An article posted May 19 on BusinessWeek.com, briefly covers some good background on blogging, ethics and – gasp – regulation by the FTC. The subhead is “The Federal Trade Commission wants bloggers to disclose when they’ve been wooed with cash or freebies from companies they cover.”
The report lists several examples of blog posts that have been written because a company provided a product to the writer at no charge. I wondered: Is this bad? Is it good? Is it any different than what routinely happens in trade publications when articles are written about new cars, boats, trucks or other products?
Seems to me that if a writer, regardless of the communications vehicle being used, is given the latitude to write honestly about his or her experience with the product, what better way to provide readers with valuable information assessing it? That scenario is based on seemingly ethical behavior.
The risk and ethical questions come into play if the person writing about a product is simply regurgitating something positive crafted by the company behind the product or service or simply not accurately reporting a true experience.
The questions become:
Does listing that some form of compensation has been given for mentioning a product or service within a post help assure an ethical assessment?
Do blogs need governmental oversight?
I’m curious. What do you think?
--Mike B.
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