Favoriting ≠ endorsement

A Poynter report on the Associated Press updated social media policy highlights an exchange on Twitter that addresses its position on retweeting.

“The update to the policy resparked a debate about the AP’s restrictions on retweeting information. The policy says staffers should go out of their way when constructing each retweet to make it clear they’re not expressing a personal opinion or endorsement.

“AP Social Media Editor Eric Carvin got a lot of questions on Twitter about the retweet policy from counterparts at Reuters (Anthony De Rosa), NPR (Eric’s brother, Andy Carvin), and The Wall Street Journal (Neal Mann).” 

The dialogue is curated via Storify in the Poynter report and represents an ongoing issue in digital journalism. Does retweeting constitute an endorsement?

I admit I prefer Digital First Media social guidelines as expressed by CEO John Paton.

My personal practice for my Twitter account bio is to identify what is important to me. People who choose to follow me will know what I am about.

But in the spirit of the debate and re-debate of the AP retweeting policy, I would like to address a practice that can similarly be misunderstood. I wish to be on the record and state that “favoriting” is not an endorsement.

I use “favorite” to bookmark links or posts so that I can refer to them later: whether to read and possibly blog about, maybe to Storify or simply to ponder at length.

By “favoriting” your link to your latest blog entry, I am in no way implying that I agree with you. If I consider what you have to say worth sharing, I might blog or retweet the link but even then I may not agree with you.