Having a 'real' job, while in school has good and bad qualities. Bad, because I am expected to do the same job as someone who didn't have class to go to, and homework to do. But good for obvious other reasons. I also feel that being at a 'real' job while being in a class such as Journalism Ethics, I scruntize what I am doing a lot more than the people I work with.
Working in a city magazine has its good aspects. I feel like I know a lot more about the city, and the people in it. Working for marketing I don't do as much writing as the people in editorial, but it is small and theres always overlapping. Marketing is in charge of writing the blurbs that appear in the 'social studies' section, where there are write ups about past events and I am also in charge of a lot of the reviews and writings on the website, including the events postings.
The problem I have, an ethical question, is...is it okay for me to write stories about parites that I didn't attend? And to talk about the people there that I have never met? Tell people to go to an event, especially one they will be spending money one, that I didn't go to and really have no personal knowledge of. To choose one restaurant over another because I've heard from a friend its good, or it appeals more to my tastes, or their website was prettier than the other or more comprehensive, or easy to navigate, when I haven't been to either restaurant. To promote one restaurant or business over another because they advertise with us? To put their name first on the search engine of looking up places to go and not putting up another one. To not list events on our website that are sponsered by San Francisco magazine (our competitor), though it may be for a great charity.
I suppose this isn't one story, or something I saw this week, but has been questions on my mind of where do I draw the line. Is it ethical for me to be doing what I do now? Should I set up standards of how I conduct business or is it really that big of a deal?
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3 comments:
the thing about opinions and reviews is that... not everyone's going to agree with you.
someone's going to go to a party or a restaurant that you wrote about and have a really good time and then start raving about... someone else might go and be like that was the shittiest place i've been to, that person has no idea what she's talking about.
I suppose it has to do with the different tastes and standards that everyone has.
when you do choose another restaurant over another becuase it advertises with you, i see it as more of a business deal. it's like an unwritten rule almost. besides, you can't really diss your clients and why would you want someone to advertise with you if you didn't like their business.
how ethical is all this? well, how ethical do you want to be? I think you're more ethical than journalists who chase after movie stars and jam cameras in their faces. No one can really get hurt, physically or mentally, when reading what you write. no one gets defamed in your writing (as least i don't think so..) I think it's more the level of how ethical you are as opposed to a" you're either ethical or you're not" kind of thing. and you're not high up the unethical ladder at all :)
-clair
Clair has a point in that many of the things you are writing about are -- I guess the word is -- fluffy and not who is the best heart transplant surgeon. My opinions might be stronger if I hadn't worked for four years at a city magazine where we did many "compromised" things -- if our restaurant critic didn't like an advertiser we would not make him rewrite but we wouldn't run the review. But our excuse was always that we did certain dubious things so that we could other more substantive things: greatest good for the greatest number. The fact you working in marketing really complicates it. The umbrella problem may be how this stuff is labeled. At Atlanta Magazine in *some* instances we made clear that certain parts of the magazine were not written by the editorial staff. My word, we could talk about this kind of stuff forever. Bring it up in class again.
In regards to your questions about it being okay to write about parties and places you haven't been to and about people you haven't really met...
In my opinion, if it's a story (feature/news), I would think that as long as you do a great amount of research about these places, people and events, it would be okay. However, if it's a review, I think the more ethical thing to do is to actually go to these places and meet these people.. to avoid being too vague. I think it would sound more convincing if the reader knows that you've actually "been there, done that" rather than just relying on things you've only heard..
As for telling people what events to go to and what restaurant to choose over another even though the costs are high and your tastes are different.. what I've learned is not to be too biased. What I would do when writing reviews like these is to just tell it exactly the way I've experienced it, even if my experiences at that place wasn't the greatest. Like Clair said, not everyone's going to agree with you, but there will also be people who are loyal supporters of your magazine and also people out there who are always willing to try something new...
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