{"id":8421,"date":"2024-01-31T11:41:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T09:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cje.org.ua\/?post_type=news&p=8421"},"modified":"2024-01-31T11:41:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T09:41:28","slug":"commission-on-journalistic-ethics-recommendations-on-maintaining-journalistic-ethics-standards-of-online-media-on-instagram-and-other-social-media","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/cje.org.ua\/en\/news\/commission-on-journalistic-ethics-recommendations-on-maintaining-journalistic-ethics-standards-of-online-media-on-instagram-and-other-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Commission on Journalistic Ethics: Recommendations on Maintaining Journalistic Ethics Standards of Online Media on Instagram and Other Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s media work on several platforms at once. Most online media have social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, and YouTube alongside their main websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of media even made a conscious decision to register their social media pages voluntarily as online media, in line with the standards of new media legislation that formalizes their perception as media both by the government and by information consumers. Another tool that leads the audience to perceive a certain social media account as a media outlet can be a verified profile combined with a well-known media brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In such cases, the Commission believes that information published on accounts of online media should be viewed as journalistic publications. Since such media identify their accounts on social media as media accounts, they face an increased level of responsibility to their audience when disseminating news or any other information via such pages.<\/strong> This, in turn, obliges them to comply with journalistic ethics standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the above-mentioned social networks provide sufficient tools to comply with the requirements of clauses 6 and 10 of the Ethics Code of the Ukrainian Journalist and the requirements for completeness, reliability and balanced presentation of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video format on YouTube provides an opportunity to show documents using visual means and add comments of both parties both on video and in a text format. On Facebook and Telegram, you can refer the audience to the original text and direct the media audience to the main website with a full \/ more detailed version of the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, Instagram, <\/strong>due to its focus on photo content and short video reels, as well as due to disabled links except in stories and bio, is a platform where observance of professional standards requires additional effort on the part of the media.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the Commission received a complaint regarding an online media post in Reels on Instagram. This is a video material depicting a conflict between people in military uniforms with Lviv residents, posted on Instagram of hromadske <\/em>on November 22, 2023, available at https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/Cz8kp7eNrgB\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A short video reel posted published by the media outlet on its Instagram account, separately registered as an online media outlet<\/a>, depicts a conflict on the street in a Ukrainian city, where people in military uniforms drag a man into their vehicle and continue arguing with the woman he was accompanied by. The phone is knocked out of the woman’s hands, after which the uniformed men return to their bus. The video is filmed from a balcony of a nearby house and contains no narration. The caption is as follows: \u201cA video is being shared on social media where in Lviv, five people wearing uniforms push a man into the bus and knock the phone out of the hands of a woman who wanted to film the incident. The video already received a response from the local military recruitment center, who promised to address the situation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complainant Sofia Kochmar believes that this story covers only an emotional component, anger towards the government and officials, but does not contain any information to explain the story reasonably, not emotionally. This is why it does not meet the requirements for completeness of information coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

December June 18, 2023, the Commission appealed to the online media with a request to provide comments regarding violating the requirements of clause 6 of the Ethics Code of the Ukrainian Journalist in their story and the arguments specified in the complaint. The response from the media was received on January 9, 2024. In this response, editor-in-chief of hromadske Khrystyna Kotsira pointed out that the media does not refer to publications and stories on Instagram as to news materials. Posts on social media, she says, are primarily meant to engage users to the website where they can read full information: a news story, an interview, or an article, which would have a specific author, and it is those journalistic materials, she believes, that can be analyzed for observance of standards or ethics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The standard of completeness of information requires that the media inform its consumers of how and when a certain event took place, as well as its context and possible meaning. Such coverage of the event is necessary to help the audience form its own independent impression of a certain fact, rather than make use only of the assessment provided by the media or authors of the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the format of social media publications usually offers a more limited space to achieve such completeness, since there is a limited number of characters or limited user experience. Yet, this does not absolve the media of the duty to adhere to journalistic standards even on social media, especially if such media are registered as media subjects under the new law. In the material under consideration, hromadske attempted to present the context of the event with the caption of the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither the caption nor the material explain where the event takes place and why it is important. The very fact of a conflict between individuals wearing military uniforms and civilians does not give the consumers any information to interpret this event, apart from the fact that a military recruitment office responded, and it may be related to military draft. From this material, the audience cannot find out the causes of its conflict, its possible links to military draft, and its conclusion. The media does not explain why this material is socially significant, and to what extent it raises issues important for the local or national context, choosing to only make hints and form a certain image of people in military uniforms, who are most likely to be military servants. The media also does not provide links to further materials which the audience could use to get a more complete idea of the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Instagram as a social network provides highly limited opportunities to post links, the media outlet should make sure that consumers understand where they can find access to a full story, including the consequences and broader context of the event. The editor-in-chief of hromadske actually said in her response to the complaint that such posts are made to boost traffic, but in this situation, there is nowhere for the consumers to go. In a way, the absence of any instructions regarding further search for information makes this publication comparable to clickbait, which has no place in any media striving to adhere to journalistic standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, the Commission decided to develop recommendations for the media regarding the use of social media to ensure better adherence to journalistic ethics standards in the future<\/strong>. These recommendations are based on clauses 6, 8 and 10 of the Ethics Code of the Ukrainian Journalist and instruct journalists and the media to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n