Social media is a relatively new form of communication, sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have experienced rapid growth in their initial decade in existence. The NPR social media ethics handbook serves as a guideline for their reporters in regards to using social media. The guideline is broken up into 7 different categories Accuracy, Honesty, Independence, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect and Excellence. The guideline highlights bold headlines like "Don't just spread information. Be careful and skeptical." It states that Social media is public space. It goes into greater depth about the conflict between specific online content in regards to "likes" and "online friends", and how that content might represents NPR. You can read more from the NPR guidelines on the NPR website. http://ethics.npr.org/tag/social-media/
Below, in bold are a few headlines from the past couple weeks involving social media in the news. Everything from losing a high level security job, to paying fines for a libelous tweet. What do you think are the important elements for journalist to keep in mind when using social media?
Lord McAlpine settles libel action with Alan Davies over Twitter comment
White House aide fired over Twitter account
WASHINGTON (AP) - A White House national security official was fired after it was discovered that he was behind an anonymous Twitter account that criticized the Obama administration
TV reporter fired over blog 'didn't think it would come to this'
http://www.today.com/news/tv-reporter-fired-over-blog-didnt-think-it-would-come-6C10791942
Pro-Assad group takes responsibility for hacking attack that affected Obama's Twitter account
Article by: JIM KUHNHENN , Associated Press Updated: October 28, 2013 - 1:30 PM
I think journalists should treat social media as if it was their news organization that was publishing something. They should always assume that their news director or editor is reading all their posts. You should always be polite and respect the other person's views. And when you forgot that, you get into trouble. Social media is a great way to connect to others, but many people forget that it can be dangerous. It's basically like writing a letter to the internet and letting everyone read it. And then that letter is stuck there forever! People need to be cautious. I think every news organization needs a social media ethics handbook.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you can get fired over a tweet or a Facebook post is troubling to me. But that's a different subject I guess. For me, Facebook and Twitter are essentially grandma and grandpa land. Dont' say or post anything that you wouldn't want your sweet old grandparent to see. For real. If it meets that test, then I'm probably OK with a potential employer. The internet is almost never a forum for private communication. How many e-mails have been leaked?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Allison. When I get my first radio job, one of my first questions is going to address their social media policy. If they don't have one, then perhaps I need to look for another job.