Online journalists compromised by commercial pressures

The hidden influence of advertisers in online newsrooms is the biggest ethical issue facing journalism today, according to the new dean of the University of Maryland's College of Journalism, Tom Kunkel.

'In the internet environment, the only way to make money at this time is with advertising,' he said. 'There is pressure to use material that will draw advertising. This is a huge issue that we are already starting to see manifesting itself and that will become increasingly problematical for the industry at large.'

Writing for the influential Poynter Institute site, Kunkel claims that journalists working for internet companies are particularly vulnerable to this type of commercial pressure. When the only source of revenue is advertising, 'then the pressure is relentless to increase advertising revenue and to write copy that is "sticky", as they call it - content that gets more eyes and more page views. And that translates into tremendous pressure on content providers to be advertiser friendly.'

There are also ethical challenges for journalists working in the traditional sectors, according to Kunkel.

'As pressure increases to do more stuff and do it faster and in real time, I think the pressure on good journalists not to get into slipshod habits will be tremendous. Already there's more pressure on reporters to get out ahead of themselves. You see this now on cable TV with a big story, with 24-hour talk ad naseum, where they have no idea what they are talking about.'

Kunkel cites the coverage of the Elian Gonzales story as typical of the US media's 'pattern of big-story coverage'.

'The problem is the turning on of the microphones and the cameras without any filtering. And this is very troubling. This is the direct result of the 24-hour news we get. It is a television phenomenon that is moving to the internet,' he said.

Kunkel cites the coverage of the Elian Gonzales story as typical of the US media's 'pattern of big-story coverage.'

'The problem is the turning on of the microphones and the cameras without any filtering. And this is very troubling. This is the direct result of the 24-hour news we get. It is a television phenomenon that is moving to the internet,' he said.

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