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Social networking as a journalist

Hey everyone. Now, I'm going to guess here, but I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this blog is on at least one social networking site.

I'm not exacty average, but I'm on plenty. Those include: Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Twitter, ColourLovers, LastFm, Wired Journalists, Flickr, FriendFeed and LinkedIn.

My question to the community is this: how much information do you share on your social pages? Do you use your real name? Do you use the pages only for personal use (non-work) and make them private to everyone else. Do you use the pages for both personal and work.

In my situation, and as most recently the Orange County Register's tech reporter, I share quite a bit about myself online as a way of being up front about who I am. I use the pages for both personal and work connections. The thing I am sure about is to never post anything that would show my beliefs in anything work-related (such as politics).

I thought of this question when council members who I have covered in the past tried to add me as friends on Facebook. I denied those requests, because it just seemed strange, but then again I've added people I covered in the tech and Disney fields as friends.

Please share what you all do online.
Published Monday, June 23, 2008 8:06 AM by SonyaSmith
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Comments

# Something about garden gnomes

Monday, June 23, 2008 9:33 PM by aaronaup
I quickly became aware people were watching and reading what I was posting on my myspace.com site.

After crafting a clever about how I came to live in Barstow, Calif. (a less than true story at that), I got a call from a Barstow police officer. The story involved several garden gnomes who I had befriended early in my stay in Barstow.

The police officer was calling to see if I knew anything about a recent rash of gnome thefts.

I keep a few social network accounts. I am just prepared to explain/defend anything on those sites. I do not think our readers expect journalists to be bland robot-like humans without interests or opinions.

# re: Social networking as a journalist

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 5:26 PM by GenePark
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm kind of a Myspace freak. My byline name, same name as here, is up on full display. The URL for the profile is simply, www.myspace.com/genepark.

Since Myspacing in the early days, I learned quite a bit about having some tact when managing your online persona.

I've since put my profile to private, so only my friends could read my blogs and view my pictures.

I am a pretty outspoken person, and I do feel stifled if I'm not allowed to speak my own mind, particularly because I am in a field where we're supposed to silence much of our opinions.

I do add sources if I am on good terms with them. I've received news tips before through Myspace, and I don't see it as a conflict of interest since for those people, I use Myspace in a way that lives up to the "networking" part of its sales pitch.
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