Blogging has become a sensation in the world of social media. An online journal entry for others to see sounds like a good opportunity for us to express our opinions, but do some people take it too far? How do we know if we can trust what we read?
The debate about honesty in blog writing brings up questions about ghost blogging: a blog run and managed by anonymous author(s), often written on behalf of someone else.
Today there are sites for ghost blogging services such as Worry Free Blogs which boasts its gold, silver and bronze level services. These sites pride themselves on offering “top notch professional-class writers in diverse fields of expertise.” They even go as far as offering blog set up and extras.
Another website, Blog Profs, ensures its clients will have a “steady stream of content for a blog, created by an experienced writer and planning paralegal.” Loaded with testimonial from clients the website offers monthly packages at a cost. They call themselves “professional” bloggers.
Since the term “profs” makes me think of professors, no professionals, why not relate blogs to academia?
When I was in university a disclaimer about plagiarism could be found in every course syllabus, and on the school website. I assume the same can be said about most academic institutions.Plagiarism can be defined as “the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as one’s own original work”.
So isn’t a blog writing service comparable to one that offers the sale of essays online? Can rules about plagiarism apply to non-academic situations?
In academia there are programs such as Turnitin.com to avoid the plagiarism of essays and written assignments. People face severe consequences for passing someone else’s work off as their own. PHDs are revoked, suspensions are handed out, and lasting shame is permanently hanging over academic records.
So what about the consequences of ghost blogging? Just because something is being passed off as personal or opinion based doesn’t necessarily mean questions of authorship don’t apply. These ghost blogging service sites make the debate about ghost blogging all the more visible. Some of us are aware that it happens, but these sites are constant, searchable reminders that anonymous people are actually writing the blogs we read.
What is the point of a CEO posing as the author of a blog when it is becoming so visible and so well known that someone else probably wrote it? and do you think this counts as plagiarism?
