Journalism industry concerned with ethics of social media

BY Courtney Hess: ch119507@ohio.edu

As social media develops at a rapid pace throughout the news industry, journalists and news organizations are struggling to keep up –ethically, that is.

Between Facebook and Twitter, news organizations are beginning to introduce ethical codes for social media to their staffers. Editors are concerned with how their writers and employees are linking their professional and personal lives together, either via Facebook, Twitter, or both, creating ethical and etiquette concerns for news outlets.

Although I agree with the precautions newsrooms are taking with their staff to promote responsible use with social media, Michael Cabanatuan of the San Francisco Chronical sums it up perfectly, “The whole nature of social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, is people are asking to be your friend. It is not saying, ‘Can I connect with you to see what your biases are?’ If you’re sharing opinions with friends, it seems like Facebook is the electronic equivalent of sitting around drinking in a bar with friends…Social media is about building community and not isolating groups from each other.”

With the interest in print journalism slowly declining, Facebook and Twitter, along with other social media accounts, are excellent middlemen for journalists to posts previews to their published work, and allow readers to actually feel involved with the news organizations. Robert Quigley, social media editor at the Austin American-Statesman, explains, “people who would not have paid attention to the newspaper otherwise feel like they’re a part of the newspaper. They feel like they know a lot of our staff writers and reporters personally, because it’s such a personal medium. And that’s valuable.” Having been a part of Twitter myself for almost 2 years, I’d have to agree with Quigley 100%. I stopped picking up the local paper years ago because I took no interest in it; now that I have the ability to be in touch with USA Today, the Times and other news outlets with just the touch of a button, my interest in news, and being able to leave comments and “reply” back to tweets is definitely an added bonus.

As for the new Wall Street Journal ethical guidelines for social media, their rules are definitely too stiff for what news and journalism has come to. News organizations need to go with the flow of Facebook and Twitter; Developing ethical codes for social media only saves newsrooms from embarrassment; embrace the new technology of today, and allow yourself to come out from behind the paper.