London: To tweet or not to tweet, seems to be the question obsessing the Twitter-obsessed British media.
The debate started earlier in the week when Sky News issued a new restrictive Twitter policy for its staff. The Guardian said that in an email to staff, Sky News journalists were told:
• Not to retweet rival journalists or “people on Twitter”.
• Not to tweet outside of their area of coverage.
• Not to tweet about personal or non-professional subjects on their work accounts.
• Always pass breaking news lines to the news desk before posting them on social media networks.
One of the first responses came from BBC News channel controller Kevin Bakhurst, who commented on Twitter:
“I’m told #SkyNews have stopped their journos retweeting information/tweets from journalists or people not working for Sky. Must be wrong??”
Twitter users responded in force to the new policy saying that it would handcuff smart journalists. Getty Images
Questions were immediately put to Sky News digital editor Neal Mann, @fieldproducer on Twitter. Mann is well known for his excellent use of Twitter as a journalist, which has earned him more than 40,000 followers. Mann replied to questions about the new policy:
“Been a busy day, for those asking me questions about social media policy,I can’t really answer because I didn’t take part in the discussions.”
Twitter users responded in force to the new policy saying that it would handcuff smart journalists like Mann who had gained so much credibility by their use of Twitter. The discussion spawned its own hashtag, #savefieldproducer, referring to Mann’s Twitter account. Even celebrities such as Jemima Khan weighed in, who branded the ban on retweeting rival journalists or people on Twitter as absurd.
On the heels of Sky News‘ Twitter-storm, the BBC also moved to revise its policy on the use of social media, prioritising sending new information to desk editors over posting it on Twitter and other social networks.
BBC social media editor Chris Hamilton said:
“But we’ve been clear that our first priority remains ensuring that important information reaches BBC colleagues, and thus all our audiences, as quickly as possible — and certainly not after it reaches Twitter.”
The BBC‘s move seems much more defensible than Sky‘s, and as Hamilton has said, the BBC has the technology to allow their journalists to transmit text simultaneously to their newsroom systems and to Twitter accounts. That’s smart.
It’s also unclear how Sky‘s new policy will affect its journalists. After retweeting some news about the costs of phone-hacking settlements to News Corp, which owns Sky News, Mann was questioned if he was allowed to do this under the new policy, to which he replied, “no, it’s business as usual for me…”
Digital journalists have criticised both news organisations. Digital journalism professor Alf Hermida, himself a former BBC journalist, said:
“The guidance for journalists not to break news on Twitter is based on a flawed understanding of today’s media ecosystem. It assumes that journalists still have a monopoly on breaking the news.”
Reuters social media editor Anthony De Rosa said that Sky News “longs for Victorian internet, applies dark age social policy”. He said that the policy would hamstring Twitter-savvy staff like Mann, driving them to more forward-thinking organisations. De Rosa outlined Reuters thinking about highlighting the work of other news organisations.
“The idea here at Reuters when it comes to social media is to be the beacon for all news, which makes us the go-to source, no matter what the source may be, after being put through our own filters of verification.”
BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones highlighted the debate going on inside news organisations well, saying that the BBC had these debates all the time.
“Why should Sky journalists promote stories broken by rivals, and why should they use Twitter as a platform for breaking news when their employer has poured huge sums into reaching audiences via satellite?”
It’s also worth remembering that while this debate grips the Twitterati, the audience for television still dwarfs the number of users of Twitter. The media can definitely be an echo chamber, and the media on Twitter even more so.
Cellan-Jones hints at another issue here that Twitter challenges the traditional hierarchy of newsrooms:
“The social media revolution is changing power structures in newsrooms, allowing young journalists who understand this new world — and a few older ones — to build reputations independent of their own organisations.”
Some of this brouhaha isn’t just about where to break news first, it’s also about top editors feeling a little less in control. Social media isn’t just challenging autocratic governments, it’s also a challenge to powerful editors who were once all dominant in their empires.
What about where you work? Has your boss instituted a social media policy? Do you think your bosses are scared of social media, or have they embraced it?
