Journalism and Social Media- A Gray Area

Scott Thomas

scthomas389@gmail.com

 

Social media is a bit of a gray area in the world. It doesn't have a defined use and anybody can access it. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal attempted to make the gray area more black and white for their employees in 2017 with social media guidelines that restricted reporters from making partisan comments.

Matthew Ingram made his points known that these social media rules don't really solve any problems, and argues that objectivity is a myth. He says that nobody is able to say that they have no opinion or thoughts on something besides the facts. A dissenting argument came from Dan Kennedy, who said that Ingram's argument was flawed in the way he viewed the use of social media for reporters.

Kennedy also referred to traditional reporting and writing as "day jobs" for journalists. This statement is extremely flawed.

Using Twitter and voicing opinions is the day job of modern-day journalists. We, as journalism students, are constantly discussing and using social media. The current group of students in journalism have grown up with Twitter and Instagram, and have used it as an asset. Younger journalists are more equipped to use social media effectively and have been able to use it to have conversations with readers and create more dialogue.

 

Picture source: Miriam Shaviv, Brainstorm Digital

 

Oscar Michael wrote for Irish Tech News that "Social media has given a real meaning to what freedom of speech is. In history, expressing yourself has never been so easy." This is what scares large publications and journals who are afraid of potential backlash from what a reporter might say.

A study by the Reuters Institute found that editors fear the accuracy of information posted on social media and the loss of control over the information. This is troubling because news organizations shouldn't be the gatekeepers of information.

That is what social media provides: a way to gather information and opinions from a variety of sources. The restriction of voicing opinions on social media is also troubling because especially with younger journalists, social media has always been used that way. The flow of information and opinions on social media has never been in a greater quantity than it has now, and to restrict access from the people who provide the information is problematic.

At the same time, companies have a right to protect themselves from private views of reporters. There is no real way to limit what the reporters say but as the guardians of the First Amendment, limiting their right to free speech just doesn't seem right.