The debate is roaring on whether the BBC are right in telling their journalists that they must report to their news desk before breaking a story on Twitter. This comes just days after Sky have similarly updated their social media policy. The Guardian have been quick in reporting on both stories and it's worth noting that their journalists have been talking about it on Twitter and still had the story up first, leading to them being referenced in all the write ups that have followed. It seems possible that journalists can report and tweet.
For all of the anger the BBC are being met with them wanting the news to be with their news desk as quickly as possible does make sense. While their journalists might have 20k followers if they get it into their news stream they can distribute it to a much wider audience. The BBC are attempting to protect their purpose as a news service beyond Twitter.
Sky's update to the social media guidelines were sent out in an email to staff and it's difficult to see sense in one of their new rules. They've told staff to "not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process."
Sky do have a similar prerogative to the BBC in wanting the news desk to remain the central point for all information and to keep "sufficient editorial control of stories reported by Sky News journalists."
Neal Mann, Digital Editor at Sky News is a pretty big deal on Twitter. He has over 40k followers and breaks news on Twitter whether it comes from Sky News, another news site or a civilian at the scene. His Twitter handle @fieldproducer became the hashtag #savefieldproducer after it came out about Sky's questionable guideline additions. Twitter users felt that he could not exist under this new regime.
Rory Cellan-Jones, a BBC tech correspondent wrote about these social media updates in an article yesterday and made some interesting points on the BBC's journalists breaking news on Twitter. Using the example of a court case he felt it was appropriate for the journalist to tweet updates from the case during but when it comes to the verdict it needs to be on camera before it's on Twitter. He also spoke about Neal Mann and how he has become a brand in himself, perhaps this is a situation that leaves Sky feeling uncomfortable; after all they are the news brand and everyone feeds that.
Reuters are sitting on my social media pedestal at the moment, last week they launched their 'social pulse' that shows trending topics across all news sites. Their social media editor Anthony De Rosa wrote a post on Tuesday about Sky's social media policy bringing up the excellent point that their boss @RupertMurdoch doesn't even follow the rules they are attempting to enforce. Not a lead and they will follower approach there then.
The BBC may get their news into the news desk first but I think they'll be tweeting it at the same time; perhaps all journalists now need an assistant and second phone? As for Sky News I think they'll be backtracking on this latest rule and if they don't it will be at the determent of there reporting.