A Trending Topic

Lauren Stauffenger
ls731307@ohio.edu


Introductions

The job of journalists is to keep up with trends. As of late, the major "trending topic" is social networking sites. It is my opinion that journalists should not only be actively researching sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but should actually be more or less REQUIRED to participate in these sites.

The Ethics of Social Networking

While I am a strong advocate of journalists' participation for professional purposes, I am adamant about heavy self-imposed control; it is not the job of a journalist's employer to impose new ethics codes on him/he just because he/she is on Facebook or Twitter. I agree with Javier Dario Restrepo, referred to in "The Ethics of Social Networking for Journalists", an article written by Estrella Gutierrez, as a regionally recognized individual in the realm of journalistic ethics in Colombia. He says: "Ethics do not change with technological changes." He adds that he has "an ethical commitment to truth as both a journalists and a twitterer."

Journalistic Elements

In an article written by Kelly Wilson for American Journalism Review titled "In Your Facebook", she quotes Lori Schwab, executive director of the Online News Associaion, who (at the time of the writing) had just recently created a Facebook account. "Facebook is now used by journalists for themselves as well as in their profession," says Schwab in the article. She added that it is a central component of having an online presence.

Facebook has noticed all of the journalistic elements associated with having so many people using its site. In "Facebook: Journalists' Friend or Foe?", an article written by Peter Lauria for CNN, Vadim Lavrusik's new position with the company in highlighted. Lavrusik, among other things, is exploring avenues to develop a news aspect to the site. According to a study mentioned in the article and done by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, a handful of the most popular U.S. news sites ranked Facebook as one of the top driving forces of traffic to their websites.

The Inevitable

Basically, social networking is an inevitable part of our world today - journalistic and otherwise. For a journalist to choose not to partake in the growing trend, he/she is just plain and simply not doing his/her job.