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UPDATED: Should journalists develop a “digital identity?”
Posted By katie allison granju
That’s the question in this Poynter piece:
For journalists, who are accustomed to sharing the stories of others, creating and shaping a digital identity can feel risky or misguided.
Some reporters say the less personal information that’s online, the better. But others, like JD Lasica, social media strategist and co-founder of Ourmedia.org, say developing a digital identity creates an opportunity to reach out to the public in new, interactive ways.
“News organizations have for too long practiced journalism as a dark art, and so the public has come to regard journalists and their intentions with a degree of suspicion,” Lasica said. “I suppose I tend toward more transparency than most people — you can easily find my home address online, for example, and the fact that I have an 8-year-old son — but we’re living in the Internet era now. When I take photos in public, my instinct is to return home and upload them to Flickr. Sharing media and information online is the new routine. Younger people just expect that a lot of personal information about their lives will wind up online.”
To shape what is being said about them online, many journalists are choosing to actively engage in the development of their online presence. On his blog, Lasica lists more than a dozen social networks that he belongs to as a way of encouraging readers to converse with him on some of the sites — even if the “conversation” is just back-and-forth comments posted online. Lasica belongs to such networks as Flickr, SpinXpress, LinkedIn, Digg, Facebook, Ourmedia, MySpace and Second Life and Facebook.
Unlike TV journalists, who have long been recognizable to their audiences, some print journalists are still not used to branching out beyond their bylines. Putting photos of herself online — even professional mugshots — still makes Julie Mason, White House correspondent for The Houston Chronicle, wary. “It brings a lot of attention, good and bad. As a lifelong reporter, I get used to people not knowing who I am and what I look like,” Mason said. “You do get a lot of comments about what you look like. You can’t control what’s out there about you. It’s all very unnerving.”
The transition toward blogging was a difficult one for Mason, who began blogging full-time for the Chronicle in January 2007, in addition to writing a weekly column and an occasional story for the Chronicle’s print edition. A journalist for 18 years, Mason says she was accustomed to being recognized by her byline, but now, she’s also recognized for her blog, “Beltway Confidential,” and the photo that accompanies it. Developing a digital identity through a blog, Mason says, can be challenging, particularly for female journalists.
“Outspoken women can sometimes attract an unstable element of attention. My experience and what I’ve observed is that outspoken women are being threatened on blogs because of the anonymity of the Internet,” said Mason, referring to the wealth of people who can post comments without revealing their real names. “As a journalist who always felt safe with a certain level of anonymity, becoming an Internet commodity is scary. News organizations will have to figure out what their policies are for their journalists becoming more visible and recognizable.”
I’m with Lasica on this one. The times, they have a-changed.
(In addition to here at Knoxville Talks, you can find some of my digital “homes” here and here and here.)
UPDATE: Michael Silence opts for remaining digitally enigmatic
Jan 23rd, 2008
