Journalists and Facebook
The American Journalism Review had an interesting article earlier this year about journalists and how they are using Facebook as part of their professional lives. Personally, I think Facebook can be a great tool journalists can use to generate story ideas and tout their work and that of their respective news organizations to a new audience.
That said, I also respect the opinion of some journalists who see little value in using Facebook. For example, Phillip Blanchard, a former copy editor at the Washington Post, raises a very valid concern about the truthfulness of the profiles and items being posted on people's walls. "Facebook is great for 'social networking' but not terribly useful as a journalistic tool," Blanchard wrote on the wall of the Facebook group Journalists and Facebook, "People aren't always who they seem to be."
The Journalists and Facebook group was started by freelance journalist Pat Walters and Bill Mitchell of The Poynter Institute with the hope of creating an interactive forum for journalists to weigh in on the question "What can journalists learn from Facebook?" You can read Walters' article and the comments the Facebook group received on Poynter's Web site.
posted by Amy at 5:48 PM
2 Comments:
I was encouraged to join Facebook because of where I work. Many of our members are on FB because their students are. Most people don't join FB or leave it because of work...I was lured on. At first I neglected my profile, but lately there's enough friends on there that it's really fun. I have a lot of professional contacts (my boss! his boss!) on there so I have to be aware of what I post, but at this point in my life, I think I'd do that anyway. And our workplace is fairly laid-back, so it's not too tricky. I love it. I've reconnected with so many high school and college friends. Maybe it will help my career...for now it's just fun.
I love it as well. It's quite addicting and it's been fun reconnecting with friends I went to library school with.
I'm very careful posting anything about work. As with this blog, you will never find me posting about things that happen in the office or conversations between me and my colleagues.
I've gotten a few requests from people I went to high school with to reconnect, but I've ignored most of them. We didn't talk 20 years ago, so I'm not really interested in making up for lost time now.
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