[New-imc] Springfield IMC Editorial Policy and Guidelines

[Marc Sanson]

> SPRINGFIELD IMC EDITORIAL POLICY:
> The Springfield IMC will establish an editorial collective with the 
> Spokes Council to serve as the editorial collective in the interim for a
> period of no more than 3 months from the approval date of this document. 
> THE EDITORIAL COLLECTIVE:
> The editorial collective is a group of volunteers approved by the 
> Springfield IMC spokes council responsible for overseeing the content of
> the Springfield IMC website. Our responsibility for the stewardship of the
> newswire, and of the *website in general, is expressed in these four
> guiding principles, which for the basis of Springfield IMC editorial
> policy: 
> 1. To provide an unmoderated, open-publishing newswire in accordance with
> established IMC policies and philosophy. 
> 2. To maintain the newswire and website as a community space, and a safe
> environment for users, especially members of disempowered or marginalized
> groups. 
> 3. To acknowledge that speech has the power to cause injury, but that
> instances of injurious speech should also be seen as opportunities for
> insurrectionary response. 
> 4. To preserve the quality of the website as a useful media resource. 
> *Web site consists of features section and newswire section
> Postings to the Springfield IMC newswire are unmoderated. Members of the
> editorial collective regularly monitor the newswire, keeping our eyes open
> for particularly significant, informative contributions to add to the
> front page's center-column feature section. 
> While committed to maintaining the open nature of the newswire, as noted
> above, in rare circumstances the editorial collective may reclassify
> postings as news or opinion, or remove them from view. In most such cases,
> postings are reclassified or hidden because they are empty or duplicate
> posts, or because they consist of advertising or other inappropriate
> content. 
> In accordance with the Springfield IMC's mission and guidelines, 
> Springfield IMC media efforts are designed to empower individuals to
> become independent and civic journalists by providing a direct,
> unmoderated forum for presenting media, including text articles, audio and
> video recordings, and photographs, to the public via the Internet, print
> and broadcast. Within that general framework, we specifically encourage
> individuals to publish:
> a. Researched, timely articles;
> b. Eyewitness accounts of progressive actions and demonstrations;
> c. Coverage of Springfield and Sangamon Valley regional issues;
> d. Media analysis with particular regard to corporate media;
> e. Investigative reports exposing injustice;
> f. Stories on events affecting underrepresented groups;
> g. Media produced from within underrepresented groups;
> h. Local stories with national or global significance;
> i. Stories on people or projects working towards social and economic
> justice
> The Springfield IMC Spokes Council will make final editorial decisions.
> Our editors will:
> 1) Edit postings and contributions to correct spelling, grammar or format
> problems, without consulting the author
> 2) choose features based on what they believe to be an article's
> importance to Springfield, the solidity of the research and sources, and
> the quality of writing
> 3) hide posts, without consulting the author, that in the editors opinion:
> - Are duplicates (we will keep the oldest post)
> - Are in an unreadable or unintelligible form
> - Are boldly slanderous, libelous or personal
> - Advocate criminal activity with a specific time, place and manner
> - Advocate hatred toward or repression of any individual or group of
> people
> - Are not news related (spam, commercial posts - these will be deleted
> from the server as soon as they are noticed)
> 4) Keep posts that, in the editors' opinions, are merely offensive or
> controversial in order to encourage open discussion and debate. The 
> Springfield IMC acknowledge that speech has the power to cause injury, but
> that instances of injurious speech should also be seen as opportunities
> for insurrectionary response.
> PROCEDURE FOR HIDING POSTS: 
> Hiding articles is a drastic measure, and editorial collective members
> take such actions only rarely. Newswire posts found to violate editorial
> policy are here divided into two categories: simple and complicated. 
> Important terms are defined in a glossary. 
> Posted articles or media representing unambiguous violations of policy,
> which can usually be hidden from the newswire without extended discussion,
> fall into three categories: 
> 1. Posts containing no content, or consisting only of links to other
> sites. 
> 2. Duplicate posts. 
> 3. Posts consisting of advertising or job descriptions. 
> When an active editor identifies such a post, he or she immediately hides
> it, and appends a signed comment to the hidden article explaining why it
> was hidden. If the author of the post has given an email address, the
> editor sends him or her an explanatory message and copies it to the
> editorial collective. Any additional email conversation is also copied to
> the collective. 
> Posted articles or other media not falling into the above simple
> categories may still be found to violate one or more of the four core
> principles of our editorial policy, as follows: 
> 1. To provide an unmoderated, open-publishing newswire in accordance with
> established IMC policies and philosophy. 
> 2. To maintain the newswire and website as a community space, and a safe
> environment for users, especially members of disempowered or marginalized
> groups. 
> 3. To acknowledge that speech has the power to cause injury, but that
> instances of injurious speech should also be seen as opportunities for
> insurrectionary response. 
> 4. To preserve the quality of the website as a useful media resource. 
> Simply violating one of these principles does not in itself justify hiding
> a post. Perceived violations must be weighed against the other principles
> through mindful discussion. In relation to a particular post, one
> principle may be found to conflict with another. 
> These principles provide the ethical framework for decision-making, even
> as they inevitably complicate editorial discussions. Editorial collective
> members are prevented from hiding articles rashly or without principled
> discussion, and remain accountable to clear (though flexible) policy
> guidelines. 
> When an active editor identifies a post he or she thinks should be hidden,
> he or she alerts the editorial collective, either making a formal proposal
> to hide the post or requesting conversation on the subject. Once an active
> editor proposes hiding the article, the editorial collective begins a
> focused discussion in accordance with its consensus process. If the
> collective decides to hide the post, the editor who made the proposal
> hides the post, and appends a signed comment to the posting explaining why
> it was hidden. If the author of the post has given an email address, the
> editor sends him or her an explanatory message and copies it to the
> editorial collective. Any additional email conversation is also copied to
> the collective. 
> 
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