I received this query from one of youze last summer:
I was wondering if I could write my blog and tweet about a raft race/war I am participating in this week.
The answer was, no.
That's because we are trying to use Twitter as journalists. As journalists, we can be observers of something, but not participants. Being a participant would be a conflict of interest. Those standards don't go away just because we're tweeting.
So, the event should be something we are observing: a baseball game. Or your roommate making dinner. Or someone playing a video game. Or following your friends on an ice cream run.
It should not be something you are doing, like a baseball game in which you are playing. Or you making dinner. Or you describing a video game you're playing yourself, or your solo ice cream run.
The same person who wanted to tweet the raft race/war later suggested covering a game of "Capture The Flag," in which this person would not be participating. That's fine.
As long as we can simply observe and report, we can do our jobs as journalists. We can stay objective and can concentrate on reporting the story for our audience, as opposed to winning a race for ourselves, or boosting a race in which we're involved.
Journalists are neutral observers, and never participants in what we report.
I was wondering if I could write my blog and tweet about a raft race/war I am participating in this week.
The answer was, no.
That's because we are trying to use Twitter as journalists. As journalists, we can be observers of something, but not participants. Being a participant would be a conflict of interest. Those standards don't go away just because we're tweeting.
So, the event should be something we are observing: a baseball game. Or your roommate making dinner. Or someone playing a video game. Or following your friends on an ice cream run.
It should not be something you are doing, like a baseball game in which you are playing. Or you making dinner. Or you describing a video game you're playing yourself, or your solo ice cream run.
The same person who wanted to tweet the raft race/war later suggested covering a game of "Capture The Flag," in which this person would not be participating. That's fine.
As long as we can simply observe and report, we can do our jobs as journalists. We can stay objective and can concentrate on reporting the story for our audience, as opposed to winning a race for ourselves, or boosting a race in which we're involved.
Journalists are neutral observers, and never participants in what we report.
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