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A Virtual Dilemma: Journalism & Social Media

During the J2J training in Vienna last month, Keishamaza Rukikaire-Kagwa, a journalist from Kenya who writes for PlusNews, brought up some important questions about the relationship we have with social media.  Thank you Keishamaza.  Let's start a dialogue here about our lives as tweeting, facebook-updating journalists.

How much should journalists reveal in social media networks like Twitter and Facebook? When does a post (or a tweet) cross the line? And who is paying attention?

I've dug up some industry guidelines, including those I abide by as an NPR producer, and I'll share those for your reference.  

First, though, it's worth considering the question at the heart of this issue:  What is the risk anyway?  

Don't ask the Twitter bird, who wants you to post everything, every minute of your waking life.  

I'll answer with one just one word: GOOGLE!  When it burns, it burns.

The bottom line is HIV/AIDS is a story with all sorts of tricky political dimensions. Author and former UNAIDS scientist Elizabeth Pisani told the J2J fellows in Vienna just how divisive the issue can be. Behind the data are political agendas.  And behind the political agendas are carefully planned media strategies.  

Tweets and posts, even in their most innocent incarnations, can jeopardize your news organization's credibility and even your ability to score certain interviews.  Even more subtly, your social media profile runs the risk of tainting your relationship with sources - or the information they choose to dish up.  

For example, imagine you were feeling skeptical about the AIDS 2010 theme: "Rights Here, Right Now." Maybe you thought it was merely rhetoric and not substantive (that was indeed a sentiment I heard quite often in Vienna).  Then you came up with a clever (and openly critical) facebook status message that you couldn't resist posting.  Or maybe you decided it was just too witty for FB real estate and decided to tweet your grievance instead.  

Fast forward a few months and you're working on a story about the connection between drug abuse and HIV.  You chase an interview with a local health leader.  It's a safe bet that person (or their press handler) may decide to google you.  He or she may stumble upon your diatribe about AIDS 2010.  Even though you may get the interview, your source now has a sense of your political persuasion and will more than likely tailor answers to what he or she perceives to be your interest.  

Even worse, a political organization can connect the dots after your story is published or broadcast, calling into question your journalistic standards.  Did you slant the piece to reflect your political hunch?  Maybe not. But it will be much harder to defend yourself if you left behind a trail of tweets.  

In less than 140 characters, you can permanently alter your ability to be objective - or at the very least, tatter your appearance as unbiased.  And chances are, your news organization will pay a price as well. 

 

My rule of thumb is to never post my opinions about anything political or global health related.  I may ask questions in my posts about certain ideas or even suggest certain lines of inquiry.  In any case, I keep it neutral (some may say boring), and when I do tweet - which is rare - it usually has to do with Lady Gaga's hair or something even more trite.  

It's also worth noting that the comment threads attached to stories can be a pitfall.  I don't know about you, but it is ridiculously hard for me NOT to respond sometimes.  I have some choice words for the haters, but I bite my proverbial tongue, because reactions are loaded with sometimes even unintentional political undertones. Obviously, this depends on whether you are signed on as yourself or using a pseudonym. In any case, be careful.  

Like most journalists, I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can.  I enjoy the challenge.  So I suppose I have accepted my social media fate.  Pop culture is usually fair game; politics are always off limits.  If you want to know where I stand, meet me for happy hour.  Off the record, of course.  

Clearly, I err on the side of cautious (some may call it paranoid).  

What about you?  Have you curtailed your tweet life to protect your image as a journalist?  Do you worry about your updates on Facebook? 

Here are the guidelines I live and work by as an NPR journalist and a blog about the issue from our Digital Media Managing Editor Mark Stencel.  Mark also points to this collection of perspectives on social media and journalism, compiled by Harvard's Nieman Reports.

Does your news organization have social media guidelines?  

Finally, on less dire note, social media platforms can also serve as powerful reporting tools. Have you used Facebook or Twitter to find interview subjects?  If so, how did you do it?  

AIDS 2010 Wrap Up, Story Ideas for the Future

Before you shelve AIDS 2010 in your ''I'm glad I was there but now I have to move on'' (or your "I wish I was there but now I have to move on") mental file, take a look just a few examples of the stories by this year's J2J Fellows. All of these reports deal with persistent issues and ideas related to HIV/AIDS, definitely worth exploring in your own community.

Allyn Gaestel reported on the disproportionately high rates of HIV in prisons, one of the many human rights issues in focus at the conference.  Yasmine Ryan chronicled the conference on the Take Part blog.  Ryan posted daily spots about a range of stories, including the Vienna Declaration and the contentious issue of criminalizing drug abuse.  Elina Karakulova blogged every day (in Russian) about AIDS 2010.  On the ''breaking news'' front, Iana Seales reported about the CAPRISA vaginal gel trial, the first of its kind to show positive results. Keishamaza Rukikaire-Kagwa followed up with a very thorough piece about the future of microbicde research and potential implementation. Roberto Marmolejo reported several stories, including the prospects of an HIV vaccine for CNN Mexico.  Judith Konayuma examined how the global recession is affecting global HIV/AIDS programs and how political leaders are reacting.  Catherine Karong'o followed a similar thread, in particular a warning from the Global Fund of a potential "HIV cash crunch."  And Mehru Jaffer introduced us to Kiren Kaur, a Malaysian widow who is living with HIV, in a piece titled, "Worse Than HIV, The Stigma."

Congratulations to all of the J2J fellows for producing a such an impressive collection of work.  Many thanks for all the emails with links to your stories.  Even though AIDS 2010 has passed, keep sending.  I'll post every story I receive, radio, online, multimedia... in any language.  Consider it an instant international audience. douglas@nationalpress.org 

AIDS 2010: An Embargo Gone Bust

Two more days to go at AIDS 2010.  Hundreds of stories to report.  And countless others to tell in the months ahead, as we return to our newsrooms around the world. 

We are collecting your work and will publish on the Helpdesk in the coming days.  Send me your links at douglas@nationalpress.org.  If your work is not in English, just include a short paragraph (in English) about the story. 

There are plenty of themes to explore, people to interview and scores of political debates worthy of attention.  But the truth is conferences of this scale rarely produce "breaking" news.  So there was quite a bit of anticipation about the CAPRISA microbicide trial.  The buzz surrounding its release was unavoidable.  In fact, I emailed my editor at NPR just to check myself.  Was I getting too caught up in the hype?  Should I file a story or stick to the news spots? 

As it turns out, I didn't have much of a choice.  Monday evening, the Financial Times broke the embargo, which was set for Tuesday at 1pm.  The journal Science then released the embargo, early. Long story short, dozens of journalists were left scrambling to beat the news cycle.  For reporters based in Europe, it was especially challenging because the bust occurred after many papers were already on the press. 

Today, AIDS 2010 put out a statement blasting the Financial Times for breaking the embargo:

"To date, the International AIDS Conference has operated in a spirit of trust, with an understanding of the ethical obligations of journalists with respect to the conference's abstract and media embargo policy. We were therefore disappointed by the actions of the Financial Times, which went against the spirit of the conference embargo policy..."

Conference organizers say they will launch a formal complaint with the newspaper.

Did the reporter, Andrew Jack, intentionally break the embargo?  That has yet to be determined or made public, to my knowledge.  Without having spoken to Jack, it seems right to offer the benefit of doubt.  Possibly it was a case of miscommunication ..? 

Even so, the incident raises some important questions about the very notion of an embargo policy. Let us know what you think. 

Why should journalists respect time lines set by organizations?  Is it a simply matter of professional courtesy?  In the case of trials, there are concerns about notifying participants before the news breaks.  But when (if ever) does information become so important it trumps the requested refrain?  

Have you ever considered defying an embargo because you felt obligated as a journalist?

How did this situation affect the way you reported the story? 

AIDS 2010: Inside The Media Center

J2J Fellows Leonardo Batisda Aguilar and Emani Krishna Rao work on reports in the media center at AIDS 2010 in Vienna, Austria.  Aguilar says he has already filed more than a dozen stories.  Stay tuned for links to more J2J work from AIDS 2010.

Here in the media center, most people (several hundred journos) are head-locked by their laptops, so the mood is fairly calm.  There is, of course, a constant background buzz of endless press conferences, chatter from neighbors and the occasionally overwhelming barrage of pitches from media reps. 

But on occasion, a fierce (to borrow a word from J2J fellow Don Duncan) protest penetrates the strangely mind-numbing hum... like yesterday when a group of sex workers infiltrated the media center to stage a protest of the "anti-prostitution pledge" in the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). 

 
I am not sure how the group made it into the media center, but it sure seemed to be an effective strategy.  Several dozen reporters (including me of course) grabbed their cameras and captured the moment.  At the very least, their message was spread through social media like Facebook and Twitter. 

Meanwhile, the organization Housing Works tells me they plan to build a "slum" outside the center tomorrow to draw attention to the connection between housing and HIV prevention / treatment.  J2J Fellows, if you are still around the conference, please grab a shot of the makeshift slum and send it to me.  I'll post it on the blog.  

AIDS 2010: In the Words (and Photos) of J2J Fellows

Busy times here in Vienna.

We wrapped up the J2J training on Saturday. Now the fellows are fanned out throughout the conference center, collecting sounds, meeting the players, pitching stories to their editors back home... and already filing several stories. 

Aabida Allaham, from Trinidad and Tobago, kicked off her reporting with a piece about a topic on nearly everyone's mind: funding (or the lack thereof).  Yesterday, at the opening ceremony, IAS President Dr. Julio Montaner made an impassioned pitch.  Allaham reports in the Trinidad Express:

"The more we treat the more we prevent and this is not just talk. With treatment you render those infected almost unable to transmit," Montaner said.

He said current funding threats were beginning to have an impact on how health systems in low-income countries operated. Overall, support for global AIDS efforts from donor nations flattened in the midst of last year's global economic crisis, according to a new analysis of the 2009 funding levels from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)."

Iana Seales, from Guyana, also focused her attention funding, but from a different angle.  She examines what some are calling the hidden epidemic: tuberculosis.  Seales is reporting for her newspaper Stabroek News:

"Tuberculosis is the forgotten disease says Peg Willingham, Senior Director for External Affairs at Aeras Global and she also points out that funding is not enough at the global level to effectively tackle the illness in many countries."

Mehru Jaffer, who's originally from India and now lives here in Vienna, filed this curtain raiser about vaccine research.

"Scientists participating in the 18th International AIDS conference that opens in Vienna Sunday promise to share more information on vaccine research.

Dr. Alan Bernstein, Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise executive director, told journalists on the eve of the conference that the search for safe and effective HIV vaccines is one of the greatest challenges for modern science." (Global Geopolitics and Political Economy)

Jaffer followed up with a piece for IPS-Inter Press Service:

"Experts are optimistic that breakthroughs in HIV vaccine research are possible if they work together. Linda Gail Bekker, deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine in South Africa, said it has become essential to pool the resources of experts working in different parts of the world."

And without further ado, I introduce you to the work of Dmitry Kolbasin.  He produced one of five very impressive audio slide shows during the J2J training.  Kolbasin, who works in Kazan, Russia, for Open Information Agency, used Soundslides to tell the story of Sveta Izambaeva, a Russian woman who was denied custody of her child because she was HIV-positive.

"This is one of the most famous stories about the discrimination faced by people living with HIV in Russia.  I knew that Sveta Izambaeva would be at AIDS 2010 and I wanted my fellow journalists to know about this case."

Remember: even if you are not here in Vienna, the conference is still within reach.  You can catch virtually all of the major presentations via webcast and load up on all sorts of material at AIDS 2010. 

J2J Fellows Tour HIV/AIDS Hospital Departments in Vienna

The HIV/AIDS departments of two Viennese hospitals welcomed our J2J group yesterday. The journalists got a chance to meet with hospital staff and interview people living with HIV/AIDS. The consensus among the journalists was that both visits were extremely moving. By prior agreement journalists did not take photographs and did not use real names.

The Otto Wagner Hospital’s HIV/AIDS Department specializes in lung health and respiratory diseases. Thirty-two journalists took part in a Q&A session with Dr. Brigitte Schmied, head of the HIV/AIDS Department and president of the Austrian AIDS Society, Dr. Christian Zagler, HIV Physician and Intern in Respiratory Medicine, Mag. Wilfried Peinhaupt, Psychologist, and Manuela Teleu, Adherence nurse. The hospital opened at the turn of the 20^the century and is named in honor of a famous architect.

The HIV/AIDS Department of the Vienna General Hospital focuses more closely on dermatological issues associated with HIV/AIDS. The other half of our 59 J2J fellow group also met with the head of the hospital department, Dr. Armin Rieger.

Other speakers from today’s training included Regina Aragon of the International AIDS Society and Peg Willingam of Aeras Global. Regina gave the journalists tips on covering AIDS 2010, while Peg spoke on TB and HIV/AIDS co-infection. Hear audio of both of their presentations here. Douglas Hopper, a producer for National Public Radio who is also an NPF multi-media consultant, led the group in a practical session on the use of a program called SoundSlides.   Linda Streitfeld and Bob Meyers of NPF led a session generating ideas for future stories.

(Ana Zovko)

Reporter Tip: 'The Big Five at AIDS 2010'

PlusNews, a news service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has published a top five list of major topics on the AIDS 2010 agenda. The international AIDS conference, which is expected to draw some 25,000 participants, begins this Sunday, July 18, in Vienna. The 'Big Five':

Universal Access 

"Under different circumstances, the champagne would be on ice as the December 2010 deadline for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care approaches; instead, the HIV/AIDS fraternity at AIDS 2010 will be going back to the drawing board, as pitifully few countries have achieved the universal access targets set by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in 2005."

New Science 

"Researchers will use AIDS 2010 to unveil progress in new prevention technologies. A positive result from CAPRISA 004, a large South African trial of a microbicide gel containing the ARV drug, tenofovir, would give a welcome boost to a field that has promised much but produced few positive results."

Cost-saving in HIV Programming

"As international donor support for HIV shrinks, policy-makers and implementers are keen to find cheaper and more efficient ways to run HIV treatment programmes."

Treatment and Prevention 

"Evidence is mounting that ARV treatment greatly lowers the likelihood of transmitting HIV, as well as mortality from tuberculosis and other opportunistic infections. Mathematical modelling studies show that implementing voluntary universal testing programmes, and immediately starting ARV treatment for people who test positive, could eventually eliminate HIV all together."

HIV and Injection Drug Use

"One of the main modes of transmission in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America will be discussed in presentations on preventing high-risk behaviour among injecting drug users (IDUs), their human rights, and their inclusion in HIV prevention and treatment programmes... On 13 July, former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of México and César Gaviria of Colombia - countries with major drug-trafficking problems - formally endorsed the Vienna Declaration."

Learn more about the AIDS 2010 Vienna Declaration: "The Vienna Declaration is a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. We are inviting scientists, health practitioners and the public to endorse this document in order to bring these issues to the attention of governments and international agencies, and to illustrate that drug policy reform is a matter of urgent international significance. We also welcome organizational endorsements."

J2J Fellows Debate: Publishing Photos of HIV+ and Underage—Ethical or not?

We kicked off our J2J training on HIV/AIDS w 
ith a heated debate: Do journalists have the right to publish photographs of HIV+ children? Should written consent be required? Can those that are underage ever give permission?

Our J2J group of 59 journalists representing 40 countries had a wide range of opinions.  Some said publishing such photos is unethical. The positively identified children may become victims of lifelong stigma at the cost of a story. Others suggested that this is all part of the job—journalists must report on difficult stories, and the use of images is part of this responsibility. In some countries showing photographs of underage children is against the law. Hear the full discussion. Also, tell us what you think by commenting on this post!

Today’s J2J agenda included presentations by on the following topics: HIV and prisons, AIDS in Children, the International AIDS Conference, and a refresher course on HIV/AIDS. Hear full audio from today’s presentations and see full program agenda.

--Ana Zovko, National Press Foundation

White House Launches National HIV/AIDS Strategy, UNAIDS: 10 Million Lives Could Be Saved

The Obama administration has unveiled a new plan to curb HIV infections in the United States. About 56,000 Americans become HIV positive every year.  Obama says he wants to cut that number by a fourth. The White House says it will prioritize prevention efforts and push more money toward reaching people at highest risk, including African-Americans and gay and bisexual men.  

Yesterday on NPR's Tell Me More, we heard from Science Correspondent Brenda Wilson. She says the formal strategy is a first of its kind in the U.S. Now the question remains: Will the dollars manifest to back up the plan?  Kenya Hutton also joined the conversation.   He's an HIV prevention specialist at Us Helping Us, a group here in Washington, D.C., focused on the health of African-American gay and bisexual men.  

UNAIDS: 10 Million Lives Could Be Saved

Just ahead of AIDS 2010, which kicks off this Sunday in Vienna, UNAIDS has issued a new Outlook report. We'll be digging through the findings and bringing you more as the conference gets underway.  

In the meantime, some key points: 

UNAIDS spells out a new treatment strategy - dubbed "Treatment 2.0" - which it says could avert 10 million lives by 2025 and prevent 1 million new infections annually.   

HIV infections are dropping among young people in the 15 countries most affected by the epidemic.

A UNAIDS / ZOGBY poll shows most countries still rank AIDS "high on the list of the most important issues facing the world." 

Download the report here.