Monday, February 21, 2005

Ethics and the blogosphere

What are the rules when commercial entities offer payments or freebies to get bloggers to write about them?

In the US this issue has become a concern for many media watchers. JD Lasica asks some important questions in a piece for OJR:
"Just how far can marketers go in soliciting blog coverage of their products or services? Does the practice of paying bloggers to blog about a product amount to an advertorial, embedded infomercial or product placement – and does such an arrangement violate the compact of trust between reader and writer? Or is it simply the next logical step in the blogosphere’s evolution from hobby to business opportunity? Do different rules apply to journalists who blog?"

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