facebook - Should you 'friend' a person you cover?

OK, I appreciate the education as to the differences between MySpace and Facebook, but maybe I should've been more specific.

What I was really looking for was an elaboration on FarmerJerome's assertion that friending (there's that non-verb verb again) on Facebook was OK, but MySpace not so much. The post I quoted from Cosmo looks like it's in the ballpark of what I'm after, but again, I'm curious to know why one and not the other.

 

I think partially is that for awhile, Facebook was a college-only site, while MySpace housed younger users. The age gap held for awhile, but then FB opened to everyone, and many people migrated to the cleaner/easier to use FB.

 

Bet you're a hoot at parties.

 

I don't host parties on Facebook with high school kids. What's your point?

 

I wish I did.

And sure, do it. You'd pass up a chance to Superpoke Jennie Fitch?

 

dooley has just thrown a cucumber at jennie_finch

 

A lot of salads to be made, trust me.

 

He corrected my rolodex into Rolodex, I believe. Either that, or I just got a compliment from Mike Harris and took it completely the wrong way.

 

Generally I only friend the athletes/sources I know personally. That said, I have no trouble contacting athletes I don't know through Facebook messaging, it's simply the easiest way to contact a lot of people. I'd imagine it's different in the pros, but if you're reporting on amateur sports in particular it's a lifeline.

And I'd guess as many athletes I know initiated the Facebook contact, which works for me, I have nothing on there to hide. You do get a few scoops out of their pages, but in my experience, I haven't found anything extremely out of the ordinary that most youth wouldn't be doing on their pages.

Outside the media, I have worked as an administrator in one sport and coached another and I always try to make it clear to the players I work with the consequences of posting information on social networking if they aren't careful.

 

Absolutely. I friend any athlete I cover. Why? Because when I need to do an end around the PR flacks and SIDs, you just send them a facebook email.

I got a second round NFL draft pick to give me a call several times using this. If you don't friend, know who is on facebook.

This is a journalism tool. Let's exploit it.