The Ethics of Blogging

During that last week at the Training Center I somehow got guilted into attending an optional session on the Ethics of Blogging. It sounded super boring, and I had already planned to spend the time blogging (ironic, no?), but I went anyway, and as it turns out, I’m really glad I did.

The session was facilitated by one of our trainers who is currently a PCV. We were a small group sitting in a circle and just talking, bringing up thoughts and discussing them. We brought up a lot of issues I'd never thought of before, and I’d like to share some of them with you.

I’ve written previously that I want to relay as much of my experience here as possible to people back home. I think that’s an important part of what Peace Corps is. And a big part of my approach has been sharing stories, not just facts. But there’s a fine line between sharing my experiences and sharing others’ personal lives. So where do you draw the line? If I were in America, writing about my experiences with Americans, I would write from the perspective of knowing that they could very well have full access to the stories and pictures I publish about them. In fact, I’ve been doing that when writing about my experiences with the other Americans here. So in theory, it shouldn’t be any different when writing about Malians. Sure, they may never have access to this information. But that doesn’t take away their right to privacy. This may be especially important because I write so much about and post so many pictures of kids. If these were American children, would their parents be ok with me talking about their kids, and putting their pictures online for the world to see? Am I accurately portraying Malian culture with what I choose to publish, or am I distorting – good or bad – what is most likely the only personal perceptions many people will ever have of Mali?

Part of our discussion revolved around our responsibility to inform Malians of what we’re doing. Explain what the Internet is. Describe what it means to write a blog, and to post pictures on Facebook. Ask permission to include our Malian friends and family in these things. But how, how can I do that, when I barely have enough language skills just to function? How on earth do you explain the Internet without experiencing it, to someone who may know what a computer is but has never actually seen one?

I find that my anthropology background is creating conflicting views. On one hand, like I’ve said, I feel a responsibility to share this experience with people back home. That’s part of my job here, after all. On the other hand, there are indeed ethics involved. I don’t want to sugar-coat my time here, but I don’t want to irrationally bash it either. I want to relay my experiences as objectively and realistically as possible. But I can’t really be objective, as everything is from my own perspective. And unlike if I were writing a book about my experiences after returning to the States, I don’t have that time lapse to look back and reflect and understand before sharing. I don’t have an ethics committee or board to review my work. I don’t have an editor to fine-tune my writing. It’s just me, here and now, living this life and wanting to share it.

I try to compromise by writing blogs posts onto a Word Document and waiting a bit to post them so I can reread them later. For my last post, about the Third Goal of Peace Corps, I edited it several times and had a friend read it to make sure it was coming across the way I intended it. And from here on out, I’ll think twice before I share a story. I still want to share as much as possible, but at the same time, I want to be respectful. The Malian people, have invited me to their home: their country, their community, the houses they live in. And I need to respect their privacy just as I would respect the privacy of an American who invited me into their home. So bear with me as I strive to find a balance. I have a feeling this will be an ongoing activity for the next 2 years, but I hope along the way I can find a way to satisfy both sides of the conflict, and portray a full and rich experience without compromising privacy and objectivity.