gatewatching

There’s ways to go about implementing a code of ethics for bloggers, and there’s ways not to do it. The Federal Trade Commission in the US is trying a punitive approach aimed at curbing instances of blogger payola (or what in the Australian context might best be called ‘cash for comment‘), with fines for misleading blog posts. The problem I see with this is that it’s simply going to be unenforcible; the blogosphere isn’t as clearly structured as the mainstream media industry, where regulations to prevent misleading conduct may work - and (think ‘cash for comment’ again) even here, regulation tends to be taken about as seriously as Wilson Tuckey, so there’s little chance that blogger regulation is going to be effective in any measurable way.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I’ve just published an article on this topic at ABC Unleashed (and reproduced over the fold). Comments - and suggestions for more workable approaches to introducing a bloggers’ code of ethics, if you have any - are very welcome, as always.

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USA, blogging, ethics, media, regulation blogs, cash for comment, ethics, FTC, regulation, USA

Alcopops, petrol tax holidays, who leaked emails from whom… Sometimes its difficult to get serious policy discussion in the MSM (unless, like me, you’re a Fin junkie).

The best way to find out about major policy developments that impact on your areas of concern is through your RSS reader. I thought I’d try to start sharing some of what I get on a semi-regular basis on the blog. We’ve posted about policy matters before, but at the moment there is important stuff coming out pretty well every week that has a direct bearing on citizen journalism and politics online. I thought I might as well stick it all together for readers now and again.

With all the reviews and inquiries going on just now, there will be a mass of reporting coming along shortly which will be informing big policy initiatives. Also, notwithstanding some MSM narratives of the first six months, I’m with Mark Bahnisch and Possum in holding that there is actually a fair bit going on already - you just have to look around in a clear-eyed fashion. There are some fundamental policy shifts slowly being put in place, particularly in the communications area, but for whatever reason it’s not being picked up on by the big outlets. I guess that’s one area where bloggers come into their own.

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ACMA, Steven Conroy, Telstra, blogging, broadband, media literacy, regulation ACMA, blogging, broadband, futures, infrastructure, media literacy, policy, regulation, Steven Conroy, Telstra

The Australian Communications and Media Authority have released their Communications Report for 2006-2007.

ACMA are responsible for regulating broadcasting and communications in Australia. Part of their responsibility is recording and publishing information on the scope of Australia’s communications industires, and the success of broadcasters, telcos and other in meeting their regulatory obligations. This report does all of that, as well as devoting a whole chapter to the state of communications in remote indigenous communities, and another to explaining the importance of improved communications to the Australian economy.

Given that improved communications infrastructure not only has knock-on effects in the broader economy, but is so important to citizen journalism and other forms of online civic participation, it’s disappointing that Australia’s broadband roll-out to date has been so poor. It’s summed up well in this chart.

That’s right: as at the reporting period, a full one third of Australian Internet users are still on connections speeds of 256 kilobytes/second or less. Whether you put this down to market failure, a failure of regulation, or a combination of the two (say, a poorly-conceived, short-sighted privatisation of a dominant telco), it’s a national disgrace.

It puts us well behind any comparable nation in broadband connectivity, and it means that over two million Australian households are significantly disadvantaged - economically, culturally and politically. And that’s not counting all those people who have no connection at all. The worst effects of this broadband drought, naturally, are felt in rural and regional areas.

The Rudd government has promised to address this, but the detail of tomorrow’s budget will tell us whether they’ve invested enough to do anything meaningful about it.

Given that they have, they then just need to get past Telstra.

ACMA, Telstra, broadband, citizen journalism, government, regional bloggers, regulation ACMA, broadband, citizen journalism, economics, government, infrastructure, regional bloggers, regulation, telcos, Telstra