Guides for Journalists using Facebook

Facebook has just rolled out a series of meetups and resources for news organizations and individual journalists using its services. As Mashable mentions, the social networking company has been taking the increased use of its service as a news publishing and sourcing tool increasingly seriously over the last year.

The page itself has some good general tips for reporters. If you’re working with journalists in dangerous environments, though, I’d also strongly recommend Movements.org’s new Guide to Facebook Security. The short tutorial is aimed at activist groups, but the guidance for understanding Facebook privacy settings, creating better passwords, and decoding some of the social networking jargon applies to anyone who worries about getting hacked or monitored via their Facebook use.

(Note that Movements.org’s first, and most vital tip, turning on Facebook’s https support, can still cause some strange behavior on the site. I couldn’t sign up for Facebook’s local journalist meetup until I realized that its “Register” button only appears if you use the insecure “http” page.)