#bbcsms: Whose side are we on?

"I don't take sides, I take pictures," Nick Nolte declared memorably in the 1983 film Under Fire, in which he played a photojournalist covering the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua.

For me, the question of journalistic objectivity in the social media age is one of the most interesting issues to emerge from last week's Social Media Summit. Can we reach out to audiences and still maintain our neutrality? And does engaging the audience as part of the newsgathering process require us to take on some responsibility for their welfare?

Esra Dogramaci from Al Jazeera explained that she and her colleagues were seeking to "amplify" the conversation taking place in the social media sphere. Al Jazeera, she said, was seeking to give a "voice to the voiceless" by distributing Flip video cameras to members of the audience and by educating people about how to use social media.

As protestors demand change and topple regimes across the Middle East and North Africa, Esra Dogramaci aligned Al Jazeera very clearly with those taking to the streets in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere.

"If you're asking what side Al Jazeera is on... it's on the side of the people," she said.

Of course, the belief that journalists should not always sit on the fence isn't new. Martin Bell advocated the need for a "journalism of attachment" with a moral obligation to distinguish between "good" and "evil". But if we choose to take the side of "the people" are we journalists, activists or both?

Some of the most powerful footage to emerge during the 'Arab Spring' has been user-generated - and, as Alex Murray has explained, the UGC team at the BBC has developed rigorous checks to verify the contributions it receives.

But if we're relying on our viewers, listeners and readers to provide us with information from places we can't get to ourselves, do they become, in effect, our 'correspondents'? Are they deserving of the same duty of care as an employee, and is it enough to simply say that 'at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws'?

When I was seriously injured in Iraq, I was protected under my terms of service as a BBC employee. But what if I had been a 'citizen journalist' using a video camera given to me by a news organisation? Would I have been regarded as a journalist or just another citizen - and who would have paid my medical bills?

If we're seeking to establish a new relationship with our audiences through social media, do we need to establish a new covenant with them as well?

Stuart Hughes is a BBC World Affairs producer.