Help fix ASNE social media best practices -- don't just bash on Twitter

A few days ago, the American Society of News Editors released a best practices for social media document. The reaction by journalists online was critical. In the case of some, like author and social media advocate Jeff Jarvis, the reaction was comical, but might have actually validated the charges by many old school journalists that Twitter should not be taken seriously.

But the snarky tweets, and even the more thoughtful blog posts, such as a reasoned and detailed analysis by Steve Buttry, may have overlooked a key point:

Social media is collaborative.

These were not stone tablets handed down from Mt. Sinai. We, as journalists and social media professionals, should contribute to, reshape, and help revise this document. Otherwise, we're still treating legacy media as the authority figure who lays the ground rules. Today, the conversation, ongoing and wiki in nature, is the authority. To this end, I've created a Google Doc and marked up the ASNE's original with my thoughts. I intend this as a contribution, perhaps a small one, and look forward to seeing the contributions of others. Please, rip mine up. This is a public document, but you must sign in to edit it. I would also hope the Storify docs that have sprung up could be harnessed, and social media as a whole could be used to develop these thoughts more broadly. (The irony of an essentially dead-tree model being used by the ASNE to discuss social media is not lost here.)

The ASNE's original work, penned by James Hohmann of Politico, is at times haughty, outdated, and vague. But it is also valiant, necessary, and constructive. The reactions online by many journalists, to attack like a swarm of piranha, then move on to the next victim, is not journalism or social media at its best. In this evolving time of communications, constructive collaboration is important.