Emerging market journos embrace social media, unlike Western news brands

The stringent social media policies adapted by some Western newsrooms indicate an inflexibility in adapting to a changed information and news environment. This has left the door open for journalists in developing economies to step up and drive adoption of social media tools in journalism.

Important US-based papers such as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal are choosing to restrict use of social networks by journalists. These are papers with proud journalistic traditions which have helped define modern journalism.

An extract from the Washington Posts’ social media policy reads, “Post journalists must refrain from writing, tweeting or posting anything – including photographs or video – that could be perceived as reflecting political, racial, sexist, religious or other bias or favouritism that could be used to tarnish our journalistic credibility.”

The New York Times tells reporters to leave the Facebook section that asks about political views blank. “Do nothing that might cast doubt on your or The Times’s political impartiality in reporting the news,” it tells reporters. The reason primarily cited by editors for implementing a restrictive social media policy in newsrooms seems to be based on the fear that opinions expressed by reporters and editors would open newspapers up to allegations of bias and partisanship.

Socialmedia.biz published a memo issued to editors at the Wall Street Journal in mid May 2009 that outlines the paper’s stance on social media. It goes as far as threatening to make reporters ineligible to cover topics they express opinions on via social media and anything that might possibly be deemed controversial needed to be cleared with editors.

Reuters took the transparent and accountable route by publishing its policy online (many news organisations don’t). The policy itself isn’t as enlightened unfortunately, warning reporters they will lose their beat if they step on the possibly subjective toes of management with their social media posts. “We’re in a competitive business and while the spirit of social media is collaborative we need to take care not to undermine the commercial basis of our company,” states the Reuters’ policy. Reporters need to clear what content they release on their social media accounts, and use the word ‘Reuters’ in the name of their stream if they are going to talk business.

“Journalistic objectivity” has come under fire in developed economies. The US-based Nieman Foundation of Journalism at Harvard recently published a piece by  John H. McManus calling it [journalistic objectivity] unachievable and undesirable “because it rejects biases that are necessary if news is to be useful in a democracy”, while going on to say that “Objectivity has also hobbled journalism, substituting accuracy—often the transcription of official quotes—for the more difficult goal of truth.”

A rigid organisational structure and hierarchy means maintaining the status quo is often easier than implementing organisational or cultural change. Stringent social media policies are at least partially a product of the hierarchy these organisations strive to maintain.

The notion of journalistic objectivity isn’t one many editors and journalists in emerging economies could afford. Generally speaking these economies emerged into democratic states much later that the US and Western Europe. Here journalists historically operated in environments defined by politics. An informal vox-pop among South African editors shows they generally dismiss the notion of restrictive social media policies. “I don’t mind if my reporters have opinions” was the general refrain. Smaller newsrooms, greater use of freelancers and fewer layers of editorial management allow for a more open and pragmatic approach to social media.

For a news organisation to maintain the status quo in terms of editorial operations and structures when access to information has been distinctly transformed by the rise of the Web and mobile devices is, in my view, simply self destructive. Less rigidly structured news organisations operating in emerging markets have greater organisational and cultural flexibility, allowing them to incorporate the range of new tools offered journalists and transforming journalism. These tools will play an important role in defining how reporters will make use of social media, simply because they allow reporters to innovate around these channels.

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