Integrity and Income in the Media
Journalists can preach about integrity and putting their audience first, but if no one is making money, there won’t be a media to impose principles on. The permeation of advertising into news organizations and blogs has created a conflict of interest for self made bloggers. Should they disclose when their stories are sponsored? The audience says yes, but the advertisers say no. It’s the ultimate battle of integrity versus income.
Where’s the Money?
Profiting from media content is becoming more difficult. A once booming industry has been decimated by websites like Craigslist. Newspapers have attempted to cut their losses by imposing paywalls. Bloggers are turning to sponsored posts.
Disclosing Profits
Dominic Ponsford, who writes for the Press Gazette, said the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK requires bloggers to disclose sponsored content (Ponsford).
“Those who pay bloggers for editorial coverage which is not declared could also be committing an offence under the Bribery Act 2010” Ponsford said. “This states that it is against the law to pay someone to perform their functions improperly” (Ponsford).
Profit vs Principle
Despite these rules, a survey conducted by Vuelio found 13 percent of UK bloggers don’t believe it’s important to disclose sponsored content (Ponsford). This can be explained with another statistic from Vuelio’s results: 12 percent of the bloggers said their blog was their main income (Ponsford).
Audience’s typically do not like sponsored content because they are seen as dishonest, especially if it’s a review. Disclosing sponsorships is an example of integrity, but it sacrifices the creator’s income. Principles don’t pay the bills: profit does.
A Student’s Insight
It’s easy for me to preach principle over profit: I’m a college student at a private university. However, I do believe there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed that’s different for each journalist. I hope when my turn comes, I’ll be able to uphold my personal values.
Want to learn more? Read the article that inspired this commentary on the Press Gazette website by Dominic Ponsford.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/survey-suggests-more-than-1000-uk-bloggers-think-it-is-not-important-to-declare-sponsored-posts/