Saturday, August 30, 2014
News, analysis and primary source documents on terrorism, extremism and national security.
Some guidelines for journalists reporting from extremist content on social media:
I'm calling it. "Terrorists are on social media" is officially not news. You should not be writing a story which features "terrorists are on social media" as its lead and/or nut graf.
If you know more about social media than about terrorism and extremism, turn the story over to someone who knows more about terrorism and extremism. It's easier for them to understand how social media works than the other way around.
Just because someone says they're with the Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL), or al Qaeda, or anything else, doesn't mean it's true. If you don't know how to determine whether an account is actually associated with the group, don't report on its content.
If your only context for understanding a Twitter account is the content of its tweets, you should not be reporting from it.
Specifically, as to the above point, it is almost always incorrect to say "IS is saying" or "ISIS is doing" based on a Twitter account if you don't understand its context.
Random people tweeting awful things is not news.
Random people tweeting specific threats is not IS making specific threats against America.
Amplifying IS talking points without context is not news. Consider whether you're reporting news or just helping IS scare Americans more effectively than it could ever do on its own.
Nine times out of 10, it is not necessary to publicize extremist Twitter and Facebook account handles when reporting from their content.
Most mainstream media reaches a far larger audience than any IS social media account. Consider whether you are taking a nobody and making him or her a somebody by guiding your much larger audience to his or her door.
Buy J.M. Berger's book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam
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