As a journalism student, all I hear lately is "social media." Everyone is in a titter about Twitter and Facebook and how we journalists are supposed to use them.
As someone who does not have a Twitter, I don’t really understand the purpose of having a personal account from which to tweet meaningless location updates or personal routines. Does anyone really want to know if I’m brushing my teeth?
But as a journalist, I understand the usefulness of Twitter for a newspaper, radio or television station. It is just another tool to get out the news to those who want it and should therefore be used to its full potential.
Alltop is a great website to find ways to use Twitter and other social media in a way that benefits readers. It has a link to something any media organization using Twitter should work out — when to tweet.
The problem with social media arises when asked how to deal with private information reaching your public audience. In the reading, an obvious solution came to the minds of many — separate accounts: one professional and one personal.
The problem with having separate accounts is, “Who are you on one page and who on another,” as said by Hal Straus, assistant managing editor for interactivity and communities at The Washington Post.
As journalists, we are all about transparency. But I disagree with Straus; our personal lives and our professional lives are separate for the most part.
A good journalist does not let personal bias control him or her in a professional setting. What we do outside work should be no reflection of how we perform our job. People should not be fired unless things get absolutely out of hand.
As journalists, we are all about freedom of speech and the First Amendment. But by limiting our social media presence in our personal life, media organizations are suppressing their employees’ right to speak freely. The hypocrisy is almost laughable.
John Nero, jn265708@ohio.edu
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