Reuters gets constrictive

News giant Reuters has released a Social Media Policy and has even made it available online – you can read it here. Reuters is instructing it’s journalists on how to manage Social Media interactions. There’s a part of me that has empathy for them. The Social Media landscape can be scary for corporations which have had dominance for many years. I understand that. That’s the reason that “Small is the new big” as the title of Seth Godin’s book suggests.

For the most part I think the policy is fine, but what I think is going to hurt Reuters in the long term is the seemingly tight-fisted stance and mindset that the powers that be have developed regarding Social Media. My concern is that which is in between the lines of their policy, not that which is on the lines of it. Things have changed, and embracing Social Media with more openness would be much more in their interest.

The policy says, “… we also need to make sure that you are fully aware of the risks — especially those that threaten our hard-earned reputation for independence and freedom from bias or our brand.” A clear indication of trying to hang onto the (controlled) past.

The first item I strongly disagree with is that journalists are not allowed to break news on Twitter. This is a huge mistake. News is breaking on Twitter anyway, from citizen journalists, from the general populous, and yes – even from the major news brands. There is absolutely no way of currently escaping this.

The second is this: “Wikipedia, the online “people’s encyclopedia”, can be a good starting point for research, but it should not be used as an attributable source. Do not quote from it or copy from it.” Wikipedia is not just a dump of unverified content. Reuters management should watch this very enlightening TED video: Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia.

I agree with this article on Mashable where it states that “…The policy as a whole is a fascinating read and exposes that Reuters, as a media organization, is torn between encouraging employees to use social media and the realization that the online behaviors of their staff put them at risk…” Reuters is taking an opposing stance to BBC and Sky News who are strongly supporting the Social Media trend.

It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds in the near future. What do you think?

Photo credit: wakingtiger