Money from advertising possibly increasing influence in the blogosphere

Posted by John Burke on February 21, 2005 at 6:16 PM

An article by J.D. Lasica in the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review highlights the recently uprooted ethical debate regarding monetary influences over weblogs. As the blogosphere continues to quickly grow, shown by PubSub's recent estimate that over 8 million weblogs now exist, it has become common practice to see advertising on personal blogs. A new branch of the debate concerning the level of advertising connected to weblogs has risen from the rules, or lack thereof, that follow payments offered by commercial entities to bloggers to write about specific companies. Lasica consequently poses the following interesting questions. Does the same ethic code followed by journalists to avoid conflicts of interest also apply to bloggers, so as to not breach the compact of trust between reader and writer? Or are we witnessing the next logical step in the blogosphere evolution from hobby to business opportunity?

Recent examples have initiated a justified debate regarding whether an ethical threshold is crossed when companies make offers to bloggers. For example, Newsweek, just realized that a group of 100 technologists, including CEO of wiki company Socialtext Ross Mayfield, will accept free products and services in return for word-of-mouth endorsements. A Boston-based company, BuzzAgent, has enlisted thousands of volunteers to generate buzz for clients' products. And a company in Vancouver called Marqui enlisted 20 bloggers of various backgrounds to publish the Marqui icon and mention Marqui in a blog post at least once a week in return for $800 a month. Marqui is a provider of communications management solutions for marketing and business professionals. The company suspects that its blogging initiative has contributed greatly to its growth of 2,000 mentions on Google in October to 155,000 mentions today.

The ethical debate has thus come from the possibility that bloggers may no longer be writing entries based on passions, interests, or insights. Regardless of the arguments for or against bloggers? rights to accept endorsements, Lasica emphasizes that creditable publications always differentiate between advertorial and editorial content. Most agree that bloggers and traditional journalists do not always play by the same rulebook, and bloggers often say they adhere to different ethical standards. But the Word of Mouth Marketing Association released a draft Code of Ethics last week, and Lasica further presents rough guidelines that must be followed if programs similar to those practiced by Marqui are to continue. Discolusures of the payment between client and bloggers should be mandatory, content must be consistently defined, and bloggers should not be dropped from programs strictly based on positive or negative coverage of a program. Finally, Lasica reminds readers that when bloggers are paid by corporations, they are no longer acting as amateur journalists. Bloggers and readers can choose how to judge such actions for themselves, but Lasica says, "Just don't call yourself a journalist when your re-cashing that check."

Source: USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review

Posted in :