Category Archives: Social Media

Twitter Snafus of 2017

January 15, 2018Accountability, Accuracy, Blogging, Fairness, Media, Minimizing Harm, Online News, Social MediaiMediaEthics, online commenting, Social Media, Twitterethicsadviceline

Avoiding Twitter snafus: Sydney Smith says tweets caused media and staffers problems in 2017.

Among them: Old tweets, hoax or parody Twitter accounts, false tweets, tweets that cost jobs, flippant tweets and racist or anti-Semitic tweets.

Using The Term “Racist.”

January 12, 2018Accuracy, Fairness, Freedom of Speech, Media, Minimizing Harm, Social MediaColumbia Journalism Review, newsroom policy, President Trump, racist, termsethicsadviceline

Touchy subject — using the term “racist” while covering President Trump.

“Placing labels on speech by any public figure runs the risk of editorialization, and newsroom decision makers are wary of overstepping conventional norms,” writes Pete Vernon.

Bottom line: It’s time reporters do what columnists and opinion writers do, says Vernon.

Cybersecurity Training For Journalists

January 11, 2018Media, Minimizing Harm, Online News, Privacy, Social Media, Using DeceptionColumbia Journalism Review, cybersecurity, digital security, journalism schools, sources, trainingethicsadviceline

Basic digital security competence is now essential for all journalists, writes Joshua Oliver.

“These days, bad security habits could betray your sources, or the sources of the reporter sitting next to you,” by clicking the wrong link.

Journalism schools surveyed devote less than two hours to digital security training, writes Oliver. Security should become a habit.

Weeding Out Toxic Commentary

January 4, 2018Accountability, Accuracy, Media, Minimizing Harm, Social Mediaabuse, Columbia Journalism Review, commentary sections, Norwegian Broadcasting Corp., quiz, The Guardian, toxic commentaryethicsadviceline

Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. finds a way to weed out toxic commentary: Take a quiz.

Many large media organizations eliminated their comment sections because of abusive commentary, writes Steve Friess. The Guardian, for example, last year closed comments under articles on race, immigration and Islam because they attract “unacceptable levels of toxic commentary.”

A short quiz on the contents of a story, the Norwegian brainstorm, unlocks access to the comments section.

“We wanted to create a bump in the road to make people think a bit before ranting away,” a source tells Friess.

Facebook Home of Viral Hoaxes

January 3, 2018Accountability, Accuracy, Fairness, Media, Minimizing Harm, Online News, Social Media, Transparency, Using DeceptionCraig Silverman, Facebook, fake news in 2017, misinformation, viral hoaxesethicsadviceline

Rumors, misinformation and fake news: Craig Silverman says he helped popularize the term “fake news” and now regrets it.

Silverman and colleagues published an analysis of 50 of the biggest fake news hits on Facebook in 2017.

“This highlights the challenge faced by Facebook to find ways to halt or arrest the spread of completely false stories on its platform, and raises questions about how much progress has been made in fighting this type of misinformation.”

Facebook “remains the home of massively viral hoaxes,” says Silverman.

UNESCO Handbook on Covering Terrorism

January 2, 2018Media, Minimizing Harm, Social Media, Transparencycovering terrorists, handbook, kidnappings, safety, terrorism, terrorists, UNESCOethicsadviceline

UNESCO offers a handbook for journalists covering terrorism: Avoid helping terrorists to turn people against each other. Includes a chapter on safety of journalists, including kidnappings and emotional and physical injuries.

Killing Net Neutrality Rules Could Hurt Students

December 28, 2017Fairness, Freedom of Speech, Online News, Social Media, Videosdistance learning, education, Federal Communications Commission, Get Wired Magazine, net neutrality, net neutrality rules, studentsethicsadviceline

Killing net neutrality rules could hurt students using videoconferencing and other forms of high-tech distance learning, writes Klint Finley.

The Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 14 scraped rules that ban internet providers from blocking or slowing data delivery. Rural populations could suffer most, says Finley.

Facial-recognition and Internet Vigilantes

December 19, 2017Accountability, Accuracy, Fairness, Media, Minimizing Harm, Online News, Social Media, Transparency, Using Deceptionfacial-recognition, internet vigilantes, misinformation, NiemanLab, smartphone, Social Media, Washington Postethicsadviceline

Year of the Internet Vigilantes: Doris Truong writes about online identification technology to combat misinformation.

“It might lie in facial-recognition technology. You might have it in your hands already, depending on which smartphone you’re using.” Trust but verify.

Reporting on Dreamers

December 12, 2017Accuracy, Compassion, Fairness, Juveniles, Minimizing Harm, Social Media, Weighing Benefits and HarmColumbia Journalism Review, Dreamers, immigration, The Guardianethicsadviceline

Reporting on Dreamers: Undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children tell Itzel Guillen, Irving Hernandez and Allyson Duarte how to write about them. They’re not all Mexican; give them a voice.