Social media journalism – a fad gone too far?

 
Trend peaks as BBC journalists are told to accept social media - or leave

Over the last year or so there has been an apparent and increasing trend whereby journalists have looked to social media sites to source news stories.

Whether it be broadcast, print or eNews – these news organisations have been scouring the likes of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace in a bid to either bulk out stories or find comment where interviews are not attainable.

Although, already aware of this fashion I was somewhat shocked this week to find that this is being openly encouraged by even the most respected and ‘trustworthy’ news organisations in the world.

Peter Horrocks, the BBC's director of global news, has pretty much ordered his reporters to either familiarise themselves with sites such as Twitter, or leave, as reported by The Guardian.

The BBC director made his opinion very clear on the issue, "This isn't just a kind of fad from someone who's an enthusiast of technology. I'm afraid you're not doing your job if you can't do those things."

I must admit I do agree with Horrocks’ statement, that yes technology is changing journalism, however I can’t help but question whether it will be for the better.

As citizens and to an extent PRO’s look to news reporting to be somewhat ethical and reliable, how can journalists ensure all facts that they collate online are actually true from a  realm of such anonymity.

Typically, journalists have used such sites to look for reactions from the friends and family of victims of high profile crimes, such as the highly broadcasted story of Meredith Kercher.

Even today as I sat on the Tube reading the Metro, I turn to the news of Alexandra McQueen’s death whereby his Twitter updates had also been printed i n the run up of the tragedy to add depth.

Whilst there are several issue, with such methods of reporting, the implications surrounding both privacy and what makes good journalist practice stand out to me.

Firstly whilst both the emergence and general acceptance of social media has lead to these sites becoming part of us and part of our every day lives, however should reporters be allowed to use comments,  ‘Tweets’, pictures and other personal information found on a persons profile in order to plump out their stories? Or is this a simple breach of privacy?

Surely social media creates far too many conflicts of interests for journalists? -  In the 160 pages of the BBC's 2009 editorial guidelines, social media is only mentioned once, where editors are warned to "consider the impact of our re-use" of social media content – does this not speak for itself?

On the other hand during recent world events, news organisations such as CNN have gone one step further and professionalised their approach towards user content and social media, enabling the reporters to get closer to their sources such as with the coverage of the Haiti earthquake – however does this method always equal a balanced argument or is it just lazy journalism?