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23 Dec 09

Beats and Tweets: Journalistic Guidelines for the Facebook Era

In the spirit of transparency, NPR posts its social media guidelines for reporters and other staff members.

www.npr.org/...s_and_tweets_journalistic.html - Preview

NPR social media guideline policies social_networking

  • Summarizing the guidance in an e-mail message, Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss urged the staff to "use social media for journalistic purposes and as a way to connect with the audience." Weiss also reminded our journalists -- including the engineering, operations and news administration staffs -- to avoid doing "anything online that will damage your credibility or the credibility of NPR."
  • "are relevant to ALL employees."
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21 Dec 09

Journalism ethics in social networks

Steve Buttry with advice on how news organizations should approach making a social media policy.

stevebuttry.wordpress.com/...lism-ethics-in-social-networks - Preview

Steve Buttry social media guidelines policy Twitter Facebook

  • regard everything you post online as public
  • operate transparently, either using your real name or, if you use a screen name (your real name may not be available as a screen name if you have a common name), identify yourself by name in your user profile
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Thoughts on Wall Street Journal’s rules for staff using social media « Pursuing the Complete Community Connection

  • This is nonsense. Transparency is the way of the web and credibility is journalism’s most important asset. The more we let the public know about how we work (and how hard we strive for accuracy and fairness) the better. Unless you don’t.
  • This is an approach that ensures that you will never fully understand “services like Twitter” (as if there were other services like Twitter). Most of the Twitter world mixes business with pleasure. Building walls means you won’t understand how Twitter works. I’d say it’s better to encourage mixing business and personal content in Twitter, but admonish staff to keep in mind that you represent your publication and behave professionally at all times. For instance, I don’t see any problem with my whining about a flight delay as long as I’m not cursing or otherwise commenting inappropriately. 

WSJ’s Twitter rules: too restrictive » Nieman Journalism Lab

  • Obviously, a newspaper doesn’t want to give away the store and tell everyone what stories it is working on, or tip its hand in a variety of other ways, and probably doesn’t want to go into detail about how certain stories emerged (especially if it was a fortuitous accident). But Jarvis is right that talking about stories that are under way can also have tremendous benefits.
  • Naturally, a newspaper like the Journal doesn’t want its reporters discussing every detail of their personal lives on Twitter, and no one would argue with that. A little taste of the personal can have a tremendous impact, however, and can build loyalty with readers. Media outlets like the Journal ignore that at their peril.

Washington Post social media guidelines don’t trust staff members’ judgment « Pursuing the Complete Community Connection


      • The Post’s top editors need to start using Twitter and other social media more, so they can lead on these issues from a position of understanding, rather than ignorance.
      • The guidelines mostly raise valid issues that journalists should consider when using social media. On some of those issues, such as stating opinions, journalists will have vigorous disagreements that they should discuss thoughtfully.
      • The best way for top editors of any news organization to address social media use is through thoughtful discussions with staff that elevate everyone’s understanding. If written guidelines are needed, they should be drafted collaboratively with the staff, not imposed imperially from editors who don’t even understand what they are addressing.
      • Beyond a passing reference that social networks “can be valuable tools in gathering and disseminating news and information,” nothing in the policy encourages use of social media. In fact, reading the guidelines, you can see  how co-managing editor Raju Narisetti decided he might as well stop using Twitter. Any social media guidelines that don’t encourage journalists to use social networks are bad guidelines. And these are bad.
  • The attempt to control such discussions reflects an outdated culture of control, rather than the social media culture of transparency. Some aspects of social media culture (retweeting purported facts without verifying them) clash with journalism values, so those things should be discussed (again, good judgment should protect your values). But transparency doesn’t clash with the culture of journalism. In fact, we demand transparency of public officials and agencies, but resist transparency in our own organizations. The Post should discuss what internal processes and decisions need to be private and use this controversy to push for greater transparency.

Washington Post needs social media conversation, not restrictions « Pursuing the Complete Community Connection

  • I disagree, though, with the notion that you need a detailed policy to address these concerns. I disagree with the solution that one of the few senior editors using Twitter would stop because of the policy and the concerns. I am amazed that editors who don’t use Twitter would make decisions about how their staff should use it. And if the result of this policy is less use of Twitter by Post editors and staff, rather than more, I am quite sure it will harm, rather than help, the Post’s journalism.

Ombudsman Blog - Post Editor Ends Tweets as New Guidelines Are Issued

  • In today’s hyper-sensitive political environment, Narisetti’s tweets could be seen as one of The Post’s top editors taking sides on the question of whether a health-care reform plan must be budget neutral. On Byrd, his comments could be construed as favoring term limits or mandatory retirement for aging lawmakers. Many readers already view The Post with suspicion and believe that the personal views of its reporters and editors influence the coverage. The tweets could provide ammunition.
08 Oct 09

Readers expect news to find them

Readers today expect the news to find them, so journalists should be leaders in using every social media tool at their disposal to make that happen, says Gina Chen.

www.niemanlab.org/...aders-expect-news-to-find-them - Preview

Nieman Journalism Lab Gina Chen journalism social media

  • The point of using social media isn’t that Facebook is popular and lots of people, particularly young people, hang out there. The point is the way people find the news today is they expect it to find them. If news organizations want to be valuable to their readers’, they not only need great content and interactive features, they need to to use these features. To me, what that means for news organizations is their staffs need to understand social media better than the readers, so they can lead, rather than follow.
28 Sep 09

Why Reporters Should Twitter (A Little Shop Talk)

Rob Pegoraro from the Washington Post comments on the paper's recent social networking policy flareup and then discusses why it's a good idea for reporters to be on Twitter.

voices.washingtonpost.com/..._reporters_should_twitter.html - Preview

Twitter Rob Pegoraro social_networking social media

  • To me, it's first about making the conversation with readers more efficient. If one reader asks you a question about an article -- where'd this fact come from? what about this angle? have you checked out this related story? -- in e-mail, only that reader will gain any insight from your reply. But if you share an answer in public -- on a blog, in a comment on a blog, in a Web forum or Web chat, on Twitter, or any other place that will be indexed by the Web search engines -- other readers can benefit from your answer.
  • Another large portion of my Twittering -- and the posts on my public Facebook page -- consists of little observations that, pre-social media, would have been confined to my own notes or, at best, comments in individual e-mails. Now I can throw something out there and see whether readers respond to it or not -- the phrase I most often use to describe my Twitter use is "public notebook."
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