An open discussion about online ethics. Please join in.

As more student media embrace what some call the “fifth estate” – new and social media – as part of their way to keep their audiences informed, student journalists may think they need new legal and ethical guidelines.

Will existing guidelines, the heart of the fourth estate,  still have a role? Will new hardware and equipment demand new ethics? What will we create as crossover standards? What will silently slip away?

Into that framework must come a discussion of ethics in the online world of scholastic media.

One only need look at scholastic media cases like Layshock and Doninger to see the need. Will we embrace the new and adapt the old, paraphrasing Simon and Garfunkle, and be journalists who “hear what we want to hear and disregard the rest?”

It’s the best of the rest we want to look at here, and in several upcoming posts, empower an open discussion on online ethics forscholastic journalism.

In general, then, this discussion will look at several general points, starting with the Online Discussion page.

Links below, and there, will take you to the following pages:

• Online ethics discussion
• Information gathering considerations
• Promotion of work
• Fairness and transparency.

In these rounds of discussion we are not looking for answers; those we hope come later, with you involved.

We want input and questions.

So, over the next several days, please join us in a discussion about ethics in the online world. How do you think ethics will shape it? React to what is posted, follow the links; talk about your experiences in these areas. Add something new.