The Canadian Broadcast Company is prohibiting its journalists from adding sources as “Facebook friends.” They are being told to not post any political leanings on their facebook profiles. There is a document given to journalists with the policy explained. In the document it states that being friends with a source on facebook may compromise your work and it may not be in your interest to say that you are a friend of a source. It also states that in reporting you do not want your conversations with a source to be out there for everyone to see. Also the CBC says that it will not accept facebook comments as quotes. The full policy is available upon request of the News and Current Affairs producer.
This brings up some questions. Should CBC be prohibiting their journalists from being friends with sources on facebook? Should this be an issue at all? Is it an invasion of privacy if the CBC does facebook checks on their employees? I feel that our friendship and our work are two separate things and this is a good thing to have in place.
I understand why it is not okay to use their comments as quotes especially without them knowing that you are quoting them. Journalists are supposed to be fair and honest in their reporting. If a journalist is using quotes off facebook, they would not be being honest and fair to the person they are quoting. Journalists are required to avoid undercover methods of gathering information, getting information such as quotes off of a website would lead to incredibility and would be unethical.
Another thing journalists should do is steer clear of associations and activities that may damage credibility. This means that they should not have any real connections with sources outside of working. They should not be talking to people they know for quotes because that could put a bias on their story. This creates incredibility. Being friends with a source could easily damage the credibility of a journalist.
I feel that what they are trying to accomplish makes sense but checking up on this will be pretty difficult. Maybe the employees just should not have facebook at all which would potentially solve this problem of who people are “friends” with. What they are really getting at is that there should still be a professional relationship between journalist and their sources. Using a website such as facebook would get in the way of this professional relationship. This could lead to incredibility because they already have a relationship with this person if they are their friend on facebook. It really takes away from the professional aspect of reporting. I think that CBC is right in doing what they are doing and more companies should look into this because with the spread of online websites like facebook and myspace, who knows what can happen.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
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5 comments:
I completely agree that journalists should not use comments and posts as a legitimate quote. The internet is such an opportunity for identity theft and such. If some person got a hold of another person's password for Facebook, they could really do some damage by the things that they say. These posts should really not be trusted.
However, I don't really agree with the whole issue. A person's job should not determine whether or not they can have an online profile--unless they are misusing it. If a person, whether he or she is a a journalist or not, is using facebook for friends, where's the harm in that? Only if a reporter is using Facebook for quotes, etc. should he or she be reprimanded.
CBC has a point that they may not want personal affairs to be personal connected to thier sources. Facebook is not a crdible source and has no professional status. There seems to be a line of professionalism that needs to be met, source need to be kept as sources, not friends. The relationship between the journalist and the soruce needs to stay professional. If a relationship continues outside the workplace, the reputation of the company could be damaged if the source directly blames the organization for a personal affair. CBC was only prohibiting the communication with the company's sources, not the overall use to thier journalists.The outside relationship may compromise the journalists work as CBC explained in thier policy. People react on emotions and their personal lives, which has potential for bad publicity or the discredibility of the company. CBC has every right to protect its company and their sources. CBC is a profession and the journalist should find their friends and a social life else where.
I agree that it is important to keep a professional relationship with the reporter and his/her sources. The idea of checking with facebook will be difficult and they would be better off not using facebook as a colntact device. I also don't think they should use it because of its reliability. You cannot be positive in who you are apeaing with and inturn not trust everything that is said. Comments and posts are more of an opinion and people can also post when they are fired up about an issue and say things that they do not neccessarily mean, but said at the time out of anger or another emotion.
I agree it is best for journalist to stay away form online profiles. Although it can be a good source at times, I think in retrospect it is not as reliable as a face-to-face interview.
I agree that journalists should not be friends with sources. I think that a conflict of interet may occur. And like others are saying the account could be hacked and all kinds of things could come out that you do not want.
I think face-to-face interviews are much richer in quality and will provide better quotes.
I believe that the CBC has a valid point. Why would a journalist have a source on facebook? How could you quote someone from facebook? The idea that people might accept a story when its full of quotes from a person on facebook is ridiculous. I believe that could lead to ethical issues for the paper, the reporter, and lead to problems with sources.
I don't believe however that the fact you are a journalist should ban you from having a profile. I believe that your personal and work lives can be kept separate.
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