Ethical concerns in journalism done by non- journalists Rogério Christofoletti rogerio.christofoletti@uol.com.br Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Florianópolis – SC – Brasil, CEP: 88065-184 Abstract If journalism has become post-industrial, we observe facilitators production systems, and publication of user-generated content (UGC) and the performance of professional and amateur sharing. In this context, it is necessary to question how ordinary citizens who practice acts of journalism ethically justify their work. This article draws on three episodes (England, Brazil and the West Bank) to deepen a debate on the approximation of values of amateur and professional journalists. The text also reviews examples of organizations and professionals who strive to har- monize relations in this new media ecosystem. Keywords Deontology; journalism; pro-Am; challenges It seemed like any other Thursday. Thousands of people were heading to work or school, filling the subway cars and well-known red double-decker buses. In less than an hour, four explosions rocked a bus and three subway trains in central London, killing 52 people and wounding 700. The eventful morning of July 7, 2005 went down in history as a sad terrorist act, but was also a landmark in the timeline of British media. According to journalist Torin Douglas, it was a turning point in the use of non-professional content in the news. For the specialist, the 7/7 “democratized” media 1 . It was not an overstatement. The attacks caused many victims and a flood in the newsrooms of material produced by amateurs. In a single day, BBC, for example, re- ceived 22,000 text messages and emails with reports and information, over 300 photos and several videos made with common cameras and cell phones. For the first time, BBC’s solid and traditional board of directors considered those amateur videos more journalistically relevant than the professional ones. The User Generated Content (UGC) has received another treatment. Away from London, in the tumultuous West Bank, a group of Israeli women, “peace activists from all sectors of society”, supply the Machsomwatch 2 site with reports of hu- man rights violations throughout the dispute in the region. They are not professional journalists, but since 2001 they do a similar job: “we regularly document what we see 1 In an article of July 4, 2006, published on the BBC News website: “How 7/7 ‘democratized’ media”: http://news.bbc. co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5142702.stm. Access on February 28, 2014. 2 http://www.machsomwatch.org/en Comunicação e Sociedade, vol. 25, 2014, pp. 278 – 288