News Outlets Cracking Down on Reporters Use of Social Media

 Zack Mothersbaugh

zm549619@ohio.edu

Source: mdimsolutions.com

Social media creates a lot of benefits for journalists and media outlets. A study by Pew Research Center shows that roughly 70% of Americans use social media. That makes it so easy to reach a large portion of the population. Journalists can grow their brand with people interacting with their accounts, and media outlets can garner a lot of attention with accounts of their own. Social media also offers a different way to communicate with the public. Be it through pictures, short statements, or other updates. That allows the journalists and media outlets to interact with people they wouldn't usually get.

As much attention as social media gets for journalists and media outlets, and it means they have to be that much more careful with what they say or post on it. The larger audience means that anything that is said will spread a lot faster, and it's even worse when it's negative. That has led to media outlets creating rules for their journalists on social media because everything a journalist says reflects the outlet they are working for.

That has led to a debate about precisely what journalists should be able to post on their social media. More specifically, should they be able to post their thought and opinions? 

Media outlets have begun to stop allowing their journalists to post their personal opinions on things like politics on social media. The outlets have said that it undermines all their work to remain unbiased, trustworthy news sources because the journalists are tied with the media outlets. That has caused a divide between people who agree with the media outlets and those who believe it isn't a good idea. 

People who agree with the decision back up the idea that the journalists are ruining the outlets' integrity by showing their opinion on things and then posting an unbiased article on it later. It could mean that no matter how unbiased a journalist tries to be, people will not believe them because they know they are coming from a biased place.

People against the decision say that it makes the news outlets less trustworthy because they are trying to present the idea that their journalist doesn't have thoughts and opinions of their own when everyone knows they certainly do. That is primarily in the world today. A Stanford study shows that the dislike toward people in another political party has grown increasingly fast since the turn of the century. People are starting to cling to their political party more and more, and journalists are no different. So it's impossible to believe they don't have opinions of their own.