PERUGIA, ITALY--(Marketwired - May 2, 2014) - The Online News Association, the world largest organization of digital journalists, today opened up crowdsourcing for its "do-it-yourself" ethics code project, aimed at helping news organizations, startups and individual bloggers and journalists create their own ethics codes.
The team developing the Build Your Own Ethics Code project completed its first draft, covering more than 40 complex ethical issues that may arise in practicing digital journalism. The project is now seeking comments from working journalists to add depth and to cover any missing topics.
The first draft will be publicly presented at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, by Tom Kent, Standards Editor, the Associated Press, who is leading the project for ONA. Crowdsourcing will run for several months, and ONA expect updates to continue for years to keep up with the ever-evolving field.
The initiative, created by 20 journalists and media educators from four nations, is a product of ONA's News Ethics Committee.
"We hope that once journalists have worked through our site," said Jane McDonnell, ONA Executive Director, "they will have a comprehensive, personalized understanding of how they see journalism ethics -- guidelines that can be publicly posted and lived by."
Journalists can participate by visiting http://bit.ly/onacrowdsourcing and leaving comments of 50 words or less. For broader comments or questions, email onaethics at gmail.com.
About ONA
The Online News Association is the world's largest association of digital journalists. ONA's mission is to inspire innovation and excellence among journalists to better serve the public. The membership includes news writers, producers, designers, editors, bloggers, developers, photographers, educators, students and others who produce news for and support digital delivery systems. ONA also hosts the annual Online News Association conference and administers the Online Journalism Awards.
Contact Information:
Jane McDonnell
Executive Director
Online News Association
646.290.7900 (office)
www.journalists.org