{"id":25,"date":"2022-08-07T18:25:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-07T18:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/?post_type=chapter&p=25"},"modified":"2022-08-20T21:46:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-20T21:46:56","slug":"social-media","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/chapter\/social-media\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 17: Social Media","rendered":"Chapter 17: Social Media"},"content":{"raw":"

NYU Journalism Handbook for Students<\/h1>\r\n

NYU Journalism Handbook for Students<\/a><\/h2>\r\nEthics, Law and Good Practice\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nCarter Journalism Institute\r\nFaculty of Arts and Science\r\nNew York University\r\n20 Cooper Square\r\nNew York, NY 10003\r\n\r\nBy Prof. Adam L. Penenberg<\/em>\r\n\r\nREVISED 2020<\/strong>\r\n\r\nOpen Access License: The author of this work, in conjunction with the Carter Institute at New York University, has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution License to this Ethics Handbook. While the author and the journalism institute retain ownership, we encourage others to reprint, amend and distribute this work for both commercial and noncommercial uses, as long as the original author and the journalism institute are credited. This broad license was developed to allow open and free access to original works of all types.<\/em>\r\n

SOCIAL MEDIA<\/h2>\r\nYou are what you tweet or post on Facebook or Instagram. By that we mean you become a public figure when you participate on social media, what you say there reflects on you and social media mistakes can exist in perpetuity on the internet, revealed with a simple search or through the Wayback Machine. Every publication has its own rules governing staff use of social media. The Washington Post prohibits conduct on social media that \u201cadversely affects The Post\u2019s customers, advertisers, subscribers, vendors, suppliers or partners\u201d and its management claims the right to take disciplinary action \u201cup to and including termination of employment.\u201d Bloomberg tells its staff not to join groups on social networks dedicated to a particular political opinion or cause and to not argue with those critical of its work. NPR wants reporters and editors to conduct themselves on social media just as they would in any other public circumstances. \u201cTreat those you encounter online with fairness, honesty and respect, just as you would offline\u201d and \u201cdo not disparage the work of others.\u201d\r\n\r\nIf you post malicious, immature or prurient material, or engage in online trolling or acrimonious back and forth, you could inadvertently undermine your credibility and ethical standing.\r\n\r\nOn social media, you\u2019re your own fact-checker \u2013 especially when sharing content from another user. You should vet information before passing it along over social media. Journalists have a responsibility not to add to the cloud of false information that is floating about. Just by retweeting or reposting a piece of information, in the eyes of many you are effectively reporting that information. When in doubt, verify. If a journalist amplifies something over social media that turns out to be false, they should correct the record. A rule of thumb: since everything you write online is, in effect, published, the NYU Journalism faculty urges you not to write anything that violates the rules of honest and decent journalism.\r\n\r\nIn an era when journalists are often accused of promulgating \u201cfake news,\u201d it\u2019s critical that when journalists are using platforms for their reporting including social media, chatrooms and forums (e.g. Reddit, 4chan, 8chan, QAnon etc.) they verify their sources and information from these sites. It\u2019s extremely important to be skeptical about all information and sources uncovered on these sites, because in most cases, the sites are intended to troll people. Don\u2019t use anonymous message boards as primary sources. Keep in mind that some users of these sites are dangerous (or at very least, racist, sexist and homophobic), so try to keep a low profile.","rendered":"

NYU Journalism Handbook for Students<\/h1>\n

NYU Journalism Handbook for Students<\/a><\/h2>\n

Ethics, Law and Good Practice<\/p>\n

\n

Carter Journalism Institute
\nFaculty of Arts and Science
\nNew York University
\n20 Cooper Square
\nNew York, NY 10003<\/p>\n

By Prof. Adam L. Penenberg<\/em><\/p>\n

REVISED 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

Open Access License: The author of this work, in conjunction with the Carter Institute at New York University, has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution License to this Ethics Handbook. While the author and the journalism institute retain ownership, we encourage others to reprint, amend and distribute this work for both commercial and noncommercial uses, as long as the original author and the journalism institute are credited. This broad license was developed to allow open and free access to original works of all types.<\/em><\/p>\n

SOCIAL MEDIA<\/h2>\n

You are what you tweet or post on Facebook or Instagram. By that we mean you become a public figure when you participate on social media, what you say there reflects on you and social media mistakes can exist in perpetuity on the internet, revealed with a simple search or through the Wayback Machine. Every publication has its own rules governing staff use of social media. The Washington Post prohibits conduct on social media that \u201cadversely affects The Post\u2019s customers, advertisers, subscribers, vendors, suppliers or partners\u201d and its management claims the right to take disciplinary action \u201cup to and including termination of employment.\u201d Bloomberg tells its staff not to join groups on social networks dedicated to a particular political opinion or cause and to not argue with those critical of its work. NPR wants reporters and editors to conduct themselves on social media just as they would in any other public circumstances. \u201cTreat those you encounter online with fairness, honesty and respect, just as you would offline\u201d and \u201cdo not disparage the work of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you post malicious, immature or prurient material, or engage in online trolling or acrimonious back and forth, you could inadvertently undermine your credibility and ethical standing.<\/p>\n

On social media, you\u2019re your own fact-checker \u2013 especially when sharing content from another user. You should vet information before passing it along over social media. Journalists have a responsibility not to add to the cloud of false information that is floating about. Just by retweeting or reposting a piece of information, in the eyes of many you are effectively reporting that information. When in doubt, verify. If a journalist amplifies something over social media that turns out to be false, they should correct the record. A rule of thumb: since everything you write online is, in effect, published, the NYU Journalism faculty urges you not to write anything that violates the rules of honest and decent journalism.<\/p>\n

In an era when journalists are often accused of promulgating \u201cfake news,\u201d it\u2019s critical that when journalists are using platforms for their reporting including social media, chatrooms and forums (e.g. Reddit, 4chan, 8chan, QAnon etc.) they verify their sources and information from these sites. It\u2019s extremely important to be skeptical about all information and sources uncovered on these sites, because in most cases, the sites are intended to troll people. Don\u2019t use anonymous message boards as primary sources. Keep in mind that some users of these sites are dangerous (or at very least, racist, sexist and homophobic), so try to keep a low profile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"menu_order":17,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-25","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/25\/revisions\/152"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/25\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/medianewsandreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}