The BBC has e-mailed staff over the use of photos from social networking sites, reports the MediaGuardian.

It advices journalists to be cautious about the use of such personal material. The advice goes beyond talking about issues copyright and verification, mentioning the idea of “intended audiences“. The e-mail told staff that:

Simply because material may have been put into the public domain may not always give the media the right to exploit its existence. The use of a picture by the BBC brings material to a much wider public than a personal website that would only be found with very specific search criteria.

The advice reflects the comments posted on the BBC Editors’ blog by the head of the news website, Steve Herrmann.

In it, he acknowledged that the boundary between private and public is blurry online, given that most people rely on the idea of “privacy through obscurity“. Reporters cannot simply assume that someone intended to make a photo on Facebook or MySpace to be seen by the world. It was intended to be seen by the network of friends.

It is refreshing to see a mainstream news organisation like the BBC having such a healthy debate over the use of material from social networking sites.

As I have written before, social media sites posed new digital dilemmas for journalists. Understanding the nature of these sites and how people relate to them is a first step towards resolving some of these issues.

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