Ethical Use of Online and Social Media in News Reporting of Thai Newsrooms

Abstract

Online and social media have transformed journalism practice and newsroom has embraced a hybrid model of news reporting including newsgathering, news distribution and use of user-generated content to survive in convergence news culture. This research aims to study ethical issue on online and social media usage in news reporting, and ways to develop ethical code of conduct by interviewing editors and journalists working on new media to revisit ethical issue including verification, transparency, accuracy and news agenda setting. Result reveals that journalists, editor and news producers lack guidance and tools to respond appropriately to new ethical issues of using online and social media, which are not covered by current laws and ethical codes. This research categories ethical best practice for online and social media usage in news reporting including accuracy, objectivity, balance, transparency, issue of public space versus private space, gatekeeper and agenda setting role, and duty on creating better understanding in society. The paper also suggests way to draft effective code of conduct for social media and online media use in news reporting, there are 5 frames to be considered: Frame of Public Responsibility, Frame of Law and Regulations, Frame of Professional Responsibility, Nature of online and social media, and Frame of marketing and business model. Also, the process of drafting code of conduct should be the co-operation between news organization, professional organization, reporters, editors and citizen journalists in order to set the same standard on social media and online media ethic in the whole process of news reporting



Author Information
Sakulsri Srisaracam, Panyapiwat Institute of Management, Thailand

Paper Information
Conference: MediAsia2014
Stream: Journalism

This paper is part of the MediAsia2014 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon