The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
CIME Fellowship 2012
SOCIAL MEDIA AND ETHICS - The Impact of Social Media on
Journalism Ethics
FOCUS: THE ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF JOURNALISTS USING SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES IN THEIR REPORTING.
DECEMBER 2012
By
Aveseh Asough
Abuja, Nigeria
Fellowship For Ethics Leadership 2012
Center for International Media Ethics (CIME)
Edited by Ann Babe
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The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
CIME Fellowship 2012
Table of Contents
SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................................... 2
OBJECTIVE ....................................................................................................................................................................... 2
SURVEY QUESTIONS........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Example 1:Participant’s profile ................................................................................................................................... 3
Example 2:Sources for Breaking News ....................................................................................................................... 4
Example 3:Names of Preferred Channels for Breaking News .................................................................................... 4
Example 4:Uses of the Internet .................................................................................................................................. 5
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................................................... 5
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................................. 6
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................................................... 8
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The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
CIME Fellowship 2012
SUMMARY
Social Networking sites and blogs have become part of our daily life. One would have thought that because they are
“social” networking sites people would use them for social purposes only. But far from that! They are fast gaining
ground in professional organizations and are being used by corporate organizations and are rapidly evolving.
As more and more people are becoming Internet friendly, it’s become easier for people to communicate and stay in
touch through these social networking sites. Journalists too have found social networking sites valuable tools for
their work.
Since the emergence of these social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as key tools for news, journalists
and their organizations have performed a high-wire act: They need to use social media to engage their audiences in
new and inventive ways, while also maintaining ethics.
Achieving that balance has been a big challenge for many reporters, and several have faced serious consequences
for expressing their own views in, for instance, 140 characters or less.
INTRODUCTION
As companies are using social media sites in promoting their businesses faster, establishing the messages they want
to convey, strengthening their relationships with customers and ensuring a continuous conversation about their
business, journalists are also employing these social media sites to be able to reach and interact with their audiences.
News is sent with rapid speed through these sites.
But as numerous as the advantages are, the disadvantages of these sites cannot be ignored for whatever purpose
they are used. In business, they have become a serious security threat and also a major distraction for staff. Some
people tend to put unnecessary details about themselves on these sites. And there are reports of consequences
suffered by some people who are ignorant of the danger of too much detail on these sites.
OBJECTIVE
This paper will examine the use of social networking sites among journalists in their reporting assignments. It will
focus attention on the ethical issues associated with using these sites.
SURVEY QUESTIONS
Among journalists in Abuja, Nigeria, few use Facebook, Twitter, Hi5 and blogs for reporting purposes. I carried out a
survey among a cross section of journalists to determine how many are using these social media sites, how they are
using them in their daily reporting duties and how they are able to find balance on the issues of ethics. Here are the
survey questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Participant’s Profile
Sources for Breaking News
Names of preferred channels for Breaking News
Uses of the Internet
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The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
CIME Fellowship 2012
Use of Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, blogs
Number of times the Internet is used in a week
Whether they’ve ever read an important story on a social networking site that was reported on
Trust in news from networking sites
What they search for on the Internet
Which other websites they visit regularly
How journalists can use social networking sites to report ethically
This survey was posted online with the help of CIME staff. Sixteen journalists took time to fill in the survey online.
Another 10 took it on paper.
Below is the analysis of the information gathered.
Example 1: Participant’s profile
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The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
CIME Fellowship 2012
Example 2: Sources for Breaking News
Sources for Breaking News
(Sample size of respondents =13)
8
3
1
Internet
1
Television
Mobile Device
Sources of breaking News
Example 3: Names of Preferred Channels for Breaking News
4
Radio
The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
CIME Fellowship 2012
Example 4: Uses of the Internet
Uses of the Internet
(Sample size of respondents=25)
13
7
8
3
3
Note: From these surveys, it is discovered that all information was not completely supplied by the
respondents. But when spoken to face-to-face, much more information was extracted, which helped in
completing this study.
DISCUSSION
In journalism, the use of social media tools is also quite a delicate issue. This is because the question of its compliance
with ethics needs to be answered for it to be effectively used for journalism purposes. The risks that journalists or
media organizations could face when using social media tools could include a breach of editorial values or ethics—
which includes losing credibility because they do not do an effective check or verify stories they post or cull from
social media sites—and could result in journalistic “disasters” when false stories are posted or culled. There is also
the issue of non-attribution in stories, which could be a serious ethical issue.
One of the editorial values that journalists and their organizations must ensure to adhere to is objectivity. But if
journalists do not verify stories that appear on social sites, but just carry such stories because they want to be the
first to break them, then they compromise objectivity. Take for instance Twitter.
Twitter is one social networking site that is not a news site, but has become a source for news for many people today.
Anybody can post anything on Twitter and it becomes news. Believe it or not, people tend to believe what they see
on Twitter, and many people don’t remember to verify what they see on Twitter. If a journalist, for instance, tends
to rely on Twitter for his source of news without verifying, this could be misleading.
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The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
CIME Fellowship 2012
The other day, a friend of mine saw a Tweet about a bomb blast in Kaduna State, Nigeria. This was fast! He rushed to
the television hoping to see “Breaking News” on the local TV channel, NTA (Nigeria Television Authority), but it was
not there! He quickly made some calls to people in Kaduna who could give him first-hand information about the
bomb blast. Within 30 minutes, he was able to know the area of town in Kaduna where the bomb had exploded. So,
this morning when we were discussing social media and ethics, he said, “it doesn’t take a lot to verify news!” But
many other people wouldn’t remember to make the calls.
Another issue with news on social media sites is the issues of Impartiality. Many of the news that people post on
Twitter, Facebook, and blogs is highly opinionated. You see, with these social media sites, everyone has become a
journalist. And ethics are fast becoming strange. And of course, you don’t expect bloggers, for instance, to keep to
these “strict” professional ethics that we (journalists) are subjected to. Who would take up the responsibility to keep
every blogger in check for ethics? It’s a “mad house”, as the saying goes. Everyone says what he or she feels like
saying, without fear of intimidation or punishment. You can find examples of blogs on blogspot.com and
wordpress.com.
Media organizations in Nigeria too have ended up using these social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and the
like. Many stations in Nigeria have opened Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. But they must ensure that they put
a mechanism in place to check that they uphold the credibility of their organizations and workers in the news arena.
A company or journalist should also note that the social media arena is constantly evolving, both in technologies and
their uses and in the ways social media impact the media landscape. To be able to effectively make use of these tools,
therefore, a journalist and his organization must be at the top of their game.
CONCLUSION
Except for few who have their reservations about social media, journalists in Nigeria are excited with the
opportunities the social networks offer them. For one, it has aided them in carrying out their tasks of news monitoring
and gathering. Like their counterparts in other countries, they explore various sites on a regular basis to monitor
what citizen journalists and newsmakers post on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs, etc. Today, modern
journalists will need to utilize many of these new tools in order to gather information, produce material and engage
their audiences in new ways. This new trend has completely revolutionized the way journalists deliver their stories.
Social media networks are transforming the way journalists break news.
At a recent media forum in Abuja, many journalists I spoke to claimed they can reach their news sources, gather
stories and verify the authenticity of stories with fewer difficulties through social networks.
Joshua Bassey, who reports for BusinessDay observed that he hardly made use of social media to source for stories,
but admitted that if he has to, he uses Facebook to chat with newsmakers if they are available online. “I use Facebook
minimally, but I will say the benefits of these social media sites to journalists are enormous. Some of the information
that would have been difficult to get, I got it with less difficulty from the social networks and I can as well reach out
to some people in position[s] of information, depending on the stories I work on. This would have been difficult,
especially when they were not in their offices or even in the country. With the use of social media, I was able to ask
them questions and I got instant answers,” he said.
According to Sumaila Umaisha, a reporter with the New Nigerian newspaper, social media has brought many
opportunities to journalists. He said, “for me as a journalist, I will say social media has been of tremendous benefit
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The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
CIME Fellowship 2012
to me. Unlike before, I no longer need to go to the library anytime I want to … research; all I need to do is to Google
whatever I need. Really, the social media is of great advantage to journalists.”
Adamu Ismail of Freedom Radio, however, differed on this. He said social media is really not the best for journalists.
“For you to have a story that you can rely on, you need to have a source and it must be trustworthy. But not in the
case of these social networks. For instance, if I get news from News Agency of Nigeria [NAN] I can just go and file it,
but anybody can write anything and post it on the Internet without verifying the authenticity of the story. So, for me,
I don’t so much believe or rely on these social networks to source for or gather my news stories,” he said.
Adamu’s reservations just re-echo the issues of social media and journalism ethics. These are arguments that are still
ongoing and may be only slightly relieved as more and more journalists get training on media ethics and how best to
utilize the resources that social media tools offer them.
Other challenges that journalists have expressed with using social networks for their reporting ranged from issues
that bordered on lack of adequate information on the social networks to conventional ways of reporting and how
they have changed in recent times.
Ruth Tene Natsa, a reporter with the Leadership newspaper in Abuja, said she uses social networks a lot, but she
rarely sources news stories from them. “My beat is solid minerals and you can hardly get anything newsworthy from
the social network sites. I don’t bother myself with sourcing for news on my beat from the social media. Personally,
I visit social network sites but not for professional purposes,” she said.
Comfort Osegbahe is a reporter with the Punch newspaper. She says she deals more with Facebook than any other
site to source for her news. “I don’t use Twitter because most times I forget my passwords, and for the YouTube, I
don’t go there at all. I use Facebook and blog[s] for my news sources. You know Nigerians are now Internet crazy;
whatever happens around them, they quickly put it on the Internet. But only when you do follow-up … might [you]
verify them and might find the stories to be useful.”
The debate on the importance of social media tools to the practice of journalism has raged on for a few years now,
but from early 2011 it appeared social media tools have finally achieved the status of “essential” for journalists. The
web has changed everything; anyone with a blog can be a reporter, anyone with a cell phone can be a videographer,
and anyone on Facebook, Twitter or a thousand other platforms can be a news reporter.
More than ever, people are using Twitter, Facebook and other social media sources to learn about what is happening
in the world as traditional news outlets become increasingly less relevant to the digital generation.
A Lagos-based media consultant, Tony Chidozie, has argued that with social media, journalists often aren’t breaking
news, but rather responding to it. But that doesn’t mean journalists should just sit back and wait for Twitter to feed
them inspirations. Rather, they need to be thinking about how social media can affect their reporting before, during
and after the story goes live.
He said, “The news cycle has changed; we have moved from a passive news cycle—in which the journalist finds news,
reports it and the audience consumes it—to interactive applications of news. It used to be that when the story went
live, that was the end. Now, it’s the beginning. The audience can comment, share, add or even change information.
The era of I write, you read, you’re welcome is over.”
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The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics - Aveseh Asough
CIME Fellowship 2012
Chidozie also argues that moving stories to a more open space like Twitter means interesting stories will be read
more often than they would have been if they were buried deep in the middle of a newspaper.
“One of the most important revolutions in the world occurred during the Arab Spring uprisings via social networking.
It is difficult to say how much social networking actually contributed to the organization of citizens, but one thing is
for sure: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube drew global attention to the struggle of individuals in autocratic regimes.
The opportunity to provide users with information on breaking news when it happens is an unbelievable feat for
journalism. Internet users have the ability to engage the public at the moment of importance rather than waiting till
the newspaper is printed, T.V. or radio broadcast,” he said.
REFERENCES
1. http://socialmediatoday.com
2. http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/digital-transform/social-networks/
3. Oral Interviews at a Media Forum in Abuja, Nigeria: August 28, 2012
4. http://thenextweb.com
5. http://www.forbes.com
6. http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/letters/40914-impact-of-social-media-on-modern-journalism
7. http://mashable.com
8. http://www.thenigerianvoice.com
9. http://www.journalism.org/
10. http://www.poynter.org
11. http://ijnet.org
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