News organisations sense risk in employees' use of social media

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: A new study has revealed that big news outlets who earlier embraced social media use at offices are now worried about employees' use of different social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Realising the risks of social media, major news organisations have created guidelines for employees on how to use these outlets, separate from the companies' existing codes of conduct.

Jayeon Lee, assistant professor of journalism at Pennsylvania-based Lehigh University, found that news organisations are more concerned about the current social media environment than excited about it at least when it comes to their employees.

“I was wondering what approaches news organisations take when it comes to their own employees' social media uses," Lee said.

“In particular, knowing both positive and negative implications of journalists' social media uses, I wanted to see if their guidelines were dominantly positive, negative, or neutral in their framing of the implications,” she added.

Overall, Lee found that the guidelines focus primarily on the risks and challenges presented by the use of social media rather than the opportunities and advantages for media.

"As some media critics point out, overreaching rules can stifle creativity and morale and even discourage overall social media use itself," she explained in a paper set to be published in the journal The Communication Review.

(With IANS inputs)