Facebook Politics

If you ask me, the biggest technological change to hit our generation is social networking. Sure, blogs are a pretty big deal, but I don’t read them and I don’t know many people that do. I might be wrong, about bolgs, but this is my essay and I want to talk about social networks.

Recently, an unnamed reporter at the Missourian emailed Tom Warhover regarding Missourian Facebook profiles. The email read:

“I see every day that an awful lot of our reporters, copy editors, photographers... belong to many highly political, even partisan groups on Facebook and/or make statements about their political beliefs on their Facebook profile. This is not going to make me very popular among my fellow students, but I think this is really inappropriate, especially since so many of our readers have access to Facebook. We work hard to make the public believe that journalists work objectively. How will they believe us if, when getting their daily dose of Facebook, they see dozens of our staffers in ‘A Million Strong for Obama’ or ‘Mizzou IS Bush country’?”

Tom then sent an email to all the editors telling them to make sure reporters, designers, photographers and copy editors know “virtual groups espousing political allegiances are just as verboten as physical ones.”

I respectfully disagree, and here is my argument:

I understand why a publication would prefer that its reporters do not join physical organizations or donate to campaigns. Rosters for those groups can be easily pulled and too many partisan actions could create a problem. However, social networks allow members to limit their profiles so only people they know can view them. The friends viewing the profile probably have an idea about that employee’s political views, anyway.

Second, one of my classmates made a good point about transparency. If we want readers to understand how we gathered information, where we’re coming from, etc., why work so hard to hide a reporter’s personal life from them? The email says that we work so hard to make the public believe journalist work objectively. I don’t think we do. I think the public understands that it’s impossible to not have bias. A good journalist will have bias, but not show it in their reporting. Shouldn’t the Missourian editors trust that the way I vote will not show up in my writing?

Another way social networks have changed journalim is source finding. Is it ethical to use social networks to find sources? I think it is, but there are limits. It might be a good place to start finding people who are interested in a certian thing or involved in an activity. However, this could easily get out of hand. It's up to the journalist to make sure they don't over step any boundaries.

I’ll admit. I did change my profile, but that’s because I’m friends with several Missourian editors and rather change my profile than have an ethical discussion with each of them. However, I did remove any people from my friends list that I do not actually now. Mainly I did it because I don’t want random people looking at my profile. Secondly, if I do decide to comment on a political issuse on my profile, the people who read it will not be shocked.