Lauren Diaz

Dr. Janice Hume

Journalism 5320

28 November 2017

Ethical Concerns Facing Journalists and Social Media

Since the creation of Myspace in 2003, the concept of social media for news coverage has

gained momentum with an increasing number of users online daily. According to the Pew

Research Center, based on a study conducted on 4,971 adults in the United States, 67 percent

reported that they received their news from social media platforms, particularly Twitter,

Youtube, and Snapchat. Although Facebook continues to be a leading source of news due to its

large user base, the percentage of users who received their news from Twitter between 2016 and

2017 increased by 15 percentage points. This increase is largely attributed to the 2016 election,

where news organizations and journalists expanded the reach of political and campaign news

through Twitters news-streaming partnerships, Youtubes Breaking News Summary, and

Snapchats Discover stories that featured interactive methods for users to receive news. News

organizations such as CNN and The New York Times specifically turned to Snapchat to target

younger audiences that it otherwise would have been unable to attain. As audiences transition

from traditional to social media for news coverage, journalists should continue to report with

transparency, impartiality, and accuracy in a networked newsroom.

Although increased audience participation allows for greater transparency and

accountability, journalists must differentiate between a personal and professional interaction with

its readers. When using one account for both private matters and professional duties, the

boundaries become easily blurred and journalists will begin to deviate from impartiality (Deuze
2005). Though everyone has the right to an opinion, publicly expressing it across social media

platforms can affect the credibility of a journalist and the news organization he or she represents.

According to Jayeon Lee, a simple like, retweet, or follow can be misinterpreted by audience

members, thus creating a conflict of interest. If I am covering a story on something, I am

covering the story without giving any personal opinion or editorializing it, Dave Huddleston, a

reporter and news anchor for WSB-TV in Atlanta, said. Regardless of whether it is your

personal or professional page, you still represent yourself and your station. You are always on.

Stephanie E. Bor argued that, while many students have a clear understand of how social

media platforms and technology work, many are unable to use it as a medium for producing

news (2014). This was demonstrated through an examination of students enrolled in three

journalism courses at a university in the Western United States. The study showed that many

students were unable to apply ethical guidelines, including those related to plagiarism and

accuracy, to their social media posts (Bor 2014). Additionally, the study found that many of the

news posts that students published online featured casual writing and text that was irrelevant to

the story or image. Simple grammar mistakes, including improper capitalization and misspelled

words, were common. Despite being exposed to social media on a regular basis and

understanding traditional ethics, journalists are still learning how to communicate professionally

across growing social platforms.

Unlike traditional methods of reporting, social media have allowed for two-way

communication that gives users the opportunity to contribute their own content and opinions.

This participatory culture enabled by new media has influenced how journalists obtain

information, story ideas, and overall public opinion about past or current events (Lee 2016).

Especially during instances of natural disaster, news organizations have relied on user-generated
content published online as a source of information until correspondents were able to report on

the matter themselves. A particular instance where the public reversed roles with journalists was

seen in the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake that caused widespread damage to Haiti in 2010. The

first tweet was posted seven minutes after impact by Twitter user Frederic Dupoux

(@FredoDupoux), followed by more shortly thereafter (Bruno 2011). Social media was crucial

during the first 24 hours as news organizations received information through first-hand accounts

posted as messages, pictures and video footage. According to a Press Gazette interview with Ed

Fraser, Twitter was one of those vehicles which had a life of its own. In the 24-hour period

where news organizations had to cover a story with what they had, Fraser said that [Twitter]

gave us real time information as to what was going on on the ground.

While social media have given a greater voice to audience members, they have also

caused a discrepancy between citizen journalists and traditional journalists. Corinne Barnes

defined citizen journalism as the act of individual who use the limitless reach of new media

platforms to collect, report, and publish content despite lacking professional training in

journalism (2012). Although it gives citizens a voice that is often filtered by an editor or a

producer, it lacks the ethics that drive a professional journalist to be fair, objective, and accurate.

According to Huddleston, a journalist knows how to ask the right questions, while the average

person on the street will not report facts. A citizen journalist will begin to include their personal

experiences and opinions in the story, while a professional journalist will know where to go to

get the other angle of a story to show both sides.

Because of the misinformation that can be spread by citizen journalism, journalists and

news organizations must take additional methods to verify the validity of textual and visual

sources. With the rapid distribution of news across social media and the ability for user-
generated content to be manipulated, effective verification can be difficult. However, instances

where information was not verified had negative impacts on a persons reputation or an effect on

an overall outcome, as seen when the wrong suspect was identified as the Boston bomber and

during the Arab Spring in 2011. With online tools, such as FotoForensics, which analyzes the

authenticity of an image, TinEye, which tells users where else the images appear, and Politifact,

which fact-checks claims made by elected officials, news organizations have the ability to further

verify online content (Brandtzaeg et al. 2016). The NPR Ethics Handbook reminds journalists to

strive for accuracy and honesty, and, in instances where they cannot fully validate the

information on social media, they should ask questions and request evidence, as well as get a

second opinion from additional sources.

Over the past years, the BBC has gained experience in verifying information during

crisis. An example of proper verification was seen during the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Despite the real-time flow of news that pressures many news organizations to act quickly, the

BBC delayed the publishing of information and refused to share graphic images of the attacks

(Garcia de Torres and Hermida 2017). Instead, reporters contacted witnesses and verified the

images and video footage posted across social media to minimize the threat of danger.

While this example provides an instance of verification, it also introduces the ethics

surrounding visual journalism across social media. According to the National Press

Photographers Association (NPPA), images have the ability reveal great truths, expose

wrongdoing and neglect, inspire hope, and understand and connect people. Because of that,

photos are not to be manipulated or edited in a way that jeopardizes their integrity or story.

Kimberly Richardson, a Digital Producer for WSB-TV, said that a large part of retaining viewers

on social media is determined by the photo that is used with the story. Based on the amount of
viewers displayed by Chartbeat, Richardson said that readers scrolling through social media will

most likely follow a link if it contains a captivating image. Especially on Twitter, tweets with

GIFS and videos have done well amongst users. However, while an image has the ability to

focus the readers attention, images featuring graphic violence, nudity, indecent behavior, and

other offensive content should never be published without considering the impact of the event

and who is involved.

Social media continue to establish an era of collaborative journalism by serving as a

transparency tool that journalists use to share their reporting and editing processes (NPR 2012).

Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC Global News Division, argued that transparency delivers

trust in the new media age by giving the public the opportunity to see how the news is

discovered, verified, and produced. Based off two sets of data that contained 2,543 usernames of

journalists, Ulrika Hedman reported the following relationship between a journalists Twitter

account and the transparency displayed:

The findings further indicate that the more active a journalist is on Twitter (as in number

of sent tweets), the less transparent she is about work. A total of 21% of tweets from the

journalists who have been tweeting the least contain disclosure transparency, compared to

13% among the tweets from the most frequent tweeters. In the context of this study, if a

journalists Twitter account only contains information on employer, beat, and contact

information, it is regarded as a professional only account.

Although the author argues that transparency builds trust and accountability, the findings

in the study show that many journalists are not explicitly transparent in their tweets. Whether or

not a journalist is transparent across social media ultimately determines the relationship between

the reporter and the audience members.

 A large part of the transition from traditional, one-way media communication to digital

reporting was influenced by the 2008 presidential election, where social media platforms served

as a source for political coverage and news. In 2008, Barack Obama beat John McCain by

approximately 200 electoral and 8.5 million votes as a result of a new-media campaign (Hwang

2016). From the beginning, Obama understood that social media had the ability to influence his

grassroots campaigning by allowing two-way communication between himself and the voters,

thus mobilizing voters to go online. With 46 percent of Americans turning to the Internet during

2008, compared to the 31 percent that did during the 2004 election, journalists made the

transition to social platforms that allowed them to participate and interact with the news (Pew

Research Center 2008.)

Compared to the 2008 election, where Web 2.0 was a new concept that candidates were

learning to incorporate in all aspects of their campaigns, the 2016 election was largely shaped by

single tweets that drove political conversation and news. Although Twitter had a 140-character

limit, it became the medium through which Donald Trump personally expressed his plans for the

nation and his reaction to public opinion. Compared to Hillary Clintons Tweets, which Vincent

Raynauld, an assistant professor in communication studies at Emerson College, says were

coming from campaign staffers, voters had a sense that every single tweet comes out of Donald

Trumps mouth to some extent and this has a very persuasive value to the public. While

Facebook continued to serve as a platform for news organizations to publish political content and

campaign coverage, Twitter emerged as the popular medium for the 69.2 million millennials who

were voting for the first time (Pew Research Center 2016). Just as Twitter had an effect during

the 2008 and 2016 elections, it continues to play a role on how news organizations are perceived

through the media today. Since the beginning of the 2016 campaign, Trump directly pointed out
that news organizations, primarily CNN, could not be trusted as a result of fake news.

However, despite a year of tension amongst President Trump, news organizations and users on

Twitter, Gallup reported an increase in public confidence of mass media:

Democrats' renewed trust in the media may be driven by the perception that it acts as a

watchdog over Republican President Donald Trump. Major reporting on the alleged

unrest surrounding Trump's administration -- including the departure of several high-

level aides and the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign's potential meddling

with Russia -- may be feeding this perception.

With the nine percentage point increase of U.S. adults who now trust mass media, the

recent finds shows that the public places confidence in news organizations.

The use of social media for news coverage will continue to gain importance in a world

where technological platforms are growing and changing each day. Aside from having basic

communication and writing skills, journalists are encouraged to possess skills in web content

creation, multiplatform adaptability, and social media (Bor 2014). According to Huddleston,

journalists today have all the tools they need to be a successful journalist in the palm of their

hand. With a single device, risings journalists have the opportunity to do the job of a reporter,

and editor and a photographer. However, although new media and social platforms allow for a

fast realm of news coverage, journalists must always remember to act online as they would

would across traditional mediums.

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