Blogger Disclosure Regulation – Who and how to implement it in Singapore?
Posted on 06. Oct, 2009 by Claudia in Internet
From the number of Tweets, plurk conversation and MSN chatters. Looks like the talk is picking up. Started from an article on NYtimes – Soon, Bloggers must give full disclosure, bloggers, advertisers and agencies now have to step up their responsibilities and for some, wake up their idea of keeping things hush hush. Its the social media! How much more do we have to remind ourselves (and the companies) that full disclosure and transparency is utmost important in this new media economy?
Talks have been going round about credibility and integrity of bloggers in Singapore. Being paid to write = not credible? What about those writers who are hired by companies to run a content blog focusing on their products, services or campaigns? They may look and behave just like any other blogger out there, but the blog they run is due to the payment of Company X for a campaign. And if being paid to write means tarnishing the credibility of a blogger, isn’t it worst if one is being paid to write but doesn’t disclose it? Bloggers have to understand that there is a great difference between an advertorial (e.g. paid post by company or agency) and an editorial (e.g. a blog post crafted at own free will). Though the line is blurred in many situations, but if full disclosure is made, wouldn’t it be more credible as you are being truthful to your readers?
The thing now is to draw a clearer line between a paid post and a genuine review or post. If there’s direct monetary payment for a blog post, then its clear that it is an advertorial, be it the content coming from the blogger himself or an agency crafted content which the blogger simply copy and paste onto his blog. But what if there is no direct monetary gain on the blogger’s side? Does payment in kind, for example, Company A provides the latest camera for Blogger A to try, write a personal experience review on it and later get to keep the camera for good. An advertorial? Or perhaps better crafted as a sponsored review?
However, if let’s say Company B provides the latest camera to Blogger B to try and keep, doesn’t requite him to post a review of it, but in return through his blog runs a campaign where Blogger B will have to spend time and effort to manage it. If then Blogger B decides to later write a review as he likes the camera a lot and wants to share it with his readers and friends, does Blogger B then have to disclose that the camera is a payment in kind for a campaign which he did earlier and the post is in no relation and hence now classified as an advertorial. Imagine having to disclose all these in his post! A paragraph will have to be dedicated to disclosure already isn’t it?
So I guess the question boils down to, how the blogger is being engaged and remunerated for. What is a paid advertorial, sponsored post and a sponsored review? Do they all mean the same thing? If not, how can one differentiate?
Now, on to the other side of the picture…
Companies and brands will also have to understand that the bloggers and anyone online with an identity, has got their reputation and online estates to protect. Telling them not to mention that a post is sponsored is as good as telling the reputable and credible blogger to lie to their readers. If more bloggers eventually adhere to this request, then how do you, as part of the company and as a reader, in future trust what these previously known credible bloggers be saying on their blog? You as a reader wants the truth be told too right?
I then come to the final problem to all these talks and discussions. Who’s going to take the step and get some action done? A reputable and recognised body will have to take the step to implement such regulations in Singapore, and they will have to do their checks and audits. From looks of it, the best player to do this would be MDA isn’t it? They’re the one passing regulations for the main stream media, why not social media? Or some of us would want to differ with “Social media is the voices of people, hence such regulations should be passed by the people instead.” (Think the disband Bloggers Association). Alright! Power to the people! But do you have the recognition, money and resources to do it? Who should do it? How should they do it?
Blogger Disclosure Regulation – Who and how to implement it in Singapore? You tell me!
More thoughts and readings on similar topics:
- The End of Marketer-Blogger Relationship by Sean Corcoran
- Interesting viewpoint here – Changing the way music/ book reviews being conducted from techdirt (Link discovered via @mrbrown)
About Claudia
5 Responses to “Blogger Disclosure Regulation – Who and how to implement it in Singapore?”
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This topic is going to be very challenging, interesting and stumbling. Even before the thought of regulating blogger disclosure, the fundamental of the blogsphere, using the Internet, would need to be regulated first & foremost and this had proved a lot more difficult than implementation since Internet slowly entered into the mainstream maybe around late 90s ??
Before going into companies engaging bloggers, how about companies engaging real life people, getting them to spread the goodness by word of mouth yet not using the internet or their blogs to broadcast ? If this is not addressed, it would lead to double standards.
If ever there is a need to monitor, it’s going to be quite a lot of debates, discussions, arguments and without the fundamentals & principles in place, we won’t reach who can govern or monitor.
This might happen, it might not, nevertheless, it’s a good review for blogging and everything internet. Many discussions, points of views, would probably be brought up. Would be good to document, collect & discuss at upcoming gathering/conferences.
Just my thoughts & views…. Would be interesting to read others views & opinions !
JH
http://www.photojournalist-tgh.tv
I doubt this will take off. Not with the authorities here.
The publishing industry has been been debating about the getting print audited as a legal requirement for print license but it was never implemented as the authorities said it should let the industry decide.
I believe the same argument will apply to the blog-o-sphere where the authorities will ask the industry to decide.
Should bloggers admit they are being paid for coverage? Yes, if they want to continue with the trust of the readers.
But it can be tricky though. I believed recently there was an event that the organiser will give an “ang pao” for attending an event and for blogging about it. Well, I saw a few Singapore bloggers attending the event and not blogged about this “ang pao”.
Then again, that was the last and only event for bloggers that the organisers ever did.
So, let the industry decide.
No ang pow how to plug ang pow?
What you have highlighted is an interesting issue which seems to be more and more common these days. There are several conflicts here:
1) If one tags a post as an advertorial, doesn’t that immediately reduce the credibility of that product or service vis-a-vis others that are not tagged as advertorial? Honestly, I don’t read posts that are blatantly advertorials in general, and I wonder if anybody truly does.
2) How does one decide how much benefit would entail an ethical issue for a blogger? For example, if I am a hotel operator, and I invite bloggers and their family members to stay free for a night and they are to then blog about it, would that be considered a benefit? But then again, that’s what publicists have been doing for eons with traditional media journalists anyway.
3) How about friendship oriented posts? Must a blogger disclose his or her friends and their respective businesses too? For example, if my good friend is opening a cafe or a restaurant, I surely can support him or her with a review.
4) Finally, the buck must surely start and stop somewhere, if people want to make social media a part of their living. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio survive almost entirely on the takings of advertising. Right now, social media tools are largely considered amateur channels, ie we can consider bloggers a tuition teachers or freelancers (if making money is an objective) rather than a profession. However, if the sector grows into a serious media channel, some form of guidelines may be useful.
I think the fundamental point is whether the blogger truly believes in the product or service that he or she is blogging about, regardless of any form of monetary exchange. Any blogger who is worth his or her salt would refrain from puffing up a crap product regardless of the amount of financial or material benefit gained. If he or she does that, the long-term effects will certainly be clear – drop in readership, poor reputation, and reduced credibility.
Finally, I feel that any form of regulation is a negative step for the social media world in Singapore or the rest of the world. Policies and rules should only come in place if there is widespread misconduct, which fortunately has not occurred.