Comunicação e Sociedade, vol. 25, 2014, pp. 252 – 266 The (non)regulation of the blogosphere: the ethics of online debate Elsa Costa e Silva [email protected] Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade, Universidade do Minho, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal Abstract New technologies have enabled innovative possibilities of communication, but have also imposed new upon matters of ethics, particularly in regards to platforms such as blogs. This ar- ticle builds upon the reflections and experiences on this issue, in an attempt to map and analyse the ethical questions underlying the Portuguese blogosphere. In order to reflect on the possibil- ity and opportunity to create a code of ethics for bloggers, attention is permanently paid to the political blogosphere. Keywords Code of conduct; values; political blogs; freedom of expression 1. Introduction The debate about ethics in communication (a theme that is perhaps as old as the first reflections on the human ability to interact with others) remains extremely dynamic in contemporary societies, fuelled by innovative technological capabilities that bring new challenges to this endless questioning. Ethics is a construction whose pillars oscillate between different perspectives (Fidalgo, 2007), ranging from a greater primacy of the freedom of the ‘I’, to a primacy of the collective responsibility, from the justification by the norms (to do that which is correct) to the justification by the purposes (the good to be achieved). Values and rules underlie ethics, providing a standard for human behaviour and forms of procedure. It is never a finished process, but the result of ongoing tensions and negotiations between interested members of the community (Christofoletti, 2011). As they are based on beliefs, ethical standards attempt to answer the question of what is intellectually defensible, and seek to propose analytical tools for specific situations. That is, ethics presuppose a critical operating and rational reasoning, and not just the assumption of some considerations about right and wrong. Organizations and professions around the world tend to adopt ethical standards in the form of a written code, accepted by all, according to which behaviours can be reviewed and rationally evaluated. In the field of communication, newspaper compa- nies, divided between business and public service, have increased ethical responsibil- ities towards society (Albarran, 2007; Latre - Pérez, 2007). Likewise, journalists have adopted ethical procedures that have proved to be fundamental in the consolidation of the profession (Fidalgo, 2008; Traquina, 2007). The commitment to truth, accuracy and Comunicação e Sociedade, vol. 25, 2014 The (non)regulation of the blogosphere: the ethics of online debate . Elsa Costa e Silva objectivity is an integral part of the journalist’s job, and the assumption that this commit- ment should result in mechanisms of accountability is also increasing (McQuail, 2005). These are mechanisms that can allow citizens to scrutinize what greatly contributes to the reading of the world. In most cases, these procedures have assumed a particular formulation, recog- nized by all as a normative and rule-setting orientation, either as a community’s initiative (the so-called self-regulation), or upon the imposition by external bodies, such as states (hetero-regulation). A code of ethics may be considered a kind of contract, whose parties are members of the community to which it relates, and where the rules of behaviour (to have and not to have) are identified. One of the weaknesses of most codes is that, as a result of initiatives of self-regulation, they do not hold a great coercive power to ensure their compliance or penalties for offenders: ‘the worst punishment stays in the moral realm, in the social disapproval of the conduct of those who cross the line beyond the allowed’ (Christofoletti, 2011: 27). However, and although it is in many cases only an ideal, ethics and its ‘transcription’ into specific contexts in the form of codes may have the advantage of improving knowledge about a particular field and of establishing targets and goals of what is acceptable. But should the ethics of communication be transcribed in a specific number of rules, thereby assuming a codification, in order to publicly link the members of the concerned community? This question is particularly relevant in a context where technology has fragmented communication spaces, thus creating networks of social interaction with a large penetra- tion, suffocating rules and known hierarchies. In this new media ecology, the question of ethics is even more pressing. Blogs, which are online spaces for communication fre- quently updated in an inverse chronological order, where a myriad of issues is discussed, are one of the platforms requiring reflection. This article seeks to map and analyse the ethical questions underlying the Portuguese blogosphere. In order to reflect on the pos- sibility and opportunity to create a code of ethics for bloggers, attention is permanently paid to the political blogosphere. 2. Blogs: the importance of the medium Blogs emerged during the 1990s, and became particularly popular when technolo- gies – such as blogger.com – provided tools that facilitated the creation and mainte- nance of these online pages. The functionality of these pages is so diverse that probably no typology of blogs can cover the multitude of experiences that take place on the net. There are blogs about gardening, cooking, childcare. Some blogs are a kind of diaries, and many have found a particular audience when the authors reported their experiences as pregnant women and young mothers. There are blogs about games, photography and fashion. There is also a blog category, called political blogs, but, again, a wide range of different configurations is a stake: blogs of candidates and of electoral campaigns, blogs of elected officials hosted in institutional sites (such as parliaments), political journal- ists’ blogs hosted in mainstream media sites, blogs of civic movements and blogs of citizens involved in the political debate. 253 Comunicação e Sociedade, vol. 25, 2014 The (non)regulation of the blogosphere: the ethics of online debate . Elsa Costa e Silva A recent report from Technorati1, a blog search engine that records and monitors the blogosphere, stated that blogs are highly rated by consumers with regards to con- fidence, popularity and influence. Indeed, blogs are in the top 5 most credible internet sources, being more important than Twitter to form opinions, and more important than Facebook when it comes to purchase decisions. We constantly find reasons to justify the importance attached to the blogosphere, be the fears that it generates, or the opportu- nities that it provides. A major problem is the anonymity that these networks allow, as defamatory strategies can be adopted using an occluded identity, with no consequences to the authors. In the beginning, blogs in Portugal were controversial due to anonymous accusations of plagiarism (in the case of the blog Freedom to Copy, which accused the writer Miguel Sousa Tavares of having copied parts of his book Equador), or disinforma- tion campaigns (as in the case of the blog Muito Mentiroso, which accused elements of the Ministério Público and the of the intelligence police of having orchestrated ac- cusations against innocent people in the Casa Pia case, related to the sexual abuse of children). In other regions of the world, blogs also made it to the front pages in cases of manipulation and propaganda (Público, 18/03/2011)2. Despite these setbacks, blogs have been mostly referred to as spaces of freedom, where opinions and information can circulate freely. In countries where freedom of ex- pression is severely restricted, such as Iran, blogs have been described as flourishing, active and very influential in the public arena. In relation to the recent uprising that came to be known as the ‘Arab Spring’, newspapers presented several reports on how blogs helped build the opposition against the regime for several years (New York Times, 12/10/20113; Público, 14/02/20114). The contents of blogs are even, in some cases, news- worthy (Sol, 11/10/20115; Público, 27/02/20116, 31/12/20097). Several lines of research all over the world have especially favoured the potential of blogs towards building a public sphere for political debate and discussion of alterna- tives for the government of societies (see, for example, Pole, 2010 or Tremayne, 2007). In 2004, blogs had a prominent role in the U.S. Presidential election, consolidating their importance in the public arena, which had been growing since the attack of the Twin Towers, in September 2001, particularly in the case of the so-called ‘warblogs’ (blogs that focused particularly on the invasion of Iraq). Politicians and citizens realized the importance of this new tool, and while many voters sought blogs for discussion and in- formation on politics, political candidates have also started using the platform to create personal blogs. 1 http://technoratimedia.com/report/ 2 http://www.publico.pt/Tecnologia/eua-tem-planos-para-criar-contas-de-propaganda-nas-redes-sociais-1485514 3 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/world/africa/a-blogger-at-arab-springs-genesis.html?_r=2 4 http://www.publico.pt/Mundo/jovem-blogger-siria-condenada-a-cinco-anos-de-prisao-1480266 5 http://sol.sapo.pt/inicio/Sociedade/Interior.aspx?content_id=30649 6 http://www.publico.pt/Local/provocacoes-em-formato-low-cost-para-melhorar-as-nossas-cidades-1482395 7 http://www.publico.pt/Sociedade/palavras-da-decada--b-1415918 254 Comunicação e Sociedade, vol. 25, 2014 The (non)regulation of the blogosphere: the ethics of online debate . Elsa Costa e Silva The traditional political communication made its way to the blogosphere, using the new technological potential to increase the exposure of voters to campaign messages and propaganda. But a new phenomenon of horizontal, political communication, be- tween peers, outside the institutionalized barriers of party organizations or government, also began to gain ground on the Internet.