Ethics Assignment

As the popularity of social networking cites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter continue to grow, journalists will continue to utilize them more and more. Along with this, however, comes the debate presented in Pamela J. Podger's article, what the limits or guidelines should be for journalists with these social networking cites.

I agree with Vancouver Courier reporter Cheryl Rossi who has two different Facebook accounts, one for work life and one for her personal life. If a journalist is using some sort of social media for work related purposes, their personal life should be kept separate. "It might be me being technologically superstitious, but it just seems wrong for all of my friends and professional links to be in one place," Rossi says. What a person would post for co-workers or sources to read would be much different than what a journalist may post for friends or family to see.

If in anyway a journalists social networking cite is going to be used for professional purposes it should remain 100 percent professional. That does not mean that there can be no fun or joking around but opinion and bias should remain out just as in any article. One journalist who I think does a good job of this is ABC's George Stephanopoulos. While his tweets sometime contain humor or promote follower interaction, he never strays far from keeping his tweets professional. I believe as a professional journalist this is essential.

If I were in the position of an editor or manager who had to implement rules for the employees regarding social networking I would suggest the same thing. I would not prohibit employees from having personal social networking cites but I would make sure that they make the difference between their personal ones and work ones very distinguishable. I would come up with many guidelines for employees to eliminate any possible confusion and protect the integrity and reputation of the company.

Some newspapers such as the New York Times have even implemented such guidelines for their employees use of social networking cites such as Facebook. One of their main rules is, “Be careful not to write anything on a blog or a personal Web page that you could not write in The Times — don’t editorialize, for instance, if you work for the News Department." I think this is vital for journalists especially if major news organizations such as the New York Times are making guidelines to prohibit employees from using social networking cites for personal opinions.