Are your online ethics different?

The Washington Post has now put its digital publishing guidelines online.

Section titles include: Social Media, Taste and Tone and Third-Party Content.

The Post’s ombudsman says that some people aren’t going to like the fact that the guidelines allow reporters to sometimes post directly to the Web without the content going through an editor.

Others, like New York University’s Jay Rosen, have spoken out against the social media guidelines, which he calls an “invitation to self-censorship.”

The digital guide is apparently a supplement to the print edition’s stylebook, which is NOT a public document.

This all raises many interesting questions:

• Why the transparency with the online guide and not the print guide?
• How are the standards online different than those in print?  Do they have to be?

And take a look at our word picture from the guidelines.  The emphasis is on content, with news, information and social right behind.

Seems like these guidelines are on the right track.  What do you think?