If you are a journalist.. You don’t own your name
I am interested in reading the BBC guide for Personal use of social networking and what they call “other third party websites” as blogs, microblogs and personal web-space.
BBC is one of the first media organizations using online tools to interact with its audience worldwide and it affects many newsrooms in Africa and
This guide reminds me of Octavia Nasr the former CNN anchor who was fired from her job because of sending a tweet showing her respect of a leader in Hezbollah shortly after he passed away.
CNN decision created a debate in media organizations about the limits on journalist’s personal freedom and whether they should behave in their personal life as representatives of their organizations or not.
The BBC guide doesn’t only discuss opinions expressed by journalists through social media but also it covers their involvement in building open encyclopedias like Wikipedia and balance in the groups they join on facebook.
The guide which was updated last February brought issues like relationships between colleagues in BBC through social networks and restrictions over using BBC brand name in blogging.
I might not agree on all points in this guideline, but it remains an important source of discussions in newsrooms.
Questions related to content from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube?
I have posted this link before and I am using it again because I believe it is very important to raise questions inside the newsroom or the journalism classroom in order to understand ethics.
What protocols do you have for checking the truthfulness of photographs or video that you find on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or photo-sharing sites? .. this question is one of several questions raised in the social media and blogging ethical guide for Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA).
The significant point about this guide is it contains some open ended questions to use it inside newsrooms.. very useful for editors who need to set a professional code of ethics for their online publications.
Steve Buttry the journalism trainer and the director of community engagement in TBD gives some tips in one of his blog posts.
Buttry gave journalists useful advice through 6 general tips then he speaks about 6 important websites of social networking.
This handout can be used as a very good introduction for those who didn’t set a policy before for dealing with social media and it provides guidance for professional journalists who are not aware of their organizations new media policies.
Why Wall Street Journal policy isnt that good?
One of the good articles I found is an interview with Jane E. Kirtley, Professor of Media Ethics and Law and director of the Silha Center at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the
In this interview Kirtley criticize the Wall Street Journal social media policy pointing out some very important issues as discussing the subject of a new story with readers before it is published or allowing journalists to express their personal opinions before introducing their stories.
Kirtely believe that these old objectivity guidelines is the reason why newspapers are losing audience because the content is not personal.
Reuters: Use two separate accounts
Reuters social media guidlines emphasizes the role of social media as tool of reporting and distribution of content online.
The news agency encourages the journalists to use facebook for example to gather information and receive updates or tips from their sources as its nature is to compete with news providers and send stories before them.
The guideline suggests that journalists shouldn’t include much personal information and urge them to use separate accounts from the professional ones.
In the same time the agency urges editors to apply the same rules they apply on their regular service on twitter as sending corrections and mentioning Reuters name.
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