Reuters: News agency creates social media rules
Reuters has set out social media guidelines in its journalism manual. In it, journalists from the news agency are encouraged to use social media.
Journalists are generally advised to create a professional account in addition to their private account. According to the guidelines, it is generally important that the persons concerned identify themselves as Reuters employees. In addition, caution is required when dealing with one's own sources in order to avoid "giving too much away", as the industry service Pressetext reports. Furthermore, news should not be distributed on Twitter or Facebook before the corresponding reports have been sent out via the company's own agency network. The social media guidelines are a newly added chapter in Reuters' existing set of rules for dealing with the Internet. It also includes, for example, guidelines for online forums, the use of Wikipedia and chat rooms.
