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• Friday, March 6, 2009 01:39 PM

  Good news!

  Congratulations on your award and Happy Birthday!

  You'll be happy to know that many journalists are very concerned about anonymity as it pertains to credibility, trust and good journalism...

  Newspapers highly discourage anonymous remarks, for instance, and editors are more likely than readers to want that principle applied to reader comments online, according to the Online Journalism Credibility Study released Tuesday by the Associated Press Managing Editors group and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.
  
  Some 70% of editors surveyed said requiring commenters to disclose their identities would support good journalism, while only 45% of the public did.
  
  http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/2008-04-08-online-media-credibility_N.htm?csp=15
  
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  We are at an odd and contradictory time in journalism ethics when the credibility of our journalism has been harmed by journalists’ overuse and abuse of confidential sources. And yet anonymity is common and expected in many online exchanges, and we want to build online audience, so we explore what is the right balance between transparent identification and complete anonymity. As with many decisions, this is a matter of trade-offs. Anonymity brings more participation, and perhaps more traffic. But it also brings more objectionable content and more unsupported statements, which can harm your credibility and turn some users off.
  
  http://www.notrain-nogain.org/train/Res/Ethics/8user.asp
  
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  Many news Web sites now permit readers to post comments on blogs and news stories or to share their thoughts in message forums. Often, readers may do so without having to give their names. Defenders of anonymity say it fosters more candid discussion, but critics charge that it damages trust and encourages incivility.
  
  

  http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/7/1/8/6/p271866_index.html

  —EJ Read EJ's other letters
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