As could be expected, mainstream media is now considering how the Mumbai attacks were reported with regards to citizen journalists breaking the story and supplying the baseline of the reporting.
The Independent argues "Twittering is not how to supply news", saying that BBC was playing Russian roulette with it`s editorial integrity by including a live update from Twitter on it`s website during the attacks.
As I`ve blogged about earlier, for all the good citizen journalism coming out of Mumbai it wasn`t all good. A lot of it was gibberish, repetitive or unhelpful. Some were in the know, others just wanted to be heard.
To me, the biggest ethical dilemma seems to be that mainstream media can`t possibly check all the facts if they include a live update from citizen journalists.
BBC News website editor Steve Herrmann admitted that BBC "will need to take more care in how it uses lightening fast, unsubstantiated citizen posts in the future."
Is there a need for an international ethical standard when mainstream media is dealing with citizen journalism?
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