The Radio Television Digital News Association recently added the word “Digital” to its name, and it has now added the new guidelines on the new ethical questions posed by digital journalism platforms to its recommendations for active journalists.
What hasn’t changed are RTDNA’s core principles of “truth, fairness, accountability, and transparency.” And it’s not trying to come up with a set of rules. As RTDNA explained, “The main principle of the guidelines is not to lay down a list of laws to follow, but to take journalists through questions they can ask themselves as they tread new turf on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and more.”
“Readers of the new guidelines will find help with corrections for social media postings, ethical use of online photos and videos, anonymous postings, sponsored links, and personal social media posting, among other topics,” said RTDNA in a release. “Each section also contains points for newsroom discussion to help make the guidelines clear and lead journalists to their own policies.”
RTDNA Chairman Stacey Woelfel commented, “These guidelines will be instantly valuable in just about every newsroom across the country. I can guarantee that anyone reading the new guidelines has already dealt with at least one of these issues. Now there is a way to weigh your editorial decisions regarding social media and blogging.”
The guidelines can be viewed at www.RTDNA.org.
