Great news coming out of the Associated Press in the form of updates to its AP Stylebook (the grammar, definitions, usage cases and rules bible for journalist and PR folks) regarding new guidelines for social media. After about 10+ years of getting it wrong — yes AP had it wrong — “website” is now one word!
Another great (but very old now) technology style guide is Wired Style: Principals of English Usage in the Digital Age (published 1996). It’s a great read if you can get your hands on one.
One interesting observation for AP: is a website really “social media”?
To read about the 41 other new social media guidelines check out the article below from Mashable or simply visit: http://mashable.com/2010/06/02/ap-social-media-guidelines/.
Source: Mashable
AP Stylebook Adds 42 New Guidelines for Social Media
The AP Stylebook has released its new social media guidelines, including the official change from “Web site” to “website” (a move first reported back in April) and 41 other definitions, use cases and rules that journalists should follow.
Among the more interesting changes –- at least from a grammar and style standpoint –- are separating out “smart phone” as two words, hyphenating “e-reader,” and allowing fan, friend and follow to be used both as nouns and verbs.
Beyond that, the AP has also defined a number of acronyms that are commonly used in texting and instant messaging. While most of them should be fairly well-known to regular web and mobile phone users (ROFL, BRB and G2G are among the definitions) one actually was new to me: POS.
According to the AP, this stands for “parent over shoulder” (I’ve used POS to refer to something else occasionally, but I digress), and is used by “teens and children to indicate, in an IM conversation, that a parent is approaching.” Elsewhere, other terms making the cut include “trending,” “retweet” and “unfriend” (“defriend” is also acceptable, though the AP concludes it’s less common).
Finally, the AP also offers some basic rules of thumb for how social media should and shouldn’t be used by journalists, with a focus on making sure they continue to confirm sources and information they find on blogs, tweets and other forms of social media.
The full 2010 AP Stylebook, which includes the new social media guidelines, was released today and is available on the AP’s website.
