BBC Global News director: journalists should make better use of social media

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 10, 2010 at 6:10 PM

BBC journalists have been told to use social media as a primary source of information and to become more collaborative in producing stories, The Guardian reports.

The new director of BBC Global News, Peter Horrocks, said that editorial staff should make better use of social media. "This isn't just a kind of fad from someone who's an enthusiast of technology," he told the BBC in-house weekly Ariel. "I'm afraid you're not doing your job if you can't do those things. It's not discretionary."

He said that technology was changing journalism and that it was important for the BBC to adapt. Twitter and RSS readers are to become essential tools, he added. BBC journalists should aggregate and curate content with attribution, and pay attention to feedback that shows how the audience relates to the broadcaster.

The BBC appointed its first social media editor in November, but has otherwise taken a cautious approach to the use of social media, according to The Guardian. In its 2009 editorial guidelines, a 160-page document, social media are mentioned only once, in a warning to editors to "consider the impact of our re-use" of social media content.

Horrocks, formerly head of the BBC's multimedia newsroom, highlights the importance of keeping up with the changes technology brings: "If you don't like it, if you think that level of change or that different way of working isn't right for me, then go and do something else, because it's going to happen. You're not going to be able to stop it."

Of course, when relying on social media for research it is key for journalists to check information for accuracy. It is also to remember what kind of voices might be privileged or excluded from social networks when searching them for sources. But when a recent study found that most journalists already consider social media important in their research, Horrocks' comments are timely.

Source: The Guardian