In the sometimes fraught relationship between old and new media, the BBC is the latest organisation to come under the spotlight.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press sparked a furious row when it ordered bloggers to stop copying its content. Last week, the BBC faced accusations of dubious ethics for the way its flagship current affairs programme Panorama dealt with bloggers who contributed to its investigation into Primark's clothing manufacturers.
The programme, which pulled in 4.2 million viewers for BBC1 on Monday night, used extensive interviews with writers for the Shiny Media network of blogs and Shiny Media video footage of the opening of the Primark store on Oxford Street in London.
Panorama interviewed Gemma Cartwright, editor-in-chief of Shiny's popular fashion site Catwalk Queen, Isabelle O'Carroll; the deputy editor; and Abi Silvester, the editor of Shiny's ethical shopping site HippyShopper.com. The interviews were used at length throughout the programme, but the trio were attributed only as 'fashionistas' or 'Primark fans'. This was despite the fact that the women were contacted via Shiny Media and spoke to the BBC in their professional capacity at the Shiny Media office.
According to Shiny, the Panorama production team was there for three hours and the women were not paid for their time. However, the BBC has claimed the bloggers did not ask for a credit and were never told they would get one.
The Panorama programme also used Catwalk Queen video clips, including footage of the opening of the Primark store on Oxford Street. Shiny Media gave permission for the BBC to use the clips but the Panorama credits list the clips as being "courtesy of YouTube".
Ashley Norris, strategy director for Shiny Media, cried foul with a blog post, accusing the BBC of "arrogance" and showing "contempt" for bloggers. "Yet while the programme highlighted low pay and child labour the programme makers seemed to have no ethical qualms about screwing British journalists," he wrote.
Norris told MediaGuardian.co.uk the emails and conversations between the Panorama production team and the Shiny Media writers were always on the understanding that the contributors would be commented in an official capacity and credited accordingly.
He says permission was given for use of the YouTube videos on the basis that there would be a further link to Catwalk Queen on the BBC Panorama web page. In the event the only link went up 36 hours later after Shiny Media chased it up and did not provide any context to link the people in the programme to the site.
In any case, Norris says it's disingenuous to suggest that credits have to be explicitly requested and granted. "They would never do that with another media organisation, such as IPC or Emap, but with social media bloggers they think don't need to credit these people," he said.
Regarding the videos, a BBC spokesman says it is usual practice to attribute video as "Source: YouTube" or "Footage posted on the internet" when they were "uncertain" about the clips.
On Thursday the BBC was standing by its decision not to credit the bloggers, saying that they hadn't asked for a credit and weren't told they would get one. A BBC spokesman issued the following statement:
"We are of course grateful for their participation in the programme. We were fair and upfront during all of our discussions. However, no assurances were given by the BBC, nor sought by the interviewees, regarding how they would be credited in the film."
On Friday, after queries from MediaGuardian.co.uk and several critical blog posts - including this one, this one, and this one - the BBC has taken a more apologetic tone.
The corporation issued a second statement on Friday, which for some reason refers to the Shiny Media journalists as "the girls":
"In the making of the programme we talked to a range of contributors - many of whom provided valuable insights. In hindsight we perhaps should have given the girls an onscreen credit because of their excellent contribution to the programme. This was overlooked in the final stages of a long and complicated investigation."
An apology with similar wording but a more personal tone and fewer qualifications has also been posted on the Complete Tosh blog, apparently from Panorama editor Sandy Smith.
While the BBC's purpose is not to promote commercial companies, this strikes me as rather shoddy treatment. Not only does it do a disservice to the bloggers, who donated the BBC nine hours of their collective time, but it also does a disservice to Panorama viewers. If the views of Shiny Media's bloggers were so interesting, shouldn't the BBC tell its audience where they can find more of them? And isn't there a public service value in the BBC reaching out to and engaging with new media?
It seems the BBC thinks so. In its statement on Friday, the corporation went on to say: "Panorama has a new multiplatform editor, a bigger and better website on the way precisely because we recognise the new talent and opportunities out there."
