Conference to discuss bloggers' ethics

Via I Want Media: Do bloggers have an ethical obligation to their readers and to the broader field of journalism? A conference at Harvard University this weekend, entitled “Blogging, Journalism and Credibility,” is attempting to sort through some of these ethical issues, reports The Wall Street Journal. The easy and anonymous nature of blogging is a large part of the changing ethical landscape in journalism today, but in the wake of recent media scandals, some argue that journalism isn’t setting such a great example for bloggers’ ethics to begin with. Others say that blogging is opinionated in nature. “One of the virtues of blogging is that it’s not subject to the professional and bureaucratic restrictions of big media,” says Newsweek writer and Slate.com blogger Mickey Kaus. “The point of blogging is to say what you actually think – opinion, not the traditional ideal of journalism.”