New AP 'Social Media' Policy Draws Union Fire

By: Joe Strupp Associated Press editors last week updated employee guidelines to include new rules for social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

But not everyone is happy.

Leaders of the News Media Guild, which represents 1,520 AP employees in the U.S., complained that one policy requiring Facebook users who are AP employees to delete material posted -- by others -- that violates AP standards is over-reaching.

"It is making some people cringe," said Kevin Keane, News Media Guild administrator. "It is not appropriate for a company that heralds free speech."

Keane also objected to another portion of the new rules that states: "Posting material about the AP's internal operations is prohibited on employees' personal pages."

"You can't tell people not to talk about anything internal to AP," Keane said. "It is too broad. People have the right."

Kristin Gazlay, AP's managing editor/financial news and global training, distributed the new policy in a memo to employees last Thursday. The memo, obtained by E&P (and posted below), was in a question-and-answer format.

"So many people were asking what our policy was, we wanted to lay out the top-level view," she said about the reason for the update. "It has become a huge part of how people gather information and disseminate information. There is no intent on being Big Brother, no plans to scour people's pages looking for things."

Asked about the two policies raised by guild officials, particularly the one requiring items to be deleted, Gazlay said: "You can't control what other people post, but if they post something on your profile page, you can manage that to your heart's content."

Keane said guild officials plan to request a meeting with management about this issue.

The entire memo follows:

********************************************

From: Gazlay, Kristin
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 11:33 AM
Subject: Social networking guidelines

All:

Here are the AP's guidelines for employee participation in the various social networks, answering a number of smart questions posed by AP staff.

The intent in forming the guidelines is to lay out the over-arching principles and not try to address every potential scenario. The bottom line is that the company supports social networking as a personal and professional tool, but expects employees to bear in mind how their actions might reflect on the AP.

Kristin Gazlay

SOCIAL NETWORKING Q&A

Q. Is it OK for AP employees to have accounts on such social-networking sites as Facebook and Twitter?

Absolutely. They've become an integral part of everyday life for millions of people around the world, and the AP already has a robust corps of employees with accounts on all the social networks. These networks also have become an important tool for AP reporters to gather news - both for big, breaking stories and in cases in which we're seeking out members of the public who might serve as sources for our stories. And they're a prime source of citizen journalism material. One of our top images from the US Airways crash in the Hudson River, for instance, was a photo taken by a civilian that first surfaced on Twitter.

Q. What are the general guidelines for such accounts?

Employees must identify themselves as being from the AP if they are using the networks for work in any way. Posting material about the AP's internal operations is prohibited on employees' personal pages, and employees also should avoid including political affiliations in their profiles and steer clear of making any postings that express political views or take stands on contentious issues. Employees should be mindful that any personal information they disclose about themselves or colleagues may be linked to the AP's name. That's true even if staffers restrict their pages to viewing only by friends. It's not just like uttering a comment over a beer with your friends: It's all too easy for someone to copy material out of restricted pages and redirect it elsewhere for wider viewing. As multitudes of people have learned all too well, virtually nothing is truly private on the Internet.

Q. Anything specific to Facebook?

It's a good idea to monitor your profile page to make sure material posted by others doesn't violate AP standards; any such material should be deleted. Also, managers should not issue friend requests to subordinates, since that could be awkward for employees. It's fine if employees want to initiate the friend process with their bosses.

Q. How about Twitter?

We're still the AP. Don't report things or break news that we haven't published, no matter the format, and that includes retweeting unconfirmed information not fit for AP's wires. Feel free to link to AP material that has been published. It's difficult for most people to link to AP Mobile stories right now, so link to member and customer sites instead and try to vary the links to spread the traffic around. It's a good idea to reference the AP in the promo language, i.e. Just how much geek can be chic? Test your fashion IQ with this interactive game. Also, when tweeting, remember that's there a big difference between providing an observation ("I nearly bumped into Chris Matthews outside Penn Station") and an opinion ("I nearly bumped into the loudmouthed and obnoxious Chris Matthews").

Q. Why does the AP care or think it should have a say in what I put on my social networking feed/page?

We all have a stake in upholding the AP's reputation for fairness and impartiality, which has been one of our chief assets for more than 160 years. These guidelines do not break new ground - they are consistent with the rest of our Statement of News Values and Principles. They just take into account the new realities of the social-networking world and answer questions that many AP employees have asked.

Q. Do these guidelines apply just to AP employees who are journalists?

They apply to all employees, just as the Statement of News Values and Principles does. We cannot expect people outside the AP to know whether a posting on Facebook was made by someone who takes pictures, processes payroll checks or fixes satellite dishes. We all represent the AP, and we all must protect its reputation.