June 26th, 2009
I am on Facebook every day. I enjoy reading status updates especially of my “friends” in Rockford. Yesterday, I was about to check the rrstar.com fan page when the profile picture from the Rockford fan page caught my eye.
The kid is holding the paper from the day after the FBI uncovered a plot to blow up CherryVale Mall. Derrick Shareef got 35 years in prison for his scheme to attack holiday shoppers in 2006. (We covered this extensively on the Web, however we lost most of the content when we launched a new Web site a couple years ago. This link will get you to a few of those stories, though.)
Interesting that the person behind the Rockford fan page picked this as the profile picture.
May 18th, 2009
The Rockford Register Star and rrstar.com is now on Facebook. Become a fan. Each day, we’ll share stories, photo galleries, videos and more with you. Check us out and tell us what you think.
January 28th, 2009
Here’s an interesting Poynter column on journalists’ responsibilities when it comes to contributing to social networking sites.
There’s only one comment posted, but it’s a good one. Here’s an excerpt:
“Objectivity is now a barely relevant word in journalism. The important and, I believe, more noble goal is fairness. … Pretending I do not hold any biases or (gasp) that I haven’t publicly expressed thoughts of my own would be folly. I do not hide my work experiences or ideas from my sources, and my professional relationships are stronger as a result. But I always strive for fairness in my work, even when I write/record/post with a perspective or point of view.”
There’s also a link to the New York Times’ policy regarding social networking sites. It’s a good guideline.
Curious what our readers think about journalists using sites like Facebook for personal and professional uses. Is it OK? Wrong? Why?
