By James Pharand (CAW Local 599) and Gary Griffis (CAW Local 4534)
November 14, 2009
The CAW’s 12th annual communications conference in Port Elgin, Ontario finished up on November 15th 2009. This year’s focus was on social media and Web 2.0. Offerings included writing, podcasting, photography, and webpage design. Out of all the offerings little interest was expressed by the members on the basic writing. This leads to the question will the CAW abandon structured news reporting for the read and write mentality of web 2.0 and will this have an effect on factual information being reported to members.
In basic writing the members learned about the importance of having a structured style of reporting local union news, which can be published without fear of lawsuits towards the CAW. For many years these have been standards the local union editors has used to get information out to members.
With Web 2.0 members can post information freely and debate their feelings on matters affecting the CAW. This raises the question, should users be held accountable for posting misinformation or offensive comments? Audra Williams, a Web 2.0 expert, said “Users should use a screen name and not be anonymous which can be quite toxic and they should also follow the website policy on posting comments.”
Many of the comments and offerings coming off of social webpage’s are based on articles posted from standard news reporting. But as the web becomes more involved in day-to-day living will the union be able to maintain a strong and unified voice on key issues, especially at a time when so many different and anonymous views being expressed on Web 2.0? Perhaps only time or the blogs will be able to decide, said John McClyment, CAW national staff representative.
