The 2010 AP Stylebook is out and social media have gained greater recognition in this edition with its own section. The new Social Media Guidelines section includes information and policies on using tools like Facebook and Twitter, how journalists can apply them to their work and how to verify sources found through them. Also included are 42 separate entries on such terms as app, blogs, click-throughs, friend and unfriend, metadata, RSS, search engine optimization, smart phone, trending, widget and wiki. AP also changed ”Web site ” to “website” based on increasingly common usage both in print and online.
In print, and as the Web-based Stylebook Online, the AP Stylebook is the essential tool for writers, editors, students and public relations specialists. It inspires such a following that Facebook includes four separate groups called “The AP Stylebook is my Bible” and has spawned a popular parody Twitter account. The official Twitter account for the AP Stylebook, http://twitter.com/APStylebook, has more than 44,000 followers.
