The Ethics of Social Media

Digital Disruption and the Future of Journalism

The Twitter Creation Story

The start of twitter

Twitter metrics

• Launched March 21, 2006• 500 m tweets sent every day• 271m monthly active users• 78% of twitter users on mobile• 77% of twitter accounts outside US• Users spend an average of 170 minutes per

month on twitter• Average number of followers per user: 208

Twitter facts

• 300 billion tweets have been sent since inception• Tweets with image links have 5 times the engagement rate• Over 20 million fake Twitter users• 184 million monthly active users using mobile• The cost of a 24 hour promoted trend runs about $200

thousand

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/04/16/15-twitter-facts-and-figures-for-2014-you-need-to-know/#o8eRVXOwM72S4TOs.99

Most retweeted message (Ellen’s Oscar selfie) 3.4m

Twitter finances

• Nov 2013 IPO share offer price at NYSE $26 per share (valuation $31bn)

• Trading opened at $45.10 per share• Sept 2014 share price $53• Second quarter 2014 rose 124% to $312m• Lost $511m in fourth quarter of 2013• Advertising revenue $277m, increase of 129% y-o-y

(mobile made up 81% of revenue) • Twitter shopping spree ahead? (Flipboard? Stocktwits?

Soundcloud?)

How is Twitter Changing News

Finding sources

Making Revolution

Making revolution

TensionsTraditional journalism Online journalism

Accuracy Immediacy

Verification Transparency

Impartiality Partiality

Getting it right Getting it first

Correct facts Post-publication correction

To tweet or not to tweet?

1) A big football game is going on at the Big House. You see a tweet saying that there’s a guy with a gun inside the stadium. Should you retweet it?

2) You spot Madonna downing pints and dancing on the bar at Ashleys. What do you do?

3) Driving down the I-95, you pass a road accident. An ambulance is there, and a body is being carried off in a body bag. You realize that you recognize the car from which the body has been removed and you know the identity of the deceased. Do you tweet it?

4) Huge protests outside the office of the UM President. Police are called in and start arresting people. What do you do?

Things to Think About

• A blend of personal and professional• It is in the PUBLIC SPHERE• Everything is searchable and can be captured• DON’T post anything on twitter that could be

embarrassing in ten years time (no naked selfies) • Beware of conflict of interest• If in doubt, stay quiet!

Twitter analytics: tweet activity

Twitter analytics: tweets

Twitter analytics: followers

Twitter analytics: tweet activity

Twitter analytics: tweets

Twitter analytics: tweet details

Twitter analytics: users

Reddit

• Founded by Uni of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in June 2005

• Acquired by Conde Nast Oct 2006• Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Al Gore and

Madonna have done AMAs on reddit• Pew Internet says 6% of all American adult

internet users use Reddit

Tale of two crowd-sourcing efforts

• Why was the Philadelphia effort successful, while the twitter/reddit one was not?

• What responsibility do those retweeting such messages share?

• What are the cautionary lessons from these two tales?

American Society of News Editors

1) Traditional ethics rules still apply online.2) Assume everything you write online will become public.3 Use social media to engage with readers, but professionally.4 Break news on your website, not on Twitter5) Beware of perceptions.6) Independently authenticate anything found on a social networking site.7) Always identify yourself as a journalist.8) Social networks are tools not toys.9) Be transparent and admit when you’re wrong online.10) Keep internal deliberations confidential. http://businessjournalism.org/2012/06/19/social-media-ethics-journalists-part-i-dilemma/

ASSIGNMENT

Reading: 1) NPR One App has Huge Potential (Poynter)2) The Newsonomics of NPR One and the Dream of Personalized Radio (Nieman)

ASSIGNMENT: Download the NPR one app, and play for a bit with tagging, sharing and skipping stories so that your stream becomes personalised. Listen for half an hour, and write a radio review. I want to know how you rate the listening experience, including the type of stories offered, the efficacy of customization and whether it was an experience you would repeat.

(Deadline sept 28)

Next Monday: Michigan Radio 1pm535 West William Street, Ann Arbor