Ethics in social media?

As Facebook, blogging, and Twitter have changed the way that news is delivered, many journalist are pushing to ensure that the same ethical principles are applied across the board for all journalist.

The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) recently joined the efforts. "The guideline talk about truth and fairness, and how it's reflected in social media; how we Tweet or text, and how we use it in newsgathering. It looks at how we can better our transparency with our audience, so that they can see how we cover the news," Stacey Woelfel, chairman of the RTDNA said in regards to social medial guidelines.

These new guidelines will be good, as many orgainizations don't have ethical guidelines for dealing with the digital world.

Andy Schotz, chairman of the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee, also said that the SPJ would be looking into their Code of Ethics this year to see if changes are needed in light of increased social media usage.

There isn't a need to reinvent the wheel here, journalist have a Code of Ethics. If journalist want to use social media outlets, they should stand by that same code.

Whatever codes are decided on there needs to be consistancy between digital and traditional journalist.

The Future of iPads and E-books

We've all heard about iPads possibly replacing textbooks, magazines and newspapers, but columnist Matthew Ingram of Gigaom sees a future for children's books.

A company called Atomic Antelope recently created an iPhone application based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The application gives interactive features to the book's original text and illustrations.

Ingram wonders if this will become standard practice for e-books. Each book will have its own application and readers can choose whether to purchase it; just like books today, except virtual and more interactive.

The current price for the Alice in Wonderland app. is $8.99, similar to what the book's price would be in a normal bookstore. Many of the newly released books for the Kindle, an e-book competitor are $9.99; again, typical pricing for traditional books.

In light of the digitization of media, many newspapers, magazines and book publishers worry about making a profit. The development of apps. could help them maintain their income without losing content.

We should watch for book publishers hiring computer programmers and app. developers. The public likes interactive media, and if companies can make money from it, they will embrace it wholeheartedly.

Online-Only Publications Win a Pulitzer

That's right. Editorial cartoonist Mark Fiore for SFGate.com and investigative journalist Sheri Fink at ProPublica were both awarded Pulitzer Prizes for their work.

Mashable has called it "history making" because it is the first time any online-only publication has won a Pulitzer, the highest award a writer can receive.

ProPublica, which prides itself in investigative journalism, is an independent organization that teams up with traditional media sources to get its news out there. The organization itself operates solely online.

Mashable describes ProPublica as a non-profit that thinks of itself as a resource to other news companies who may not have the time or resources to do serious investigative reporting.

Fink's winning piece told about “the urgent life-and-death decisions made by one hospital’s exhausted doctors when they were cut off by the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina,” according to a Pulitzer announcement. The entire series is located on ProPublica's site.

Fiore won his Pulitzer for his editorial comics. Here's an example:



You can find more his work on the SFGate archive or on his site.

This is a big step for online-only media. The only question I have is how many more companies will have to team up in order to get the news out there?

No Tweet Zone

Employers have not been quick to change their policies when it comes to using Twitter or Facebook on the job. In a recent survey conducted by Robert Half Technology, 1400 CIO's of company's with 100 or more employees were asked about their policies for access to social media websites by employees.

According to CNET, of those surveyed, 55% reported no change, with 23% enacting stricter policies for personal use and 15% implementing stricter policies for business use. The challenge is for employers to find the delicate balance as social media can be a valuable business tool, but obviously it can also be a distraction that could affect productivity in the office. There are also concerns that employees might inadvertantly post sensitive proprietary information.

"There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to social-networking policies," said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, in a statement. "To be effective, guidelines should include input from stakeholders throughout the organization, including IT, legal, human resources, marketing, public relations and front-line employees."

Steven Bennett of Jones Day offers some best practices for corporate policies on social networking in a January 5, 2010 article on the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel website.

Some employers recognize the value of social media as a research and communication tool. It is viewed as a way to reach audiences with marketing messages and capitalize on free advertisement. Some employers use Facebook and MySpace as screening tools in their hiring practices. There are varying opinions on if you should completely block the sites. Some want to limit the use, but that is difficult to police. Employees may find other, less-secure ways to access the sites and that can cause other breaches of confidentiality or could hurt the reputation of the company.

Whatever the policy is for a company, it needs to be defined and incorporated into the employee handbook. It should be clear and not ambiguous in it's scope. My employer has people who have been specifically chosen to blog about the company. There is also a company Twitter account, but access to Twitter is blocked. On the other hand, we do have access to Linked In, which is seen more as a professional networking site. Company's have embraced social networking, but at an arms length.

Where Did You Read That?

The Pulitzer Prize was given out this week, and a rather unlikely source was in competition for the prestigious prize, albeit, for only a brief moment. The National Enquirer, long renowned for it's coverage of scandalous affairs and over-the-top breaking news articles, entered into the competition the article that covered John Edwards alleged affair with a political campaign worker in 2007. The article was second story the paper had run regarding the scandal, but the story was largely ignored by many outlets. Though many of the facts reported by the Enquirer were easily identifiable, if one were to search hard enough, the story was considered just another one of the magazines supermarket headlines published in an attempt to earn another $3.49 from consumers.

But in 2008, Edwards confessed to the affair, and subsequently confirmed the existence of a child with his mistress. When the story broke, news outlets from CNN to Fox News, and of course, the Enquirer, were covering the details. Why the headlines from the Enquirer didn't read "Hey! We Said It First!" I'm not sure; but the editor thought enough of the story's value to submit the article to Pulitzer for the competition. Several other news sources also gave the Enquirer some credit for getting it right, but others wrote the tabloid off, calling the submission a pipe dream for a checkout tabloid.

We've been discussing credible sources in BNR, and we've all heard the speech at Simpson College: Do Not Use Wikipedia As A Source. Though they didn't name the sources the information regarding Edwards was obtained from, The Enquirer did all their homework. They investigated and reported the facts, and the information in their article was easily confirmed if we would have given it a second glance. They deserved recognition for this important story, one which had important political repercussions, regardless of the source it came from. It seems that we have forgot the humble beginnings of Journalism, which started off with sensationalist stories that ran in the penny press. The public loves a scandal, and the early news papers gave it to them. This tradition, however small, has continued with stories published in the Enquirer and other such tabloids.

Barry Levine, the executive editor of the Enquirer, stated recently to Gawker.com that if the story had first been published in the NY Times or the Post that there would have been no question about a legitimate nomination for a Pulitzer. This may be true, but with that observation, I believe he points out a very important fact: the Enquirer has shot itself in the foot (or, excuse me, footnote) for some of the stories they've published, and much like the boy who cries wolf, it's hard to take another one of their headlines seriously. Here are a few examples of their current headlines on their Web site and running in the magazine's current issue

"Bam Nukes Palin!" <--"Bam" being a reference for President Obama. "Sex Crazed Taylor Swift"
Seagal Sex Slave Charges

Another thing that discredits the Enquirer from being a source people turn to for credible news is the fact that right on their website, they have the "Got News?" button, soliciting anyone with any wild tale to come forward for "big bucks".
It's for reasons like this that the majority of mainstream media has acknowledged that the Enquirer took a big step toward good journalism with it's coverage, but it's still got a long way to go.

Scientific philosopher, Robert Anton Wilson, was once quoted as saying "“Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.” Indeed, many of the stories that grace the pages of the National Enquirer sound crazy, but every once in a while, the reality of the story makes the craziness appear sane.

New Advertising on Twitter

Twitter declared Tuesday that it will be introducing advertising by allowing companies to pay to have their messages show up first in searchers on Twitter.com.

"Promoted Tweets" debut comes as Twitter increasingly faces questions about how it can turn its wide usage into profits.

The new ads will apparently won't bring in much money during the experimental phase. Virgin America one of the advertisers is one of few who are invited to test the new concept. The best part is they won't be paying for the demo.

The airline's vice-president told Michael Liedtke of Business Week that they expect to change to a paid model in the future.

Twitter hasn't commented on the decision but other than Virgin America, Twitter identified Best Buy Co., Sony pictures and Starbucks Corp. among others using Promoted Tweets.

The site has 69 million people worldwide used Twitter last month. They site has been valued at $1 billion.

The tweets are to be "called out" as ads on top search results on Twitter. Twitter users will see the new ads when they search broadly for topics being tweeted about.

However, a large number of users don't use these search options on Twitter. Many programmers have written mobile and desktop software that can access the feeds of Twitter messages that users get from people they aer following on the site.

Screw Fox, Conan Goes to TBS

Conan O'Brein surprises us again. After months of speculation that he would go to Fox after giving his last episode of the Tonight Show on NBC, O'Brein has shocked us all and will be launching his new late night show on TBS.

"The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November!" O'Brien said on his Twitter feed. "The bad news: I'll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show."

Thought the exact date has not been set for the premier, it will begin airing in November.

"In three months I've gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I'm headed to basic cable," O'Brein said.

One odd thing about he show is that it will be airing four nights a week, Monday through Thursday, instead of five.

His new show will be at 11 at night and push George Lopez's Lopez Tonight back an hour.

"I can't think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as my lead-in," Lopez said. "It's the beginning of a new era in late-night comedy."

If O'Brein signed on with Fox, it was suspected that he would overtake his rival, Jay Leno, whose show is on NBC and cause O'Brein to bid farewell in the first place. Now that he is going to TBS, no one is quite sure what is to come of O'Brein or Leno.

Master of Branding

As journalism students, we’ve heard a lot of the term “branding” in class, in our books, and in our research. There is one person who has recently used the media to become a one-woman national media empire.

After the 2008 elections, she chose not to return to Alaska to finish out her term as governor. While many would assume this would hurt her aspirations, it has actually helped. She has used the media to her advantage and is now her own business.

She recently debuted as the host of “Real American Stories” on Fox News four times a year, promising that it would “reaffirm our pioneering spirit and unmatched generosity, here and around the world.” She was paid a $1.25 million retainer for her book, “Going Rogue,” which has sold 2.2 million copies. Another book is tentatively scheduled for this fall. She also has an eight-part series on TLC called “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” coming soon.

Is she really that popular? Her Facebook page has 1.5 million fans. When she did her first paid appearance as a commentator on “The O’Reilly Factor,” it had an extra one million viewers. Oprah Winfrey’s show achieved the biggest ratings in two years when she appeared.

So what has she done? She has stayed true to her version of America. It is full of plain folks spending a lot of time overcoming a great deal, including a government that she argues often intends to do more harm than good. She’s about “everyday people and the values American’s hold so dear,” she stated on Facebook.

Whatever she is doing, whether the media is supportive or not, she is definitely branding herself into the career and persona she wants to be.

No More Alcohol Advertising

Alcohol advertising will be banned in Virginia’s college newspapers. By not promoting alcohol in student newspapers the Virginia's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board hopes to reduce under- age drinking. Controversy has been sparked over the ban, and whether it is unconstitutional for commercial freedom of speech. University of Virginia and Virginia Tech’s student newspapers deemed the ban unconstitutional. The papers said students’ images of drinking and alcohol in the media are readily accessible; therefore the ban is ineffective. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that this ban does not violate First Amendment rights. No longer can a print or online advertisement say, "'happy hour' or similar terms." Liquor, beer, and wine, "unless in reference to a dining establishment," even then prices and brands can not be mentioned specifically.