We begin our coverage with an all-star panel. Al Tompkins (Poynter), Chip Mahaney (E.W. Scripps), and Stacey Woelfel (RTDNA Chair) lead a discussion on the challenges about social media usage. Tompkins: “We have always said that accuracy, truth, fairness and completeness are who we are.” So what about tweets that may mislead? We don’t have people editing your tweets. Example, called “The Problem With Brevity”: a tweet from @osgators (the Orlando Sentinel’s coverage of the Florida Gators) that said “WR Deonte Thompson on diff b/t Tebow and Brantley: “With Brantley, everything with rhythm, with time. You know, a real quarterback.” The controversy came because the words “real quarterback” were vague. What does it mean? A good quarterback? A different style? Later, paper updated tweet to say “in fairness to Thompson, he either meant Brantley is siply more of a traditional style QB or he wanted to slight Tebow,” followed by “Deonte Thompson sounds happy to usher in the post-Tebow era.” How do you give context to tweets? Tompkins: “We are not suggesting for a minute that you slam on the brakes. We are only suggesting you be a skilled writer.” Not a small order.
Al Tompkins (far right) leads discussion on social media ethics
