionate about storytelling and digging at the truth, no time in history comes close to living right now. 

But with every yin there is a yang. Content farmers, over-aggregators, scrapers, brand journalists and their ilk have invaded the journalism profession, tainted it with rubbish and spoon-fed it to the masses. Plagiarists and copyright infringers face little penalties for online theft, as it has become so commonplace it is apparently acceptable. Not only is respect for the journalism profession falling each year, but it becomes harder and harder to be professional as a journalist. 

So how do we bring ethics back to our profession, when there are “journalists” who steal content and claim it as their own? How do we maintain any ethical integrity when there are special interest groups such as oil companies, investors and energy firms creating content and presenting it as news? How do we stop content farmers from cutting and pasting entire stories, which could actually make us appear as the thieves? 

This blog is dedicated to ensuring that the journalism revolution does not devolve into a daytime talk show. We are committed to exposing hidden agendas among content generators, and connecting people who believe the future is bright, if only we can agree to respect each other. 

We care about free societies and the whole truth. We are optimistic skeptics; excited about our new tools but concerned about misuse. We invite you to join our efforts and help us to evolve beyond this ethical ambiguity and toward a renewed sense of integrity and esteem for the one profession that is tasked with keeping all other professions working properly — especially our own. 

Join us!

About Saving Ethical Journalism's David DesRoches

I graduated from the College of Charleston in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in media studies. After years of traveling and working on different projects and barely scraping by, I began working as a newspaper reporter in 2009, where I continued to barely scrape by.

I later worked for an unethical media company, which inspired me to examine trends in journalism and how the profession can maintain integrity while still utilizing modern tools. I now work as an assistant editor for the Darien Times newspaper in southwestern Connecticut.

Check out my personal website here.