Social media and news How social media is affecting the business and practice of journalism • Drivers for change • Journalistic examples • Challenges and research questions @nicnewman April 2012
Journalist with radio, TV and online 10 years developing new digital products for BBC News, BBC Sport Visiting Fellow Reuters Institute writing on new technology and the future of journalism + Senior Research Fellow at City University
London riots – organising riots
LONDON RIOTS
London riots – tracking riots
London riots – news comes to me
London riots – solidarity of response
Age of the active citizen “ The Mass Media revolution 50 years ago delivered the world to our TVs, but it was a one-way trip – all we could do was press our nose against the glass and watch. In contrast, Personal Media is two-way trip and we not only can, but also expect to be able to answer back . ” Paul Saffo futurologist
Changing dynamics • Rise of personal media • Growth of tools to publish and share
Personal + social = disruption
Key questions • What is the role of journalists? • How are traditional media organisations adapting? • Is this affecting the quality of information? • How does social media affect diversity?
Journalistic response
Why journalists care about social media • Telling better stories –using collective intelligence to improve journalism • Building engaged communities – to drive loyalty and repeat usage • Distributing content – using networks to market articles, videos etc
News as conversation “ If you can open your site up, and allow other voices in, you get something that ’ s more engaged, more involved – and actually, I think, journalistically better. ” Alan Rusbridger, Editor Guardian
Networked journalism and live blogs
BBC – User Generated Hub Key Problem: How to surface the best comments, videos and pictures from a variety of sources in real time and then how to verify them.
How reliable is news in social networks? From: New York Times photoblog
How reliable is news in social networks? “ The Web 2.0 revolution has peddled the promise of bringing more truth to more people, but every week a new revelation calls into question the accuracy reliability and trust of the information we get from the internet ” Andrew Keen ‘ The Cult of the Amateur ’
How representative is news in social networks? 15X bigger Very active users 52% users produce most 7% produce 80% of content content Active focussed on news News is sideshow
Case studies: Nick Kristof New York Times Key Problem: How to quickly surface the best comments and work out which ones are worth investigating further.
Case studies: Jemima Kiss – technology reporter Key Problem: Use ‘brains trust’ to help source and validate stories – how to go beyond Twitter and media types like video
Case studies: Sky News - Neal Mann Key Problem: How to identify quickly the key influencers on any particular story, so they can get inside information or interview them for their news outlets.
Journalistic needs in summary • Alerts on breaking news (predicting news) • Ways of tracking trends (now and over time) • Ways of verifying information in social networks • Answers to specific questions about a story or suggestions for interviews • Reactions to their most recent article, TV or radio piece
Research challenges “Social media is transforming the way we do journalism” Liz Heron, New York Times” • How to manage the exploding nature of social media • How to effectively filter the content • How to verify content
THANK YOU Nic Newman nic.newman@gmail.com
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