A discussion on plagiarism: maintaining the integrity of your agency
In
light of the recent ‘lack of sourcing’ scandal that took place within the prestigious offices of The Daily News in New
York, a discussion on plagiarism could not occur at a more appropriate time.
Lambasted for copying a number of sections from an article that was published
by The Daily Beast only a few days before, Shaun King (Senior Justice Writer
for The Daily News) quickly became a social pariah by having his integrity and
entire professional existence questioned. However, upon investigation, the
editor-in-chief of the newspaper in question found that the person responsible
for the final editing process of the article had removed King’s attributions
from the original document – an unforgivable and irresponsible action that
brought a popular and reliable newspaper into disrepute.
Although
we may not be producing newspapers, the existence of digital marketing
organisations is based on the same premise – to conduct research that provides
an audience with interesting, relatable and unique content. However, in an
industry where convergence and curation reigns supreme, how do we go about
discussing plagiarism and the devastating effect that it could have on our
agencies and industry? If we consider the permeability of social media and how
attribution, sourcing and crediting is lost among the hundreds upon thousands
of shares and reposts, we will notice the thin line upon which we balance when
it comes to digital content marketing.
According
to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘plagiarism’ can be defined as the
copying of another author’s work and presenting it as your own, without their
consent, and may be intentional, or unintentional. In many cases, plagiarism is
as obvious as the sky is blue, and oftentimes it is unintentional – there are
thousands (if not millions) of online articles and manuscripts that contain the
same or similar use and order of words. Not only do these combinations occur
naturally and according to a writer’s knowledge of the English language, but
they are also unavoidable.
However,
it is not unintentional plagiarism to which we need to turn our focus.
Plagiarism, a fault of epic proportion, has the power to bring an agency to its
knees – it is the proverbial black mark on an otherwise spotless record. While
plagiarism can be managed in-house, it becomes life-threatening if it goes
unnoticed before publication which leads us to the question of how we go about
protecting the integrity of our agencies.
It
is important to keep in mind the fact that writers and strategists are able to
take an existing concept and add to it their own unique spin, provided that
they credit the person from whom the work originates. The issues lie in content
that is curated without accreditation, and copy that is stolen to serve the
purpose of representing a specific brand. Not only can these indiscretions lead
to the public shame of a particular brand and its product offering, but it can
also lead to detrimental legal consequences for the agency in question. The
trick to restricting plagiarism does not lie in software or in mechanical-like
copy editors, but rather in the ethics of an agency. If your agency lacks
ethics that act as guidelines to your employees, the chances are high that they
will disregard the most simple of rules, plagiarism included.
While
many agencies may include anti-plagiarism declarations and rules into their
policy and procedure documentation, it is of the utmost importance that
employees are given the rundown of what is acceptable and what is not. If this
means that senior staff members are given the responsibility of tutoring new
employees on how to go about sourcing their facts and research, then it might
just be the necessary step that agencies need to take to avoid the risk of
having their integrity questioned.
In
an effort to identify plagiarism, it is important to make use of software that
can scan through the relevant documents and provide a percentage that indicates
the unique quality of the content – the rule of thumb is that if the content
receives a score of 85% and above, it is accepted as unique. However, it can
become a tedious task of running every item of content through a detector.
Instead, search for clues within the copy itself – if the fluidity of the
writing is broken by a random concept, if the tone or style of the content is
irregular or unusual, or if the tone of writing is of a higher standard than
usual, you may want to double-check the content for plagiarism.
The
same rigmarole can be applied to visual content – unless you have produced the
content in your own capacity, it is imperative that you or your writers
attribute the relevant sources, regardless of how many times an item has been
shared or reposted without the relevant accreditation. When it comes to
plagiarism, it is important to ensure (first and foremost) a water-tight ethics
code that includes some sort of penalty for the indiscretion, followed by a
contingency plan if something were to slip through the cracks of your proofreading
process. While you should make it clear that there should never be anything
that slips through the cracks, you can never be too prepared for writers who
think themselves too smart for the rules of creating content.
While
individual agencies are able to exercise control within the microcosm in which
their employees exist, it is becoming more and more imperative that the
macrocosm of the digital marketing industry implore organisations to act as
watchdogs, from copy to visual content. Due to the porousness and nature of the
industry – through curation and convergence – and without a system of
regulators, the industry is at continuous risk of producing content that is not
unique, but rather stolen. After all, well-strategized, thoughtful and unique
content is ultimately the type of content that yields results.
Source | http://memeburn.com/
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
Best
Paper Award | Received the Best Paper Award at TIFR-BOSLA National Conference on
Future Librarianship: Innovation for Excellence (NCFL 2016) on April 23,
2016. The title of the paper is “Removing
Barriers to Literacy: Marrakesh VIP Treaty”
Note | If anybody use these post for forwarding in any social media coverage
or covering in the Newsletter please give due credit to those who are taking
efforts for the same.
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