"The Limits of Control"

Pamela Podger made many good points in her article, "The Limits of Control" which discusses the ethicality of social media. As far as the creation of ethical guidelines, I look at it this way: you can create guidelines, but does that mean people will follow them? Marijuana is illegal, but do people still distribute it and buy it? If guidelines are going to be made, I think the best idea as of now would be a "common sense-approach" to guidelines, since ethical policies change as rapidly as the social media they are constructed for.

In my personal opinion, I think looking for sources on social medial outlets is acceptable...this is no different from using other websites for information about people. But using eyewitness accounts posted on social media outlets as actual news is sketchy. How can we believe that what the person posted wasn't an over-exaggeration? I suppose the opposite argument to this would be that you could say the same about interviewing sources, you never really know if they are telling the truth.

The other interesting point the article made was the fact that some journalists are creating separate personal and professional social media accounts. I feel like this is a gray area. You still run the risk of leaving a "cyber footprint" if you post something on your personal account about political ideologies. Besides, what if you just aren't paying attention, accidentally log into your professional account, and post something that was meant for your private account? You're pretty much screwed.

The public is demanding a seat at the newsmaking table. You might think I'm old-fashioned, but this is the reason we are journalists...it is our job to call the shots.