Ethics Online

Ethics and Accuracy in Computer-Assisted Reporting

• The ethics of computer-assisted reporting do not vary from the ethics of traditional journalism. You will run into the same dilemmas, and with computer-assisted reporting your responsibilities increase because you may be going into territory where others may not have gone before.
• Identify yourself accurately on the Internet. Identify yourself as a reporter when working with discussion lists or network groups. In most cases, journalists have the ethical obligation to allow people to go on record or not. Just because information is on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s public—or on the record.
• Always identify the source of information in your reporting. Attribution is an essential element of journalism. If you don’t know who the source of information is, you must be very careful about using it.
• Do should not claim credit for information that someone has published on a network. Always credit the source.
• Always be fair and accurate as possible.
• Quickly acknowledge and correct your errors.
• Just because it’s electronic or on a computer screen doesn’t mean it’s right.
• Recheck and recheck your numbers. Compare them to last year’s. Compare them to hard-copy summary reports. Trust your gut. If the numbers don’t feel right or make sense, check them out until they do.
• Check and recheck graphics; the graphics and charts that appear with a story. It’s your responsibility to make sure they match the story.
• Don’t try to do more good than you know how to do. (Consult a social scientist if you are getting into social science or statistics.)
• Don’t trust e-mail or other messages on the Internet any more than you would trust an anonymous letter. Verify who is writing before you quote.
• Don’t hack your way into a private electronic area. Be respectful of privacy. If someone offers you confidential information, check with editors, news directors and lawyers before deciding whether to accept it.
• Watch what you write in e-mail or other electronic messages. Don’t slander or libel.
• Know and respect copyright laws. Think before you copy.