By Alexi Knock, Staff Writer

Sophomore Amanda Schweitzer created a Formspring in order to acquire anonymous advice for an internship. Instead, she received 70 comments within one hour, containing mostly personal insults.

“At first the comments were good,” said Schweitzer. “Soon, it turned into a ‘bash me’ website until I decided to shut it down. People just have nothing better to do with their lives.”As Schweitzer and many other students have learned the hard way, there are many negatives that come along with the positives of instant communication.

On Wednesday, March 24, the Long Island Press Club sponsored the Social Media Ethics panel  in order to discuss this new era of the internet. Jeff Pulver, University graduate and founder of Vonage, Dominick Miserandino, digital entrepreneur and journalist, and Chris Vaccaro, University graduate and patch.com editor  enlightened students and faculty with their views of mass media ethics. They explained that access to a computer can make anyone a pseudo journalist, and the consequences, as well as benefits that stem from that.

Pulver, who is extremely active on many social media websites, shed light on the positive aspect of what he called “real-time web.”

“This is the evolution of presence,” said Pulver.  “Information is readily available to everyone, and there are no more gatekeepers.”

Pulver is a strong believer that the internet can be a medium for making connections with people in a way that was inconceivable in past generations.

Robert Papper, the chair of the journalism department feels although the internet can help one communicate with millions of people, it should not come as a replacement for traditional modes of making connections.

“I don’t think there’s any substitute for talking face to face. Talking on the internet is a good way to connect, but it misses certain elements,” said Papper.

Pulver uses the internet as a venue that allows him to make these in-person interactions. “In this last year, I’ve never traveled more or hugged more,” said Pulver.

Although exchanging information via the internet can be extremely empowering, it brings about new ethical issues that journalists must adhere to.

“With accessibility comes responsibility,” said professor Carolyn James. This responsibility becomes even more important when information is being read by millions of people.

“There’s a world of information out there, you can find out almost anything about anything. The question is, should you?” said Miserandino.

In a time where there’s so much demand to be the first and the fastest, the line between  accuracy and speed often gets blurred. “The hazard of instant communication is that if you can do it instantly, there’s a tendency to do it,” said Papper. “We need to be accurate first a foremost. We can retract a mistake, but once the original is online, it stays forever.”
The panelists agreed that ethics need to be followed, no matter the medium.

“It’s our responsibility as journalists to be ethical at all times,” said Vaccaro. “Now with the internet, that old school thought kind of gets thrown out the window.”

According to these journalists, ethics should be at the forefront of a writer’s mind, and it separates the professionals from the citizen journalists.

“Always go with the ethics,” said Professor Susan Murphy. “It might not get you first on a twitter feed, but it’s never going to get you in trouble.”