The Ins and Outs of Blogging Disclosure
So when are you supposed to disclose? ReadWriteWeb says:
- Financial association — Not advertising, but less clear affiliations such as investments, ownership, or partial-ownership. For example, If you own stock in Company A then disclose that you do when writing about said company.
- Employment — If you are paid by a company you are writing about as an employee, contractor, or consultant, you should disclose that. For example, if i wrote about my employer, Company A, then i should have disclosed that i am an employee of said company.
- Competition — If im writing specifically about a direct competitor to Company A, especially if im writing in a negative way slash criticism, i think it would be prudent to disclose that.
- Personal involvement - “This is by far the trickiest. As I illustrated before, personal or emotional involvement with stories can get complicated and, well, personal. I don’t think it always needs to be disclosed. For example, I don’t feel the need to disclose my political views whenever I write about politics. However, if I’m reviewing a company run by a close friend, I would disclose that fact or pass the story to a writer with less emotional involvement.”
Disclosure is a tricky business and as a practice is still ill-defined even in the realm of traditional journalism. The general idea is that anything that might be seen as a potential conflict of interest between a writer and the subject of his story should be disclosed to the reader. If I invested in a startup I am writing about, for example, or if the CEO is my best friend, I should disclose that fact. But it’s not always so cut and dry.
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