P2P Journalism Ethics
I wanted to spend a little time talking about the ethics of a p2p journalist. It’s really tough to figure out where to start about this kind of thing, so I think I’ll start with what is common knowledge.
When a given organization wants to let everyone know about something, one of the methods they employ is a press release. For most organizations I know of, a press release is something that the company hopes will be put in newspapers, online postings, newscasts, blogs, etc. The further it goes out, the better.
In a similar kind of thing, activism is a lot like a press release. If you are an activist, you want that information put out there as much as possible. What’s the point of activism if you don’t want your information to be put out there?
This then raises the question, where the line is between activism and journalism? My response is that there are notiveable gaps in the mainstream coverage that needs to be filled. That certain bits of information often get left out in favour of editorial decisions. So, in response, other journalist, often bloggers and online journalists, tend to fill that void left by larger entities. So, by that view, activist journalism can be acceptable because they are also fulfilling a societal need.
There’s also the side of competition. It can be expected that there are times when things get a little rough between competitors. However, the point of competition is that one tries to compete with another to push the envelope for quality. Indeed, there was a time, in my mind, that I worried that a monopolistic news site covering all of p2p would emerge because this would effectively stiffle p2p news. It introduces things like a notion that, “Hey, if you’re p2p site isn’t on my news site, no one will know it exists.” This just names one possible outcome that can happen when a monopoly could be introduced in, say, the p2p news community. That’s nothing against anyone, but I just happen to know first hand what can happen when a monopoly is introduced in a given market - it just seems to be the nature of things more than anything else.
What I personally try to do as a writer is deliberately try to ignore the competition. I don’t read the news from competiing sites, I don’t pay attention to slants. Nothing. The reason for this is not because I automatically begrudge competition. I do this because I like to look at the information superhighway with no distractions. I’ve learned in the past that when I look at a competing news site, I either think how badly that writer is or wonder how I can top that. Both of these lines of thinking is a waste of time and energy on my part as a writer. I gain nothing from it. If another news site happens to report the same thing, that’s actually a great thing for both news sites because it means (all this hinging on others adopting my style, though I would have no way of knowing for sure) that both writers saw that item and realized the importance of it. For me, if someone else happened to write about that exact same topic, that’s actually coincidence because I don’t know what that other person is writing. Some people might not like it, I personally think that’s a great thing.
While I was discovering what worked for me, I’ve actually had times when I thought that I would really like to give a good jab to another person out of personal reasons. Just that raw emotional thing more than anything else. Believe me, I’ve had moments where that temptation was really high to just use a proxy and go onto another site and just trash that reporter just because. I was really tempted on a number of occasions. Guess what? In the end, I opted against it.
Some of you might know me to think things through thoroughly. Try and get past that emotion and see things in a more logical light as best I can (and with some articles, that’s tough because there are some things that really drive me nuts like the Canadian DMCA business, etc.) There are plenty of commenters on ZeroPaid that would really be on board with my thinking, that’s for sure and plenty of commenters prove that. Some ZeroPaid commenters practically nail it on the head the comment I would have made.
Still, the reason I never tried to trash others on their pages is simple. The amount of time and energy put into connecting to a different proxy, the amount of time and energy put in to coming up with a new pseudoname and the amount of time and energy I could put in to completely ripping that other writer are all time and energy taken away from researching for that next article. In addition to that, I’m spending my time watching that other site and plotting my next way to hit that person again. Is that seriously a good way to spend my time and energy? Personally, I always have at least one or two tabs open of stories I am interested in and think it’s particularly noteworthy in it’s own way. Trust me, after years of writing p2p news, I have a million ways to find a p2p or tech article that I can write up. If I spent my time trashing other writers under different names, I would get hardly anything done. That’s not just ethics, that’s plain common sense. Besides, I’m way less stressed out when I stop worrying about the competition.
I also happen to know that just because this is how I roll, that doesn’t mean that others don’t have to roll the same way I do. I can respect that in most cases. There’s such thing as individuality. Still, it has come to my attention that there is another p2p reporter who has been trashing me through proxies and different and often pointed pseudonames. Now, I’ve ignored that it’s been going on at ZeroPaid off and on during certain times (Alexa has given me a few hints) but when it occurs on other sites, I do feel at least obliged to say something about it.
I will say this about it, after watching this go on for another time, I am very grateful for my decision to not do the same thing a while back when I still thought about doing it. When I look at those comments, I can’t help but think a few things: Why would this person be that immature to be going directly to the site I write for just to trash me? Doesn’t this reflect badly on him that he devotes a portion of his time to being this destructive in the first place? Moreover, doesn’t that reflect poorly on that persons “employer” that this writer is allowed to work for that website, or why should someone who have this kind of ethics be “employed” to that site (more to the point, do these “employers” feel that such behaviour is acceptable internally)? While I do get annoyed at this behaviour, I have thought to myself at the same time, “What would others think of me if I opted to do that exact same thing?”
I’ve heard rumours coming back to me that say that I am actively engaged in this whole politics thing in the past. Believe me, when I look around at others who have engaged in the internal politics end of things and looked at the results for most of them, I am extremely grateful that I chose to engage in almost none of it. The few times that I have engaged in it was merely to defend friends of mine for reasons much more hallistic than what many others could see in the whole discussion (some have responded favourably to that, others stabbed me in the back afterwards, that’s life). The fact that I didn’t engage in the dirty stuff makes me proud and I can say with a clean concious that I don’t do things like hide my identity and trash others among other shadey things for personal gain.
I know some of you are itching to find that juice at this point on who is actively engaged in this. I will not say who it is or where he writes. I will say that I have a load of evidence that points to who this is. I know what the motive is behind it. I will also say that hiding your identity while doing this is extremely cowardly and it insults the very people you hope to win over by your actions. I recommend stopping before you embarrass more than yourself further and re-think about why you are a journalist as you justify your actions. The only thing I can really thank you for is confirming for me why I made the decision to not do what you are doing now. You don’t have to appologize to me, I can take the ceasing of further action as an apology in and of itself.