Responsible Blogging

Responsible Blogging

My personal feeling a blogs and blogging in general is mixed (the irony being that you're reading this on my blog).  I've read good ones, funny ones, poor ones and some that are just downright weird - weird to the point where I just don't get the point or the message - if there even was one.

What I did recognise it as was a form of self-expression - the digital evolution of graffiti or the modern way for social commentary to manifest itself.  Away from the actual blog there was a mystery about the blogger.  Who were they?  Why were they doing this?  Because in many instances the blogger as a person was anonymous it came to pass that bloggers thought you could say anything you liked and you could get away with it.  The law caught up with the social media revolution and prosecutions for some kinds of random, defamatory or outright spurious comments passed off as freedom of speech made the mainstream press - showing that just because something was digital and anonymous that they law still applied.

A few years along this road blogs and bloggers still have a positive and negative effect on the lives and fortunes of many people.  Celebrities still benefit and suffer at the hands of these citizen-journalists and many a new product campaign is now conceived with the "blogger strategy" a cornerstone.

More recently I've encountered the slightly darker side of this aspect of our digital era.  A recent review left on iTunes relating to the REALRIDER app (www.realrider.com) rated the app as just 1 out of 5.  That's disappointing enough but when the review is explicit and full of inaccuracies and half-baked theories then its easy to get angry about this.  To add insult to injury it then turns out that the person is a professional blogger and a trained journalist to boot.

Someone not liking we what do at REALRIDER is not the issue.  You can't please everyone.  What I had expected from a trained journalist is a call or an email to get clarification on the issues they were commenting on before the review was published.  Is that not the responsible way to tackle something that your about to heavily criticise?  Its seems very amateurish to review something - make a ton of factual mistakes and leave the scene of the accident with no responsibility for the damage a review like that might cause.

REALRIDER as a company is in its infancy and as such is just taking its first steps towards changing the way the motorcycle sees the use of technology in the context of keeping motorcyclists safe.  A review like the one we saw can lower confidence in the product and the team and cause a business that is looking to establish itself to stumble.  Where is the responsibility here?  Can a business defend itself against these kinds of instances without looking aggressive or thuggish?  What can be done to make irresponsible bloggers accountable for their actions?

There are no real answers to these questions and it's difficult to see how a set of guidelines would establish the difference between a subjective set of opinions and the factual truth in a reliable way.  The he-said / she-said way that we deal with each other when we are confronted by these kinds of situations are the reasons we reach for a lawyer.