The Ethical Issues of Social Media in Journalism
Do journalists need social media guidelines?
In today’s age of journalism, professional journalists share the social media sphere with tweeters, bloggers and avid social media users. However, there is much backlash over what journalists can say or include on their social media accounts — both professional and personal. While many news organizations and media companies encourage reporters to use social media to gather information and create a “brand” for themselves, online comments, tweets or posts can put a reporter in the negative spotlight. We have all seen this in recent events over the past few years. These incidents range from journalists expressing partisan opinions, promoting political views, endorsing candidates and making offensive comments. With that in mind, the ethical challenge is to develop social media guidelines that allow reporters to explore the new digital media world, yet also draw reasonable limits on personal commentary.
Establishing reasonable social media guidelines allow journalists to have an independent voice on social media, but also follow protocol and maintain professionalism within their job. Social media plays a crucial role in journalism today. Journalists and public relations professionals are almost always required to use social media and it is considered a valuable tool…
