Journal of Media Studies, Vol 31, No 2 (2016)

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A comparative study of social media guidelines of media organizations

Abhijit Mazumdar

Abstract


This paper qualitatively analyzes social media guidelines of sixmedia organizations: Indonesian Press Council, The CanadianAssociation of Journalists, Los Angeles Times, Mail & Guardian,Reuters, Associated Press. It presents the findings under socialmedia account; political advocacy; tweets, retweets and reposts;news sourcing themes. The analysis shows, social media guidelineshave various points of agreement as well as contradiction amongthem. They also need to elaborate more on several vague guidelines.For instance, Reuters leaves it to the discretion of its journalists todecide what constitutes matters of public importance. It points outvarious contradictions that the social media guidelines have. It alsooutlines a set of recommendations on social media use for mediaorganizations to include in their guidelines

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