Social Media and how you must write carefully if you want to be taken seriously

Last week in class we were discussing some of the rules and guidelines for us to follow as journalists in the social media.

I found it really interesting how it changes the way you say things when you’re a public figure compared to when you are a simple no-body who simply may, or may not, have an opinion on certain subject.

I’ve been using facebook and twitter for quite some time now and use them for two very different things. However, now that I’m studying journalism I find myself more and more aware of what I write and conscious of the possible effects it may have on the people who reads me. I didn’t care before, but now I think there’s a world of possible readers out there who may one day come across one of my comments and it could possibly have an impact.

Now, the things I say suddenly got a different weight. A friend of mine, journalist, who’s got her own twitter account and blog asked me to participate with her on her blog. She is a well know journalist and her blog has received many awards. I accepted gladly, but when I started writing for her, the things that I would have usually written on my own blog, or just for myself, I found it so much more difficult and I started asking myself why? Well, it is simple. Because now I was writing for a larger audience, but wait, the audience could’ve been just as large before, after all my blog is public and my twitter account is too, so why the distinction? Because now I am aware of the fact that there will be hundreds of eyes reading and scrutinizing my opinions, thoughts, reports, investigations, etcetera. Just like I am one of those readers who not only casually but rather regularly read her blog because I know I will find something of my interest there. And that made the whole difference. So I backed up and told my friend to wait until I had taken some baby steps in learning how to handle myself as a public writer, how to write for larger audiences and learn how to be more factual and less opinioned. That’s when I gained conscience that once you put something on the web it can last forever in the cyber space, so you better be cautious of what you say and how you say it if you want to be taken seriously when you build yourself a name just like she has.

For that and many other didactical reasons I found this book very useful for those who, like me, are still learning and/or in the process of becoming journalists. From the American Society of News Editors, the book 10 Best Practices for Social Media.
Helpful guidelines for news organizations. By James Hohmann and the 2010-11 ASNE Ethics and Values Committee.
From which I’m taking the key guidelines to share them with you:

1. Traditional ethics rules still apply online.
2. Assume everything you write online will become public.
3. Use social media to engage with readers, but professionally.
4. Break news on your website, not on Twitter.
5. Beware of perceptions.
6. Independently authenticate anything found on a social networking site.
7. Always identify yourself as a journalist.
8. Social networks are tools not toys.
9. Be transparent and admit when you’re wrong online.
10. Keep internal deliberations confidential.