Washington Post social media guidelines don’t trust staff members’ judgment

When I blogged last night about the Washington Post’s guidelines on staff use of social media, I expressed some hesitation because I had not read the full guidelines.

Having read the guidelines now, thanks to Staci Kramer of paidcontent.org, I reiterate my principal points:

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Washington Post social media guidelines published

Staci Kramer of paidcontent.org has published the Washington Post guidelines on staff use of social media. I recommend reading her commentary on the guidelines.

I will be commenting on the full guidelines later today, expanding on my comments yesterday, which were based on partial reporting on the guidelines. But for now, here are the full guidelines:

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Washington Post needs social media conversation, not restrictions

When you’re choosing tools to help journalists make ethical decisions, conversations work better than rules.

Washington Post co-managing editor Raju Narisetti probably wasn’t exercising good judgment recently when he tweeted opinions* about health care and term limits. But he really exercised bad judgment when he closed his Twitter account. And it appears that his boss and colleagues have compounded that error with more bad judgment. 

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Elevate your journalism career

I will be meeting this evening with some journalism students at the University of Kentucky. As I pulled together career advice to share with them, I thought I should share it on my blog as well. Whether you are a student or a professional journalist, I recommend checking out Joe Grimm’s Jobs Page and his Poynter Ask the Recruiter blog. I also recommend my earlier post on building your digital profile.

The advice that follows combines and updates handouts I developed years ago for workshops for reporters and editors on boosting their careers:

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Midwest Newspaper Summit provides diverse views on challenges and future

The Midwest Newspaper Summit confirmed my view that the Complete Community Connection offers the best path to a prosperous future for news media companies.

I heard some good ideas discussed at the meeting, and the best possibilities for generating new revenues were ideas at the heart of the C3 approach.

The summit, sponsored by seven state press associations, drew more than 250 people to the Grand River Center in Dubuque. I can’t remember the last time I attended a newspaper industry meeting where they had to set up additional chairs, but they did. Jo Martin and Jennifer Asa of the Iowa Newspaper Foundation deserve great credit for planning, promoting and presenting the program. I posted more than 100 tweets from the summit on Thursday, so I won’t try to recap here. Instead, I will give my views on how the key points of each speaker will contribute to that search for a prosperous future:

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Resources for journalism ethics

This list of resources was initially published on my blog in September 2009. I have added some links but have not checked to remove any outdated links.

I will be leading a discussion on journalism ethics in November for the American Society of News Editors and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. It will be part of the ASNE Ethics and Values Forum.

ASNE Ethics and Values Chair Mike Fancher is compiling a reading list for participants and asked me to submit some of my writings about journalism ethics issues. After passing the links on to Mike, I thought they might have interest to a wider audience. So here are links to my own writing on journalism ethics, followed by valuable resources on ethics from other sources:

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Nieman Reports examines journalism and social media

This is another quick post to call attention to work that I might comment on later. Nieman Reports has published views from lots of people in the news business on the role of social media in journalism (and some other topics). I was a contributor. I haven’t had a chance to read the full Nieman Reports and might comment after I have (or might comment on individual pieces as I’m reading it). But that may take me some time, so I wanted to call attention to it while it’s fresh.

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Midwest Newspaper Summit

I was pleased to participate in Thursday’s Midwest Newspaper Summit in Dubuque.

Sometime this weekend, I will blog some reflections on the various presentations and panels from the summit. But for now, I want to praise Jo Martin and Jennifer Asa of the Iowa Newspaper Foundation for planning and presenting a strong program. You can read more at the newspaper evolution site or on my Twitter feed.

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Healing starts for Scouts in moving ceremony

Thanks to all who have expressed sympathy — here in the blog and by email and through Facebook and Twitter — for my family’s loss in last week’s death of my 16-year-old nephew Patrick. Given the interest, I am sharing, with permission, an email and photograph from one of Patrick’s Scout leaders, Clint Buxton. He wrote about the ceremony Saturday night, hours after Patrick’s funeral, where members of the Order of the Arrow were honored for reaching the Brotherhood level:

I wanted to write you … to share with you and your family the story of the start of a healing process, which began for me late last evening deep in the hills of our beloved Green Mountains.

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My eulogy for Patrick Devlin

I was honored to be asked by Patrick Devlin’s parents to deliver the eulogy at Patrick’s funeral today. I have written before here about Patrick’s struggle with leukemia and his father’s use of CaringBridge to share the struggle with family, friends and caring strangers around the world.

I am Steve Buttry, Patrick’s uncle and godfather. I welcome you on behalf of Carol, John and Kathryn. They appreciate your love and support, not just today but for the past nine months, more than we can say. I welcome you also on behalf of the extended Devlin and Buttry families gathered here today, including his grandparents, Jim and Mary Gene Devlin. And I welcome you on behalf of family who could not join us here, particularly my mother, Patrick’s grandmother, Harriet Buttry, who desperately wanted to be here to honor her grandson and comfort her daughter. Unfortunately, Mom’s health does not permit such travel. Your presence today and throughout Patrick’s struggle and your presence in his life provided strength and comfort for this family and we thank you from the bottom of our broken hearts.

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Social media share Patrick’s emotional story

Some people who don’t use social media see it as self-indulgent and trivial.

They haven’t experienced the way that people have reached out through Twitter, Facebook and blogs to comfort my family after the death Wednesday of my nephew Patrick. They haven’t experienced how his father, John, shared the story of Patrick’s final months on CaringBridge with hundreds of friends, family and caring people he’d never met.

Social media are just communication tools. They aren’t inherently good or bad, frivolous or serious. When my father, Patrick’s grandfather, battled prostate cancer 31 years ago, people used the communication tools of the day – telephones, greeting cards and stationery – to express their support and encouragement during the fight and their sympathy after it ended. Generations before that used telegraph, quill pens and other tools.

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My LinkedIn connections offer advice for social media business course

I have continued using social media to gather advice on using social media for business. I gathered this advice from some people in this area who are connections of mine on LinkedIn. I used the LinkedIn question-and-answer function to email them this question:

How has LinkedIn been helpful to you in your business or profession? If you have found LinkedIn useful, I would appreciate a brief message providing an example of how you’ve used it or explaining which feature(s) you find most useful.

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