Filed under: Journalism | Tags: howard rheingold, Journalism, robin hamman, social media
Having returned to the grindstone after the Christmas break I had a very interesting lecture yesterday from Robin Hamman.
He spoke to us about the use of social networking and how to exploit it for journalistic purposes.
He asked his twitter followers for a brief summary of social media and Howard Rheingold described it as:
”Many to many media that gain value as more people participate, and which enabled people to connect with each other.”
I like this definition and it is an interesting idea. However, after the lecture a fellow student asked whether there is a danger that we are making ourselves too open on the internet and our lives are becoming up for grabs for anyone who wishes to follow us. That got me thinking, I am on facebook, twitter, have a blog, to name some of the places where someone can follow my online presence.
I don’t openly share details of my private life- not that I think anyone would be that interested- but I have been thinking about where we draw the line, how much social networking is too much? If journalists (and other professionals) are making their lives open and available, does this add or subtract to what we have to say when reporting? On one hand, it dispells the image of the hardened hack but on the other, if people read what we ate for breakfast or what film we watched last night does it challenge our authority on the real subjects? Do people become so bored of hearing our opinions that they switch off when we actually have something of value to impart to them?
I like social media, I want to see it grow and I think it has great potential to be used as a tool for journalism but I do think we should address the questions I have posed.
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You’re right to be asking these questions. For me, it’s a fine line between revealing personal details online. For example: I’ve revealed that I’m an American ex-pat, that I voted, that I got excited about the inauguration, but I’ve never once said who I voted for.
Personally, I think that it is important for journalists to make any potential sources of bias they may have open to scrutiny by their audiences. But you are right – not all journalists are going to want to, or even should, tell everyone what they had for dinner, that their relationship status has changed, or that they’ll be in Durham tomorrow. Along with concerns about their own privacy and safety, they’d probably bore some people to death as well.
I guess you need to look at what you are trying to achieve, both as a journalist and through social networking, then figure out where the two overlap in a way that isn’t problematic for you either personally or professionally.
Do keep raising these questions – those of us who bang the drums about this stuff tend to forget about the very real problems and dangers!
Comment by cybersoc February 2, 2009 @ 6:19 pm