When I lead seminars on digital journalism ethics, I start with some time-tested guidelines: The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, Bob Steele’s similar Guiding Principles for the Journalist and Bob’s 10 questions to guide ethical decisions.
My point is simple: Social media, blogs and other digital information present new and unfamiliar situations for journalists, but ethical principles don’t depend on technology.
So I was pleased to see that NPR’s new social media guidelines frequently urge staff members to act and think the same when they are using social media as when they use other tools.
I was critical of the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal when they issued social media guidelines that in essence told their staff to be careful walking through the social-media minefield. Predictably, at the Post at least, a managing editor decided to stay out of the minefield altogether.
NPR set a different tone from the opening paragraph:
Social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have become an integral part of everyday life for millions of people around the world. As NPR grows to serve the audience well beyond the radio, social media is becoming an increasingly important aspect of our interaction and our transparency with our audience and with a variety of communities. Properly used, social networking sites can also be very valuable newsgathering and reporting tools and can speed research and extend a reporter’s contacts, and we encourage our journalists to take advantage of them.
The message is clear and unmistakeable: These tools are important, we need to use them aggressively and wisely. Michele McLellan blogged about the key leadership phrases in the opening paragraphs of the Post (hazards, protect professional integrity) and NPR (increasingly important, very valuable).
While I echo Michele’s praise for the tone of the NPR introduction, I want to focus on another point repeated again and again: Use the same sort of good judgment in using social media as you use in other settings. Check these passages from the NPR guidelines:
In other words, don’t behave any differently online than you would in any other public setting.
Remember the same ethics rules as apply offline also apply to information gathered online.
Just as you would do if you were working offline, you should identify yourself as an NPR journalist when you are working online.
While widely disseminated and reported, material gathered online can be just as inaccurate or untrustworthy as some material collected or received in more traditional ways. As always, consider and verify the source.
Content gathered online is subject to the same attribution rules as other content.
I criticized the Post and the Journal because the editors who issued the guidelines don’t use social media enough and clearly don’t understand them. From these guidelines, it’s clear that NPR leaders either understand social media better, involved staff who use social media in drafting the guidelines or both.
The fundamental principles of journalism ethics — seek the truth and report it; minimize harm; act indepently; be accountable — are not tied to technology or platform. The NPR guidelines say loudly and clearly that NPR journalists should practice good journalism ethics in social media, just as they do elsewhere. I don’t agree with every point of the NPR guidelines, but I don’t want to nitpick here. I want to praise NPR for approaching social media more sensibly than either the Post or the Journal. (I similarly praised the Roanoke Times earlier for a more thoughtful approach.)
I criticized the Post for not trusting the judgment of its journalists. Clearly NPR does trust the judgment of its journalists.
[…] about the social media policies of NPR vs. The Washington Post by Michelle McLellan and also by Steve Buttry. As McLellan put it, the old guard sees social media as a ‘hazard’, where as NPR sees […]
LikeLike
Hi Steve, thanks for this post. I understand this ethics issue. Actually objectivity and neutrality are essential part of mainstream journalism. Online Journalism is supposed to give voice to the multiple voices of bloggers, but I agree the good judgment would help all of them to be considered trustworthy.
LikeLike
NPR may also think the social media is potentially a great source for their fundraising efforts and therefor, do not want to bite the hand that will potentially feed them.
LikeLike
[…] — come on, the Post used the word “valuable” in its second sentence, too — but as Steve Buttry noted, NPR’s implicit message was clear, and it was right on: Use common sense, folks. We trust you […]
LikeLike
[…] The key to social media ethics: good judgment (on NPR’s social media ethics policy) […]
LikeLike
Time magazine printing false fabricated story on Korean entertainers named Big Bang might be first Koreans to break into Japanese market. Looks like they must have accepted money from third party to make up story?
Well known through out all of Asia that group named Tohoshinki from Korea has been topping charts in Japan for years now. Current Time editor in trouble for fabricating stories before and called out for it by Salon.com.
Shows Time magazine desperate enough for money to totally make up false stories about entertainers if paid to do so?
All I am telling you is true.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1933111,00.html
And here are the entertainers who actually broke into Japan’s market and rose to the top.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVXQ
Is US traditional media in so much financial trouble they will do anything to earn money now?
LikeLike
[…] provided a pretty good defense in the comments) and praised the policies of the Roanoke Times and NPR. Those posts usually attracted brief bursts of attention, with the Washington Post critique making […]
LikeLike
[…] wise policies in social media, check out NPR or the Australian Broadcasting […]
LikeLike
[…] for their digital journalism guidelines. I have praised the Australian Broadcasting Corp., NPR, the New York Times and the Roanoke Times (OK, that one mixed in a little criticism, but I even […]
LikeLike
[…] on the newsroom social media policies of the Guardian, NPR, Los Angeles Times, Roanoke Times, New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street […]
LikeLike
[…] Ethics Handbook. But since I have blogged extensively on newsroom social media policies, including NPR’s earlier guidelines, I’ll point to some good pieces by friends at Poynter whose reporting and analysis I trust: I […]
LikeLike
[…] So, when their social media policies became public, I commented on all of them. And I praised NPR‘s and the Guardian‘s social media policies, too (and a couple years later, I commented […]
LikeLike