technoculture203-09

With the increasing popularity of blogs and twitter as personal social forums, it was perhaps only a matter of time before journalist ethics and professionalism was brought into question, regarding their personal use of such sites.

In a recent article in the media and marketing section of the Australian newspaper concern was voiced by major news organisation's about their current social media policies and their effectiveness. As a result and to reflect a changing digitalised social world, new edicts and rules are being sent out to news room staff, to clarify the expectations the media companies expect of them.

The most problematic issue involved making sure journalists maintained their ethical standards and professional journalistic integrity, with regard to the posting of personal material on social networking sites, personal websites and blogs etc...

The general consensus amongst the major media companies including the BBC and The New York Times is that journalists should only write or post private articles, that could also be published in their capacity as a professional news journalist.

The New York Times stated that journalists need to be aware that what they write privately can be easily accessed, manipulated or disseminated, and as such, their personal views must be non biased, non political and avoid any critical debates or problematic issues, so any material that is written could also theoretically be published by the newspaper.

It seems it just got tougher for professional Journalists to express themselves in the social landscapes of the private media sphere, knowing that the big brother of management is watching.