Yes, journalism, especially print media, has been in trouble.  With the evolution of journalism from print to web, things can get confusing, and many media organizations are still adapting.  These organizations are still learning how to profit on the web, such as charging for content versus giving it away for free.  In print media, most of the funds come from advertising, and not from the fee you pay for your morning paper.  In print, it is usually easier to tell an ad from an editorial piece, but with web layouts and dynamic pages, sometimes things can get a bit murky.  Responsible media organizations need to make sure the reader knows when editorial content ends and advertising content begins.

In a leaked letter from Adam Bly to the Sciblings, he explains the importance of advertising to Seed Media, and the industry at large:

SB, like nearly all free content sites, is sustainable because of advertising. But advertising is itself highly unpredictable, as the last year has shown the industry. And securing advertising around topics like physics and evolution is even more challenging as the dearth of ad pages in science magazines indicates. We started experimenting with sponsored blogs a couple of years ago and decided to market long-term sponsorship contracts instead of sporadic advertising contracts. This is not a new idea: respected magazines have been doing the same thing for years (think Atlantic Ideas Festival going on now or The New Yorker Festival, where representatives of sponsoring companies sit on stage alongside writers and thinkers, or advertorials where companies pay to create content — clearly marked as such — instead of just running an ad).

At the end of this excerpt though is the key point- when sponsored blogs are present, they must CLEARLY MARKED AS SUCH.  In a blog post about the scandal, Superbug shared specific guidelines from  American Society of Magazine Editors that state:

We recommend the following standards (subject to change as the medium evolves):
The home page and all subsequent pages of a publication’s Web site should display the publication’s name and logo prominently, in order to clarify who controls the content of the site.
All online pages should clearly distinguish between editorial and advertising or sponsored content. If any content comes from a source other than the editors, it should be clearly labeled. A magazine’s name or logo should not be used in a way that suggests editorial endorsement of an advertiser. The site’s sponsorship policies should be clearly noted, either in text accompanying the article or on a disclosure page (see item 8), to clarify that the sponsor had no input regarding the content.
Hypertext links that appear within the editorial content of a site, including those within graphics, should be at the discretion of the editors. If links are paid for by advertisers, that should be disclosed to users.
Special advertising or “advertorial” features should be labelled as such.

In the case of the Pepsi blog, Food Frontiers, it was not clearly marked as advertising.  There was no transparency.  Instead, the blog sat alongside those of pre-established, respected scientists and writers who earned their invitation to be a part of ScienceBlogs through respect.  David Dobbs wrote a great post on the matter.  Dobbs was just one of many Sciblings who took part in a mass exodus from ScienceBlogs and have been establishing new homes elsewhere on the web…and so now I remind you all to update your RSS feeds and blogrolls, as I have just done, to make sure you support all these wonderful science bloggers on their journeys to new homes on the web.

It is with great sadness that I watch all these bloggers leave ScienceBlogs and find new homes, and marks a changing landscape in the blogosphere.  I urge you all to read Bora’s post on the changing science blogging ecosystem- I cried while reading it.  PZ Myers may have the top-ranked science blog out there, but to me, Bora is the center of the science blogging universe.  To see him leave ScienceBlogs really means the end of an era.

This new era is a strange one.  For nearly two years, I have held ScienceBlogs in high regard.  I’d dreamt of one day being invited to be a Scibling, something I viewed as an honor.  But the recent actions of Seed have tainted that respect, and left a funny taste in my mouth….sort of like when you burp hot-dog flavor while eating an ice-cream cone hours later.  The bad taste may subside, but it all depends on how Seed handles itself in the near future.  I know there are still concerns and issues with those who have chosen to remain at ScienceBlogs, but that several of those individuals are seeking big changes from Seed in order to stay put.  Hopefully their needs are met.  The way Seed chooses to handle itself from here on out will dictate whether or not it will be able to regain the respect it once had.

In late May, Nicholas Kristof wrote an article about the mass persistence of rapes in West Africa.  The article inspired my fellow bloggers Sheril Kirshenbaum and Dr. Isis to launch an initiative in early June called Silence is the Enemy. At its launch, Sheril wrote:

“Today begins a very important initiative called Silence Is The Enemy to help a generation of young women half a world away. Why?  Because they are our sisters and children–the victims of sexual abuse who don’t have the means to ask for help.  We have power in our words and influence. Along with our audience, we’re able to speak for them.  I’m asking all of you–bloggers, writers, teachers, and concerned citizens–to use whatever platform you have to call for an end to the rape and abuse of women and girls in Liberia and around the world.

In regions where fighting has formally ended, rape continues to be used as a weapon. As Nicholas Kristof recently wrote from West Africa, ‘it has been easier to get men to relinquish their guns than their sense of sexual entitlement.’ The war has shattered norms, training some men to think that ‘when they want sex, they need simply to overpower a girl.’ An International Rescue Committee survey suggests 12 percent of girls aged 17 and under acknowledged having been sexually abused in some way over the previous 18 months.  Further, of the 275 new sexual violence cases treated Jan-April by Doctors Without Borders, 28 percent involve children aged 4 or younger, and 33 percent involve children aged 5 through 12. That’s 61% age 12 or under.  We read about their plight and see the figures, but it’s so easy to feel helpless to act in isolation. But these are not statistics, they are girls.  Together we can do more.  Mass rape persists because of inertia so let’s create momentum.”

The Intersection, On Becoming A Laboratory And Domestic Goddess, Aetiology,  Bioephemera, Neurotopia, The Questionable Authority, DrugMonkey, Adventure In Ethics And Science, and Sciencewomen will be donating all revenue this month to Doctors Without Borders.  Now obviously I am a bit late in sharing this, but click away.  Besides, awareness is more important.  And as horrible and tragic as the rapes in West Africa are, I’d rather raise awareness about rape in general; sexual assault is one of the most under reported crimes, with 60% of sexual assaults not reported to the police (RAINN.org).

In his article Kristof wrote, “The evidence is overwhelming that the best way to deal with rape — whether in Darfur or Liberia, or even in the United States — is to demystify it, dismantle the taboos, and address it directly. That is happening.“  That is what Silence is the Enemy is all about.

Rape persists through silence.  It persists because it is “taboo” to talk about–there is a stigma attached to it, and because it is an ugly reality.  The statistics say that 1 in 6 women have been the victim of sexual assault.  Well I disagree.  Because most women don’t report crimes of sexual violence, those numbers are inaccurate.  They are FAR too low.

How do I know this?  Throughout the years, I had high school and college friends share with me their experiences of being sexually assaulted and raped.  In fact, I came to realize that I knew over 10 wonderful women who had been the victims of sexual assault, and those were just the people that opened up to me.  Their stories ranged from coercion to forcible rape, and only one of these women was raped by a stranger.  She has a child as a product of being raped, and she is probably the strongest person I have ever met in my life.  And none of these women filed police reports.  Now tell me, how can those 1 in 6 statistics be right?

Six percent of rapists ever spend a day in jail.  SIX PERCENT?!?  We need to break the silence.  In one of my journalism classes, we discussed how infrequently women attach their names to their stories of being raped, which only lends itself to rape being discredited.  But these women won’t come forward until the stigma is gone.  Only by talking about it, by letting go of the taboo, can we break the stigma involved with coming forward.  Only when people start talking, can we even begin to tackle this problem.  So stop the silence.  Silence is the enemy.

Note:  Ocean Eyes Photography will be donating 50% of its proceeds from its three “photos of the month” to the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization that provides support to survivors of sexual assault.