Frau Nora 🦋 in Elk: "@ralf I wouldn't want five mastodon ac..."

I read this elsewhere: If trusted news outlets would start offering

instances to their staff, that would bring some sort of verification and visibility. Think social.nytimes.com, social.heise.de etc. I'd love to read more from trusted journalists on the and this could greatly help. (Again, not my idea but couldn't find the original author.) Boosts for visibility would be great. Reminder: Favorites don't help as on this other platform.

That is an interesting thought. But you have a lot of freelance workers in media. Working for more then one editorial. How to deal with that? Who should be visible and verified in that case? Presenters? News Anchors? Lead journalists?

I think mastodons excellent multi-user and migration features actually support this scenario pretty well.

I wouldn't want five mastodon accounts to communicate and always think about which editorial might be involved.

November 2, 2022 at 9:12:54 AM

Yeah. Understandable. But would you mind having an account at one instance you trust and (partially) work for?

No, I wouldn't mind. But the editorial might. Because you always seem to speak in their name. And that can be problematic for the organisation. We have seen that with Omagate. And it might lead to the company/editorial making rules for how to use social media in their name. And as a freelance journalist I don't like that thought at all.

@fraunora @ralf Good perspective. People can get in trouble when using their company email address wrongly. With having multiple social media accounts to manage I'd imagine that would become even more problematic.

@gerbrand @fraunora @ralf

the thing we do for email is to have a personal account and a work account, plus dedicated service accounts. Why not the same for Mastodon?

Also, EU already has a server with official accounts for some of their organizations:

https://social.network.europa.eu/

@Natanael_L @gerbrand @fraunora @ralf

For me as a reader the two account approach has value. It makes it clear when someone is speaking journalistically rather than simply expressing personal opinions like the rest of us. That often gets blurred. The separation would, I think, enhance reputations.

@phrees @Natanael_L @gerbrand @ralf

I understand that wish. But the problem is not, which handle is used. The problem is at the core of journalism. For a long period of time journalism was about sending rather then receiving. It was a one way business. With social media journalists have to become communicators as well, who not only send a message but rather receive direct feedback and have to deal with it. That needs education in communication imho.

Replying to someone

@fraunora @ralf Good points, I wonder if a dedicated

instance might be the answer. Independent of a specific media outlet, but a dedicated space for people that can prove their journalistic credentials. I'm thinking along the lines of like how https://eupolicy.social/about exists for EU policy professionals.