BBC tells journalists to use social media as a primary source. Or Leave. This article is well worth reading in it’s entirety – and one wonders how far behind News Australia and Fairfax are in making similar statements. Quite far off, I imagine.
BBC journalists must keep up with technological change – or leave, the director of BBC Global News Peter Horrocks says
Peter Horrocks: backing Facebook and Twitter. Photograph: Martin Godwin
BBC news journalists have been told to use social media as a primary source of information by Peter Horrocks, the new director of BBC Global News who took over last week. He said it was important for editorial staff to make better use of social media and become more collaborative in producing stories.
“This isn’t just a kind of fad from someone who’s an enthusiast of technology. I’m afraid you’re not doing your job if you can’t do those things. It’s not discretionary”, he is quoted as saying in the BBC in-house weekly Ariel. (The Guardian)
Mercedes Bunz of The Guardian reporting on the BBC – the comments are awesome and wide ranging e.g.
Does he realise he’s making a case for a much, much reduced BBC News? If we are getting our news form social media, we can virtually do it for ourselves. (from Awkward Question)
Awkward question indeed…
hat tip @DDSD and @GaryPHayes
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