By RTDNA Staff

Here’s a question: should your political reporter “friend” a candidate for mayor on Facebook?  She argues the candidate could post valuable information there for “friends” only, so as a reporter, she needs access to that information.  But you worry the candidate’s opponents will see the “friending” as an endorsement by the station. 

Newsrooms working to connect with audience members through social media and blogs have a new set of guidelines to help avoid ethical pitfalls that can come when experimenting with reaching audiences in these new ways.  The guidelines are a supplement to the RTDNA Code of Ethics, the ethical standard broadcast and other newsrooms have followed for decades.

You can access the full guidelines by clicking here.

The guidelines use the core principles of truth, fairness, accountability, and transparency, as well as bring in the important factor of protecting image and reputation, to take journalists and managers through a decision-making process to decide what will work in their newsrooms.  The idea is not to lay down a list of laws to follow, but to guide readers through questions they can ask themselves as they tread new turf on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and more.

“These guidelines will be instantly valuable in just about every newsroom across the country,” said RTDNA Chairman Stacey Woelfel.  “I can guarantee that anyone reading the new guidelines has already dealt with at least one of these issues.  Now there is a way to weigh your editorial decisions regarding social media and blogging.”

Readers of the new guidelines will find help with corrections for social media postings, ethical use of online photos and videos, anonymous posting, sponsored links, and personal social media posting, among other topics.  Each section also contains points for newsroom discussion to help make the guidelines clear and lead journalists to their own policies.

The guidelines were written by a team led by Al Tompkins, Poynter Institute Broadcast/Online Group Leader.  Also participating were RTDNA Ethics Committee Chairman Kevin Benz, RTDNA Chairman Stacey Woelfel, attorney Richard Goehler, RTDNF Director of Education Projects Carol Knopes, RTDNF Executive Director Kathleen Graham and RTDNA Digital Media Editor Ryan Murphy.

The guidelines were created through RTDNF’s Journalism Ethics Project sponsored by a generous grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.