After reading this article about reporters lurking on message boards and chat rooms to gain information for articles or research, I've determined that it is appropriate for journalists to "lurk" online if they still hold to their ethics.
I think that message boards or chat rooms could be useful to journalists who are doing a story about a certain group and need to know more about them. It only goes over the line when they directly use the information without consent of the individuals involved or directly misrepresent their identities to the members of the forum.
If reporters use such sites, they should do so just to get story ideas, and then conduct their interviews. The web is a great place to get ideas, and research suggests that most journalists use the internet with this purpose in mind.
Should a reporter want to interview subjects found in chats or message boards, they should follow the example of NY Times reporter, Jennifer Egan who identified herself on the message boards and then asked for interview subjects.
Of course, that doesn't mean that journalists are really journalists. Anybody can claim to be a journalist online, therefore it would behove the person being interviewed to do a little research on their own, or request phone or face-to-face interviews to make sure that they aren't being scammed. In addition, journalists need to invest time in the same type of interviews to ensure that the online person isn't a fake.
It would also add to the reporter's credibility if they disclosed what type of interview they performed, whether it is via IM, email or phone.
Clearly, all reporters should be careful when they are using any online source, and online community users should be just as careful because nothing is private on the Internet.
Posted by Julie Young at October 4, 2003 06:54 PM