Adviser Update Summer 2016 | Page 27

27 prior review statements because they are different in intent and application. Once the staff has dealt these overriding concepts, it is time to deal with specifics, which, in many cases involves an increased or more varied use of social media. FOCUS ON ETHICAL AND PROCESS GUIDELINES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA USE • Decide which digital apps and tools best help you journalistically fulfill your mission. These tools seem to multiply daily and beg to be tried out. They engage audiences and can contribute to student media missions and goals as well successfully support policies. Experiment with them to see if they enhance your journalistic products and critique them carefully. Use the ones that most closely align with mission and goals, and then keep an eye out for new, useful tools. Read evaluations of them, but always keep journalistic Best Practices as your primary guide. Resources: • University of Missouri Libraries Social Media Tools (this is from April 15, 2016, so it may be old already…) • Check out models of social media ethical codes to see if other, especially commercial, journalism groups have codes student media can adapt. Search for codes suggested by journalism groups using new digital tools, like Drones or Virtual Reality. Resources: • Codes of ethics resources NSPA Student Code of Ethics • JEA Adviser Code of Ethics • Establish the principles of verification, accuracy, credibility, context, completeness and guides for your reporting and coverage. Develop consistent staff manual procedures that line up with ethical guidelines for all student media. Think through how to deal with crowdsourced images and information, how to post information that gives your audience enough of the back story and when to post a breaking story so you are reasonably sure the facts are right. Resources: • Best practices for social media verification DO NOT OVERLOOK ETHICAL PRACTICES FOR PRINT AND ONLINE • Create a process for handling comments. In print, the process is simple: letter writers use their names and other identification as needed. The length of the comment can be specified, as can whether the author can remain unnamed. Online, there are basically two approaches for moderating comments: post first, and then take comments down if student editors find them inappropriate; or, moderate first, and then only post those that meet their needs. A third option would be to not allow comments. If student online media choose to include comments, they need to create guidelines for acceptance and publication. Acceptable forms of author identification could include real names or Facebook account registration. They also could Candace Perkins Bowen Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE, is an associate professor in Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and director of both the Center for Scholastic Journalism and the Ohio Scholastic Media Association. A former Dow Jones News Fund Journalism Teacher of the Year, she has served as the president of the Journalism Education Association. She is part of the Student Press Law Center’s Steering Committee for its Advisory Council and past head of the Scholastic Journalism Division of AEJMC