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22 Dec 09

Twitter / John Robinson

Twitter rules: I trust the staff to report the news. Shouldn't I trust them enough to tweet? Is twitter that much harder than reporting?

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Twitter tweets John Robinson

WSJ looks to the past for new social media policy

  • Here’s the part that many editors, publishers and news organizations don’t want reporters to hear: Social media and blogs can elevate a reporter to the level where he no longer needs the news organization.

Wall Street Journal rules for Twitter, Facebook are too harsh

  • I can see how expressing a political point of view or an opinion on a news story one is writing would be a problem. But any personal opinion? That sentences your staffers to be the most boring people on Twitter or Facebook. Twitter is basically virtual chit-chat; to chat you must express some time of opinion.
  • if you make a process like using social media too cumbersome, no one will use it.
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Newspapers and rules on Twitter

Mathew Ingram wraps up some of the blog coverage of the Wall Street Journal's social media policies.

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Matthew Ingram Twitter Nieman Journalism Lab policies guidelines wallstreetjournal

  • Alan Murray jumped in and said that Twittering about stories wasn’t a good idea because it’s “not a good idea for Woodward to tweet he’s going to meet source in garage.”
  • “Assume that your professional life and your personal life merge online regardless of your care in separating them. Don’t write or post anything that would embarrass the LAT or compromise your ability to do your job. Assume that everything you write or receive on a social media site is public and knowable to everyone with access to a computer.”
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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.

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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.
22 Nov 09

The temporary web

Jeff Jarvis worries that streams, such as Twitter, threaten the longevity of the Web.

www.buzzmachine.com/...the-temporary-web - Preview

memory Jeff Jarvis Twitter streams streaming longevity permalinks

  • Twitter is to web pages what web pages are to old media. Our experience of information is once again about to become fragmented and dispersed.
  • My own worry is that I’m twittering more and blogging less. Twitter satisfies my desire to share. That’s mostly why I blog – and that’s what makes the best blog posts, I’ve learned. I also want to store information like nuts underground; once it’s on the blog, I can find it. But when I share links on Twitter, they’ll soon disappear. I also use my blog to think through ideas and get reaction; Twitter’s flawed at that – well, I guess Einstein could have tweeted his theory of relativity but many ideas and discussions are too big for the form – yet I now use Twitter to do that now more than this blog.
06 Nov 09

Twitter still making twits of mainstream journalists

Shane Richmond at the Daily Telegraph criticizes other columnists for criticizing Twitter when they clearly know next to nothing about the microblogging site.

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Shane Richmond Daily Telegraph Twitter

  • It looks as though the columnists are closing ranks. In recent weeks Twitter users have raged against the Mail’s Jan Moir for bigotry and AA Gill for baboon shooting. Any one of them could be next. The Commentariat is under threat.
  • They’re mistaking Twitter for a publishing platform, which – as I’ve written before – it isn’t. To criticise Twitter for its content (or, I should say, your perception of its content) makes as much sense as criticising the content of the telephone networks or the postal service. Like them, Twitter is a means of communicating. The content communicated has no bearing on its value.
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Twitter and Breaking News

  • Twitter can be maddening in many ways, a cacophony of voices with a lousy signal-to-noise ratio—does anybody really care what somebody else had for breakfast?

    But one thing that Twitter excels in is breaking news. Its broadcast, real-time, 140-character headline nature makes it a perfect vehicle for the latest news, whether it's being generated by on-the-spot observers (or participants) and retweeted far and wide, or whether it's being used by news organizations to blast out their latest headlines.

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