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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
Ramón Salaverría correctly summarizes the different conclusions reached when he
points out that “the media is limited to using the social networks almost exclusively for
publishing its contents” (2010; see Greer and Yan, 2010 along this same line of
thought).
The use that journalists often make of the social networks has been researched
somewhat less. Salaverría himself does not hesitate underscoring that “the journalist
who, either due to ignorance or out of scorn, turned his back on social networks, is not
doing his job properly” (2010b. see also Lebatti, 2009 and Cobos, 2010) which is
reinforced with research into the effects of Twitter and other social networks on
journalism in general or in particular, such as the case of sporting (Hutchins, 2011),
environmental (Hermida, 2010) or judicial (Cervantes, 2010) journalism.
We still find today that many journalists state that with Twitter, “the rules and roles
aren’t always clear” (Farhi, 2009), and they generally confuse what is personal with
what is professional and institutional. The challenge that journalists are faced with
today in a “reconciliation for that personal/organizational disconnect” is gravitating”
(Garber, 2011).
Along these lines , the Specialized Guidance of Reuters (http: bit.ly/XOjcm) has a
special section on Reporting from the Internet, updated on January 2, 2011, where in
the first place, it mentions that “reporters must never misrepresent themselves”,
including any participation in the Web which, at the same time, is an invitation “to
explore all new techniques for delivering news and information to our customers”, and it
goes on to explain that “the advent of social media does not change your relationship
with the company that employs you”.
From a professional point of view, Reuters requires authorization from the line manager
to use the word “Reuters” in the user name and to abide by the institutional Principles
of Trust. Moreover, it places a special emphasis on the fact that “micro-blogging and
the use of the social media tend to blur the distinction between professional and
personal lives: when using Twitter or the social media in a professional capacity you
should aim to be personable but not include irrelevant material about your personal
life”.
Lastly, a list is given of good and bad practices. Summing up, the journalist, among
other things, must be interesting, conversational, use links to external sites, monitor
other bloggers, inject some personality and credit the original source, whilst he must
avoid being opinionated, respond in anger and he must warn when a link is made to
material that infringes copyright.
Likewise, the BBC (http:/bbc.in/1EIZLT), the Washington Post (http://bit.ly/ewQUBs),
the New York Times (http://bit.ly/nFlsy), the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/9DoLMP),
the Radio Television Digital News Association (http://bit.ly/9fAAK0) and the American
Society of News Editors (http://bit/ly/h1b0Ko) all have guidelines that insist, in some
way or other and in more or less depth, that those codes “apply to all our content,
wherever and however it is received”. Nonetheless, the majority of the ethical codes
that exist in the media do not even mention that all of the principles defined previously
also apply to the use of social networks.
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