Permission to Publish
By Richard Jordan
I fear publishing content on the internet.
No medium before the internet has had such an immediate, far flung, and lasting reach. Newspaper, books, movies need a significant time to construct the medium, use highly structured distribution networks, and inherently degrade within a quantifiable time period.
A common saying is that "publishing anything online is like posting it to the front page of the New York Times." And unlike the times, there is no editor. And the content stays there forever. Imagine your great grandchildren reading it.
In the style of this discussion group style blog, I want to share my publishing pain with you all and welcome your thoughts or silence. When I distrubute content online, I fear if certain people will read it, what they will think, and feel powerless to control the spread of the content. My reputation is on the line with every video, specification sheet, and story I produce.
I try to live by the principle in life to never say anything behind someone's back that you would not say to their face. I fail constantly offline. The internet is the ultimate test of this principle.
Don't get me wrong. My articles are pretty lame and have little importance in regards to reality. But even so, I think it is a natural feeling – I hope so – to be concerned about the effect of what you publish on the lives of those people whom your content relates to.
For instance many times I think of quoting people that said something pertenant to a topic I am discussing and sometimes I do slip them in there – sometimes anonymously, othertimes not. I hope they will never research that topic or google their name. Or if they do stumble on it, I hope they like what I wrote.
An obvious answer is to get approval from that person to quote them or name them. But darn is it tempting, and I confess my guilt, to just skip that step. Other times it is impossible or at least very difficult. I do not have contacts for everyone or time to track them down. I have unlimited excuses.
Another example is when I review a product or place. Then my content does not affect a person but a company or posibly an industry. I have contacted and worked together with companies to make reviews acceptable. But I lose somthing.
There is a principle of unbiased journalism to never share you writing with your subjects. If you do then they affect what you write. They do not like this or that and might want subjective details changed. You lose control of your writing and no longer are the sole author.
I am not here to stir up trouble or dirt – to be Perez Hilton or Julianne Assange. Thankfully, I have never actually had anyone contact me in rage. But darn do I worry if what I publish online will displease anyone – the cold knowing stare and silence.
How about you? Do you ever fear the openess of the internet?
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