WSET.com - ABC13Using Social Media in the News by Rachel Schaerr

My roommate, who happens to be the producer for Good Morning Virginia, and I had a debate recently about how and when it's appropriate to use social media in our stories. It's a question that's come up a lot in our newsroom and in many others.

With the two fatal car accidents over the July 4th weekend our station's Facebook page got a lot of wall posts about the people who died. I happened to be working the Sunday after it happened and could not get police to confirm the information. By the time the six o'clock news rolled around, and we didn't have information on one of the wrecks, our station's inbox was inundated with emails from viewers wondering why we didn't report it.

It begs the question – at a time when so many of us rely on Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites to get our information - shouldn't news reporters use it as a tool to get theirs?

The Poynter Institute is the go-to place for reporters with ethical questions. It says there are three questions that need to be considered when using information from social media sites: How credible is the information? How important is it to your audience? And how urgent is the situation?

I think as journalists we need to consider another factor: the families of the victims. Not too long ago I was doing a story about a man killed in a fire. I went to his girlfriend's house to try and interview her. When she answered the door and I asked her if she knew him, she gave me this blank stare. "What do you mean?" she asked me. "Why? Did something happen to him?" I didn't have a choice but to tell her as calmly and empathetically as I could about how he'd died the night before. She collapsed into my arms and cried.

Fast forward to the fatal car crash. Should have I gone ahead with the story? Or, is it better to be safe than sorry? News is always changing. Someone's always trying to be the first to bring you a story. But how guilty would you feel to tell the families of the two people who died in Saturday's crash that their loved ones were gone? Once you actually are the one to do it, you'll never approach a story the same way again.