Journalism Sundays: Social media edition

Social media is like crack for journalists.

I need my computer WHEREVER I go. It's instant gratification for the ever-present ache to know things first and shout them from the rooftops.

Journalists yearn, pine, nay – JONES for something new to report. The Internet allows us to do that. It's intoxicating, overpowering and potentially dangerous.

Most Sunday's I give a little journalism tutorial to the staff of The Daily Evergreen. This week's lesson was about, you guessed it – social media, blogs and Internet conduct.

The ability to publish anything at anytime from anywhere has changed the world. Events like the Virgina Tech shootings, the Iranian protests and more recently, Tiger Woods' apology, show that social media is the fastest way to reach the greatest number of people.

It's the wild wild west of Web 2.0 ... and it's a double edged sword.

With instant publishing, if we're dumb (even for a second) the whole world knows. Take for example ABC reporter Terry Moran, who famously tweeted the news that President Obama called Kanye West a "jackass" off air during an interview for West's outburst at the MTV VMAs.

You know that no sooner had the words left Obama's mouth than Moran sprung a huge news woody.

All the bells and alarms in his head were going off, telling him "NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! THE PRESIDENT JUST CALLED SOMEONE A 'JACKASS.' MUST REPORT!" and without so much as a forethought he sated his urge and tweeted all over the Internets.

Moran used a new medium to break the old adage, "Is the juice worth the squeeze?" Was the tweet worth incurring the wrath the president? Nope.

As a professional journalist, he should have showed restraint and forethought. But as a television journalist he had probably never encountered colleagues who knew the meaning of either word.

It pretty much boils down to one of the first life lessons imparted on school children everywhere: "Think before you speak." Now more than ever does that priceless lesson apply to our everyday lives.

Here's the policy I wrote for our paper. Whaddya think?

(*Note: You can click on the image to see a readable version. I also want to credit The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Daily Tar Heel and Poynter. I used or reworded pretty much all my guidelines from theirs.)