Tweet responsibly!
News media develop guidelines for use of social media

by Troy Warzocha

Your mom is on it, your friends are on it - heck, even your ex's are on it.

Whether it's through Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, or blogging, instant interaction with a multitude of people has morphed from a convenience into a necessity. The broadcasting of ideas, beliefs, and opinions is now readily accessible to anyone with an internet connection or cell phone.

Social media has allowed sports fans to connect with athletes, families to find long-lost relatives, and even allowed the average person to earn a little extra money by running a successful blog. This does not mean that social media isn't without its issues.

Every system is abused to some degree and the social media is no different. People have created false Twitter accounts of famous people in order to trick followers by making outlandish statements, and before many blogs instituted commenting policies and hired moderators, comment boards were cesspools of bigotry and racism.

According to a 2006 report by Amy Clark of the CBS Evening News, even employers were looking at Facebook in order to get a better idea about the lives of prospective hires outside of work.

In journalism, social media has presented a new medium for organizations to connect with readers. Many outlets have blogs, Facebook groups, and Twitter accounts, but with those opportunities come a slew of new ethics issues for journalists and newspapers alike.

While media outlets use social media to connect with readers, journalists are still people and generally use social media to stay connected to family, friends, and fans. Despite using social media with the best of intentions, journalists are still cautioned to be careful not to broadcast opinions that may be seen as detrimental to their employers or as a conflict of interest. In response to these dangers, many major media outlets have drafted social media guidelines in order to regulate how employees should conduct themselves on social media websites.

For example, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, Washington Post, Dow Jones Co., and the Radio and Television Digital News Association have all rolled out some form of guidelines or revised current guidelines in the last 14 months.

Even though the Dow Jones Company’s policies are widely viewed as the strictest, the Washington Post has come under the most amount of fire recently. The most ardent criticisms of the Post from bloggers and other media outlets are centered on two primary complaints. The Post's new social media guidelines paint social media as dangerous instead of embracing it and current managing editor Raju Narisetti was asked to shut down his personal Twitter feed. The Post’s request came after Narisetti made "unwise" personal tweets about health care reform and term limits, according to Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander.

The following is an excerpt of the Post's social media guidelines regarding personal use of social media:

Post journalists must refrain from writing, tweeting or posting anything-including photographs or video-that could be perceived as reflecting political, racial, sexist, religious or other bias or favoritism that could be used to tarnish our journalistic credibility. This same caution should be used when joining, following or friending any person or organization online. Post journalists should not be involved in any social networks related to advocacy or a special interest regarding topics they cover, unless specifically permitted by a supervising editor for reporting and so long as other standards of transparency are maintained while doing any such reporting. Post journalists should not accept or place tokens, badges or virtual gifts from political or partisan causes on pages or sites, and should monitor information posted on your own personal profile sites by those with whom you are associated online for appropriateness.

Soon after the guidelines were released, Alexander addressed the new guidelines and the Narisetti-Twitter issue on two separate occasions in the fall of 2009. In late September, Alexander wrote about it on the Post's Ombudsman Blog in late September and 10 days later, he wrote a formal column for the Post's website.

Despite the criticism from bloggers, Narisetti explained in a recent interview that he didn’t feel that the Post was being unfair or unreasonable in asking him to shut down his Twitter feed.

“I realized that audiences will make no distinction between my personal and my professional opinions. And when your name appears every day on the same page that also notes that the Post is ‘An Independent Newspaper’ it is important for me to do everything to preserve that perception that editors are also independent, at least in their daily decision-making, of personal biases,” Narisetti said. “In a year when media companies are dealing with many challenges, I have enough more important tasks to worry about than fret about my occasional tweets. I haven't missed my Twitter account, to be honest.”

The rest of the newsroom has been generally accepting of the new guidelines as well, according to Narisetti.

“Some of our columnists cracked a few funny tweets but beyond that I think most people felt that the guidelines put everyone on the same page, which is important in a large newsroom,” Narisetti said.

However, not everyone is willing to pat the Post on the back for their new guidelines. According to Michele McLellan of the Knight Digital Media Center in California in a blog post in October of 2009, there is a fundamental difference between the Post's social media guidelines and NPR's guidelines, for example. Each set of guidelines says something about how the leadership views social media at these organizations. The Post sees social media as a dangerous hazard where a journalist should "protect professional identity". And on the other hand, NPR's guidelines see social media as "increasingly important" and "valuable", said McLellan.

The Post isn't the first newspaper to ask an employee to shut down a person Twitter feed, nor will it likely be the last. Chad Jennings, a New York Yankees beat writer for the Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., said in an interview that when he came over from the Times Tribune in Scranton, Pa., the Journal News asked him to switch from his personal Twitter feed to an employer provided feed.

"I was asked to shut down my own Twitter account. I was told I could keep it for personal tweets, but the paper wanted me to use the LoHud Yankees account that was already established," Jennings said. "It wasn't a demand or anything, they just asked me to switch. I didn't really have a problem with it, though I do think it made me less likely to use it."

Regarding the guidelines at the Post, Jennings understands that they are just trying to take preventative measures in order to avoid future conflicts, he said.

While Narisetti complied with the Post’s request to end his Twitter feed in an effort to protect the brand of the Washington Post, there are some members of the media that have fought tooth and nail to protect their own brand in spite of the organization they work for.

ESPN took matters into their own hands when ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons ripped a ESPN-affiliated radio station in his hometown of Boston, Mass., in two tweets after they named him their "fraud of the week" when Simmons was in Boston to do a book signing in October of 2009.

In the first tweet, dated October 26 Simmons said, "WEEI's 'The Big Show' was apparently ripping me today. Good to get feedback from 2 washed-up athletes and a 60 yr-old fat guy with no neck.”

On November 10, Simmons tweeted about WEEI again, "Hey WEEI: You were wrong, I did a Boston interview today. With your competition. Rather give them ratings over deceitful scumbags like you."

While the tweets were not entirely out of character for Simmons, ESPN felt compelled to act in order to enforce their social media policy that was introduced last summer. Therefore, ESPN suspended Simmons from Twitter for two weeks, allowing him to only tweet about his book tour. The suspension made Simmons the first employee at ESPN to be punished for violating the new policy.

In late November, Simmons conducted an interview with Street and Smith's Sports Business Daily explaining how the situation with ESPN went down.

“ESPN believed that some of my Tweets failed our new social media policy. I discussed it with [ESPN.com Editor in Chief] Rob King. We decided that it would be best for everyone if I took a 2-week break from Twitter except for tweets about my book tour," Simmons said.

Simmons added that while he wasn't exactly sure if his tweets "crossed the line", he thought that WEEI acted unprofessionally and on his end he handled the situation "poorly".

Though Simmons admitted that he may have made a mistake in dealing with WEEI, it didn't take him long before he criticized ESPN's social media policy on Twitter.

During a New England Patriots-Miami Dolphins game in December of 2009, Simmons tweeted that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady broke his ribs during New England's first touchdown drive. Almost a month later, ESPN football reporter Adam Schefter and CBS reporter Charley Casserly were credited in a story on ESPN.com about Brady's broken ribs, even though Simmons clearly broke the news first.

"Apparently ESPN's new social media guidelines don't cover giving Casserly and Schefter credit for this," Simmons tweeted after the ESPN story. In subsequent tweet, Simmons said that "he didn't care" and "the whole 'scoop' thing is overrated".

Despite being a little upset about not getting credit for the story, Simmons did bring up a valid point in challenging ESPN's attempted regulation of Twitter. "But what's the point of governing Twitter if you don't take it seriously?" Simmons tweeted.

Not every news organization has an explicit set of social media guidelines. Many smaller operations allow employees to use their common sense rather than dealing out “do’s” and “dont’s” on a newsroom-wide memo.

At the aforementioned Journal News, employees have some pretty elementary guidelines, but mostly any policies that are put forth have evolved through a consistent line of communication in the newsroom.

“We have some guidelines, but it's pretty basic stuff (no cursing, that sort of thing). For the most part, we figure it out as we go. A lot of discussions, taking it issue by issue,” Jennings said. “I remember the staff in Scranton being told to make sure there's nothing bad on our Facebook pages, but I don't remember it being especially specific.”

Even at the Times Tribune in Scranton, there weren’t detailed guidelines, but there were unwritten rules that could be assumed through common sense, according to Jennings.

“Just act professional,” Jennings said. “For example, I remember writing on my Scranton blog that I was leaving for a weekend to go to a bachelor party in Vegas. I don't think that crosses a line, but I certainly wouldn't have posted anything about my friends and I drinking beers around a craps table.”

Like the Journal News and the Times Tribune, newspapers in Montana have embraced social media with open arms and have begun to use it as a tool for their reporters and readership.

Both the Missoulian and the Billings Gazette have social media guidelines that have been passed down from their parent company, Lee Enterprises. Mostly the guidelines consist of “very common sense stuff,” said Missoulian editor Sherry Devlin.

Without diving into explicit details, Devlin noted that there have been times where employees have acted irresponsibly, but the number of issues is generally few and far between.

“We have had cases where people posted something that was very over the line,” Devlin said. “But by in large, we’ve had very few problems.”

In dealing with social media issues, Devlin said that the Missoulian’s guidelines are constantly developing and changing in order to reflect the evolution of technology. “There are going to be glitches and mistakes,” Devlin said. “We can’t predict everything. Every situation is different.”

Due to the smaller size of the Missoulian’s and the Gazette’s newsrooms, communicating and discussing guidelines is much easier and garners far less criticism than the larger metropolitan organizations.

“We’re all sitting right here together – talking about everything every day,” Devlin said. “It’s very much a group dynamic and a group conversation.”

At the Gazette, employees tend to do a very good job of being careful and responsible in how they conduct themselves on social media websites, said managing editor Kristi Angel.

Both the Missoulian and the Gazette have Twitter feeds and Facebook pages and try to use them as much as possible, according to Devlin and Angel.

When creating the Missoulian’s Facebook page, Devlin was inspired by the Associated Press’ page in how they ran it and the information they provided.

On the AP’s page, they do much more than just link to stories. Page managers promote involvement from fans by asking a question that goes along with a linked article, reporters will contribute their behind-the-scenes experiences when covering a story and the discussion board is a lively place to ask questions and connect with others.

In their information section of the page, the AP states that their page revolves around “news, discussion and a behind-the-scenes look at the newsgathering process from The Associated Press”.

While the Missoulian is still in the very early stages of embracing social media, that hasn’t stopped Devlin from asking reporters to use the medium to create a more personal connection with the reader.

For example, in January, Missoulian photographer Kurt Wilson did a shoot for a story about boxer Marvin Camel. The boxer from Ronan, Mont., is still known as the only world champion boxer that Montana has ever produced. After the shoot, Wilson wrote a note on the Missoulian’s Facebook page about the first time he met the boxer. The note gave readers a behind-the-scenes look at the story and revealed personal information about Wilson and Camel that did not make it into the newspaper.

“We encourage reporters to write about more personal accounts of the story behind the story,” Devlin said. Devlin’s goal from the beginning was “to really show people what we do and how we do it”.

At the Gazette, Angel is a big fan of both Facebook and Twitter and wants reporters to use it consistently. However, with the high median age of reporters in the newsroom, Angel admits that “they’re really reluctant to utilize (social media)”.

Unlike the Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones Co. (which is a subsidiary of News Corporation), what really helps both organizations is that they are owned by a company that is on-board with the idea of utilizing social media, according to Angel.

“I think Lee Enterprises sees social networking and mobile technology as a huge opportunity,” Angel said.

Neither organization has ever asked an employee to shut down a personal Twitter feed or Facebook pages. In fact, both papers encourage employees to use personal accounts as long as it’s done responsibly.

“Reporters should have a Twitter feed that is their (Twitter) feed as a Missoulian reporter,” Devlin said. “But if they want to have a personal Twitter feed, that’s fine.”

It’s clear to see that many different news organizations have varying degrees of comfort when dealing social media. However, it’s also important to note that none of them have entirely rejected the notion using of Facebook, Twitter, and blogging as a reporting tool for journalists.

To this day, Narisetti reiterates that the Post isn’t being restrictive about employees’ ability to use social media in order to connect with their readers, they’re just being as careful as possible.

And when it’s all said and done, how journalists use social media ultimately boils down to responsibility. The most essential thing to remember about using social media is to have respect for your job, your employer and yourself, Narisetti said.

“Be active and be aware that you represent yourself as much as you do the brand you work for and anything you do can have an impact in the eyes of audiences and on that brand you represent,” Narisetti said.