Odd Pluto Social Media Policy at SwRI
Keith’s note: The use of social media during the recent Pluto encounter has been widely hailed. That said, Southwest Research Institute Public affairs continues with its slightly strange media policy – in this case by blocking @NASAWatch from following @NewHorizons2015 on Twitter. Despite the recent “personal” label on this Twitter account, this account is used by a SWRI employee for NASA-funded work-related news and has been mentioned in official SWRI, JHUAPL, and NASA communications for years. You’d think that SWRI would want the biggest audience available – and a retweet by @NASAWatch could add 59,000 Twitter impressions. With all this bragging (justifiably) by NASA PAO about their social media prowess, this effort by SWRI is odd to say the least. I asked SWRI about this several times and they have declined to respond.
According to the Twitter profile @NewHorizons2015 is ” Alan Stern’s Private New Horizons Twitter Feed”. Maybe, just maybe he doesn’t like NASA Watch or Keith? It does happen, you know 😉
Stern has that position at SWRI only because a huge sum of taxpayer funding has been given to his organization. To specifically single out a media outlet and deny them the access that all other media are afforded is unprofessional in the extreme. The @NewHorizons2015 Twitter account is regularly referenced by SWRI, NASA, JHUAPL and other New Horizons mission participants in official media releases and on official websites.