For the Record
Dean Wright on Ethics, Innovation and Values
Social media: Some principles and guidelines
The rise of social media has brought journalists some powerful new storytelling and information-gathering tools. However, with these new opportunities have come some new risks.
At Reuters, we have just published some social media guidelines that lay out some basic principles and offer recommendations that should prove useful as journalists navigate what can sometimes seem a chaotic landscape.
In building the new guidelines, we’ve embraced some basic principles:
- We encourage the use of social media approaches in Reuters journalism.
- Accuracy, freedom from bias and independence are fundamental to our reputation. These values and the Trust Principles apply to journalism produced using social media just as they have to all other journalism produced by Reuters.
- A distinguishing feature of Reuters is the trust invested in its journalists to rise above personal biases in their work and to apply common sense in dealing with the challenges offered by social media.
This last point is particularly important to me.
I’ve written in the past about how we depend on our journalists to rise above their biases to cover stories in an independent way, whether they’re in Gaza or Washington–or anywhere else.
As comments have shown–and will no doubt show again–there are those who will never believe this is possible. And there are those who would actually prefer to read, listen to or view only those information sources that confirm their own worldview.
The fall of the Wall–and the media’s role
Dean Wright is Global Editor, Ethics, Innovation and News Standards. Any opinions are his own.
It was 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall, the most iconic symbol of the Cold War, fell, on Nov. 9, 1989.
In recent days, there have been a number of commemorations of the event and news organizations around the world have taken note of what was one of the most important stories of the latter half of the 20th century.
I had the privilege of attending and speaking at one Berlin event organized by Google and Reporters Without Borders. The event, Breaking Borders, took the anniversary as an opportunity to explore how the Internet is playing a role in advancing participatory democracy around the globe. Twenty years earlier, television and satellite technology helped play a role in the fall of the Wall, by connecting people and empowering them with information.
Among those appearing at the event, either as speakers or panelists, were Thorbjørn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe; Jean-François Julliard, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders; Rachel Whetstone, Google’s vice president for public policy and communications; Andrew Puddephatt, director of Global Partners & Associates; Rita Sussmuth, former president of the German federal parliament; and Sami Ben Gharbia, advocacy director for Global Voices.
The session was recorded and the presentation is on YouTube.
A common theme at the conference was that, yes, the Internet provides a vastly more powerful way to obtain and share information, giving voice to many who had been muzzled. However, there was also a consensus that the Internet also presents myriad challenges and potential barriers.
I lived in Germany at this time and one thing I remember is the part of the Wall in front of the Brandenburg-Gate. It was hard to get anywhere near it because of the crowds and the crowds of reporters with their cameras. There were so many flashes, it felt like fireworks going off. But watching the crowds standing and dancing on top of the wall sent chills up and down my spine. The air around the wall was always one of quiet, sort of like being in a library or a church. Now with the parties going on in front of the wall and on top of the wall, the atmosphere was more like a huge outdoor concert. No more reverence, it was time to party.
It is ironic that the wall came down on November 9. The fall of the Berlin Wall is not the only historic event that happened on November 9. Germany was defeated in World War I on Novermber 9, 1919; November 9, 1938 is known as Kristallnacht. This is the night when Nazis throughout Germany destroyed Jewish businesses and synagogues. The amount of broken glass is what gave the name to this night. It was an eerie suggestion that this night go down in history as a German holiday to commemorate the Fall of the Wall and of communism in East Germany. The Germans came to their senses and chose another date to mark the reunification of Germany But no newspaper, except for the essay by Elie Wiesel in the New York Times, mentioned this fact. Was it ignorance? I don’t know but, I find is strange that all the newspapers quoted JFK’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech over and over again; they mentioned the DM 100.00 and the shopping sprees at least once a day. But no one felt the necessity to draw the historical comparisons. I find that to be poor journalism. We rely on television to show us the moods of the events and moments that shape our lives but, it is the written media’s responsibility to bring these events into their historical contexts. Both newspapers and the magazine failed to do just that. The book also failed to draw the comparisons.
All in all, I feel the media could have done a better job of covering this historic event. Although, I’m not sure anyone who had not lived in Berlin before the wall came down and then actually lived in the city to see it fall, could actually sum up the true feelings of the people at the time. It was one of the moments where you had to be there to feel the true significance of the event. I truly feel blessed to have lived through that moment with all the other citizens of Berlin, both East and West. It is a moment I will never forget.
Citizen journalism, mainstream media and Iran
Dean Wright is Global Editor, Ethics, Innovation and News Standards. Any opinions are his own.
The recent election in Iran was one of the more dramatic stories this year, with powerful images of protests and street-fighting dominating television and online coverage.
Because traditional news organizations were essentially shut down by the authorities, it fell to citizen journalists — many of whom were among the protesters — to provide the images that the world would see, using such social media as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
This has raised a number of ethics, standards and legal questions for mainstream journalists. My colleague John Clarke, Reuters Global Television Editor, found himself in the middle of the issue as images became available and clients demanded coverage of the election’s aftermath. John discusses the issues raised, the lessons learned and the opportunities for the future below. As always, his opinions are his own.
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Protests following the controversial Iranian election have put citizen journalism even more firmly in the spotlight. With traditional news gathering organizations effectively shut down by authorities, text, video and stills being produced and posted on social websites by the protesters themselves became the main way that much information was getting out of the country. This dramatic coverage — regardless of (and perhaps even enhanced by) its shaky nature — was accessed by Reuters (and other news organizations) and distributed to clients and viewers around the world.
Citizen journalism isn’t new. We have long accessed amateur footage of stories around the world, from plane crashes to wars to natural disasters. However, the internet and mobile devices have resulted in a dramatic increase in the amount of content available and the speed of delivery, the ability to deliver outside of normal controls, more uncertainty over origin, ownership and verification, and the viral nature in which it can all spread around the globe.
Counting quality — not characters — in social media
Dean Wright is Global Editor, Ethics, Innovation and News Standards. Any opinions are his own.
Are we too connected?
In recent days and weeks I’ve been wondering if our mobile phones, Blackberries, text messaging and constant access to email and social media have brought us too close together for our own good.
Or maybe the quality of our connected life is only as good as the information we share.
At this point, social media and microblogging phenomena like Facebook and Twitter focus on short answers to such generic questions as, “What are you doing?”
We hear from network and cable television anchors who tell us what they’re having for lunch (often a quick sandwich in the company cafeteria because they are, well, really busy). Or from usually cynical White House journalists who can’t resist Tweeting which B-list celebrity they saw at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Here are a few actual Tweets from the so-called nerd prom:
- “Just spend quality time with ricky schroeder #nerdprom”.
- “post #nerdprom sightings. demi/ashton, james franco, owen wilson, eric holder, mayor fente, d axelrod, christopher hitchens, dana delaney”. (This one’s fitting since Ashton Kutcher is the world’s most followed Twitterer).
- “Just got picture with Dule Hill.”
Hello Dean,
Good thoughts, thank you for sharing. It’s good to know you are developing guidelines for journalists using social media.
However, I have to take issue with your characterization of Twitter, in particular its ” ““me, me, me” quality” and “focus on short answers to such generic questions as, “What are you doing?””
This misses the mark on Twitter’s value and importance. For some of us that have been active users for two or more years (yes, we do exist) Twitter is primarily an INFORMATION MANAGEMENT tool. That’s not to say all who use it find value that way, but it is a way of finding and sharing information that is more efficient than email, yet as the same time a bit quixotic and serendipitous. It is like Digg and StumbleUpon with people who share your interests. Thus, I have characterized Twitter as part of a personal information management system. Not the only part, but an important one.
On a broader level, the manifestation of so many thoughts can be seen as a peek into the collective conscious, or panconsciousness. I’ve articulated this concept on my blog.
