committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
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I'm irritated by the conduct of some of my fellow SL 'journalists' over the last week. I've always been a little bit in awe of the writing talent in-world, but as usual someone has to go and spoil it.
To be a reporter is to be balanced. It is to take neither side, to have neither view. It is to hunt out the facts and give them verbatim, to take the quotes and report them exactly. It is to remain impartial even if the facts are set in stone.
It is not to use column space for debate or argument: that is a job for the reader.
A reporter does not take half-truths for granted. No article is ever finished, there's always another point of view that could have been included, another piece of information that's been missed. All news is global news.
There's a reason journalists are always the bad guy in movies: it's because we controlthe flow of information and that's a power that can be corrupted with a single word.
We are the one link between the busy citizen and the world around, and it's our responsibility to honour that right. And yes, that moral code should even hold true in this virtual world: if your heart and soul aren't committed to Second Life, you should leave the recording of its history to those of us with a passion for it.
Every human being has the right to hold and express opinions and feelings, but a reporter is on a different level: the medium through which information reaches the people.
And this is why such regard is held for those who can claim to have integrity.
Ah well, I guess there will always be tabloids.
1 comment:
Dude, I told you, they aren't REAL journalists, so you're thinking they should be more professional, when they are writing for the equivalent of the Daily Sport!
It's like making a monkey sit in front of a PC and write an article about something sensible.. ain't happening.
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