Journalists are being asked to do more online, often without guidance

Following along the lines of an earlier theme we highlighted this week, many news organizations aren’t giving journalists enough guidance when it comes to the Web and social networking tools they are directing employees to use.

It’s common for journalists to be told they need to start blogging or get on Twitter or have a Facebook presence. What’s far less common is what exactly these journalists are expected to do with each of these Web tools. At Beat Blogging, we have seen certain tools work wonderfully for one beat, while being a failure for another.

A blanket directive will not work for journalism. Different news organizations have different readers (some more tech savvy then others, for instance). Different beats have different readers and so on.

Technology is a far different beat than local courts coverage. In fact, k-12 education is a much different beat than higher education. We wouldn’t suggest that all of these beats us the same Web tools in the same ways.

Many journalists are wondering what to do because they are being given little guidance from bosses who often don’t understand the technologies they want employees to use. For instance, someone I know was told by her boss to get on social networks like Twitter and Facebook and to also look into blogging. Her and her coworkers weren’t giving any guidance as to what they were supposed to be doing online. Her boss just wanted them to get online and survey the lay of the land.

But all of you who use these tools know that’s not really helpful. Can you imagine being told to go on Twitter for work but not being told what to tweet about? Are you supposed to tweet work related stuff? If so, what?

Are you supposed to tweet whatever? Your personal life? If so, what’s off limits?

Within a week of this new “directive,” an employee was fired for comments she left on a blog while at work. She went over the top, but her boss did tell her to get out into the blogosphere. Well, how far out there should she have gone, and what was off limits?

News organizations often follow a me-to mindset, where they rush to jump onto the latest trends without first formulating a coherent strategy:

Jennifer Reeves, a Reynolds Institute Fellow who is studying new media, said many news organizations are embracing new technology because it is cool, not because it really delivers a better product.

“A lot of newsrooms need to take a breath and see if the markets need it and find a way to use it logically,” she said.

At Beat Blogging, we think that social networking and other Web tools can really help journalists and journalism, but we also think that careful deliberation should be made before jumping into any of these tools. It’s important to understand each tool, and it’s also important to have a plan for what to do with each tool.

Beat Blogging wants to hear from you:

• Is your news organization asking employees to do more, especially online? What are you being asked to do now?
• Does your organization have a specific plan for how to utilize blogging, Twitter and other social networks?
• If you haven’t been given guidance, how has social networking gone for you?
• If social networking and blogging is going well at your news organization, why?
• You can leave comments at the end of this post, e-mail connect [at] patthorntonfiles [dot] com or contact us with this form. If you want to talk off the record, please e-mail us.