TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG (AND WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT): THAT IS THE ETHICAL QUESTION

I didn’t have to search particularly long and hard for the inspiration to write this blog entry.  In the field for which I currently work, I have been challenged firsthand with ethical dilemmas and situations.  And while matters and and duties regarding communications and media are not by any means my primary responsibilities on the job, they do  often times become a part of what I do.

One of the many secondary tasks of my job is to keep our office up-to-date on social media trends and to dabble in blogging and Tweeting (I say “dabble” for the simple fact that I don’t get to update it quite as much as I’d like to or should).   And while the blog itself is now updated far less often than the Twitter page, I still keep it going for the simple fact of saying that we have a blog.

I found myself in a predicament a little over a year ago while blogging.  Thanks to my recruiting endeavors, I had been in correspondence with a prospective student who was serving overseas.  Considering that I deal primarily in recruiting students from Fairfield County, to receive a phonecall in my office from the Middle East one morning was quite exciting.

The student was eager to start their college studies upon finishing their final tour of duty (which was wrapping-up in a few weeks’ time), and had always had a particular interest in our institution and the programs that we offer.  Even better was the fact that the current GI Bill would be contributing generously to their studies.

I looked at this as an exciting moment of sorts, having the opportunity to correspond and communicate with somebody overseas, and help them get a leg up on their college studies.  I also saw this as a potential opportunity for “good PR”.  Suddenly I was inspired. 

I quickly typed what I considered to be a great blog post about my correspondence with a solider, the country where they were calling from, where in Connecticut they were excited to return to in a few short weeks, and what they planned on studying when they came to college.  I then did what I was always do when finishing up a draft of a piece of writing: I walked away from it for a couple of hours. 

Over the course of the next two hours or so, I had an unsettling feeling that continued to grow.  Could I be doing something wrong by going into such specifics about this solider? Of course I wasn’t mentioning their name, but could the mere mention of the country where they were stationed and the town in Connecticut where they were eager to return be some sort of ethical violation? Worse (and this me at my most paranoid), could it be some sort of violation of National Security?   Of course, on a good day this particular blog would have maybe five or six views, but one can never be entirely certain of who is reading their blog. 

I think of Sisela Bok’s model and the required first step to “consult your conscience” and ask yourself how you feel about the particular action.  In consulting my conscience, I knew that something wasn’t right, and that something kept me from clicking “publish” on the blogging software.  I quickly gutted the draft, and made the focus of that particular blog entry the overarching theme of veterans returning to the United States and using the GI Bill to fund their college studies.  I did include a brief anecdotal paragraph or two about how I had been in correspondence with one soldier overseas, but I kept it very vague. 

Blogging and microblogging make it dangerously easy for just about anyone to write anything and have it published for everyone to see on the internet.  Having taught writing to people of all ages for several years, I have always stressed the importance of considering who it is you are writing for, and I learned that I should practice what I preach.  I think it will be crucial to discuss in CM503 the necessity of consulting ones conscience and taking an objective look at ones work before clicking the “publish” button and putting it out there for the general public to see.