I have always been intrigued by the issue of journalists’ transparency,
especially when it comes to social media. Being a journalism student, I
feel like it’s unethical to ask journalists to hide political
affiliations and opinions just to ensure neutrality.
It makes me feel like by becoming a journalist, you have to agree to have the right of free expression taken away. I feel like it’s wrong to force journalists to keep part of themselves secret. That’s why I’m a big supporter of journalists being transparent. I would rather know what potential biases a reporter has so I can take them into account while reading his or her article. Because of this issue, I decided to study Twitter for my online community. More specifically I looked at how New York Times reporters use Twitter. I wanted to find out if they use it for social or professional purposes and if they were using the site to its fullest potential. I also looked at how transparency affects what reporters tweet.
Before I started researching, I was very against journalists using social media, with the exception of professional sites, such as LinkedIn. Even though I think journalists should be transparent, that’s not the norm for our society. I thought that reporters using social media would only lead to situations in which journalists would divulge too much information and be reprimanded professionally or lose credibility from the public. However, now I see that if used in the right way, social media can be a phenomenal resource for reporters and can serve as a means to help journalists produce higher quality pieces.
Twitter Potential & The New York Times
The social media Web site Twitter is a micro-blog that asks users to answer the question “what are you doing?” in under 140 characters. While the site allows users to post anything on their mind, it is much more than what someone ate for breakfast or where they went out last night. Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has done amazing things for journalism. According to Alana Taylor, author of PBS’s MediaShift blog, Twitter allows journalists to transform with the new digital age and develop an innovative system of reporting.
“In the past, journalists were confined to their words and research methods, all dictated by traditional routines. Now they can create new strategies, use different tools, brand themselves differently, and propose new ideas. Twitter has given them hope and direction to do this because it has given them a public forum in which to loudly speak their ideas. Twitter is hope for the future. It is promise of change. Twitter is journalism’s Obama.”
In 2008, Twitter became a source of breaking news for major events, such as the Hudson River plane crash and the massacre in Mumbai (Posetti, 2009). It’s a great tool for both professional and citizen journalists, and really for anyone in the media industry. Twitter is not only an outlet to inform others of important events and interesting articles, it is a resource to find sources and information and to connect with readers. Twitter is a space that allows users to connect with complete strangers more so than any other social media site. According to NYT Media Reporter Brian Stelter, he uses Twitter to read news, share stories, find sources and story ideas, ask readers questions and keep in touch with friends, while he uses sites like Facebook for interaction with “real-world friends” (Brian Stelter, Personal Communication, May 4, 2009).
From what I have observed, NYT journalists mostly use Twitter to promote their articles. The NYT itself has a Twitter account. Through this account, Twitter is almost an alternative to an RSS feed, with tweets of headlines and article links coming shortly after the article is posted to the NYT’s Web site. Reporters and editors use their individual Twitter accounts to share interesting news articles, or more often to promote their own pieces. NYT’s Investigative Reporter Don Van Natta Jr tweets: “A must-read: Raising Bill Gates in the WSJ. The importance of "the water incident." http://bit.ly/Owdhe” (Stelter, 2009). NYT City Room Editor Patrick LaForge promotes the “Talk to the Newsroom” blogs the city room puts together. “We added four more @CityRoom answers last night to Talk to the Newsroom about blog news decisions, tone, etc. http://bit.ly/3Mqti” (LaForge, 2009).
One of the biggest potentials I see for social media is the way reporters can take advantage of it to find sources. Through Twitter, journalists can publicize the specifications of the source they are looking for as opposed to making phone calls to friends, family or acquaintances to find a source that may not quite fit what they need. Sewell Chan, NYT city room bureau chief and reporter, used Twitter to find witnesses after an incident on April 30th. “Seeking any eyewitnesses to Lower Manhattan building collapse http://bit.ly/vnPw2” (Chan, 2009).
Twitter will also allow journalists to cover niche topics better because they will be able to find relevant sources and information by using keywords and hashtags, which organize search results. Because of the vastness of the Internet and the segregation that occurs in online communities, reporters can research niche topics very easily. Along with niche topics, reporters can use their Twitters as a medium for their beats. Stelter frequently posts articles and information related to his beat: media. This can be useful for readers who are interested in a specific topic. Instead of seeking out articles, they can follow a beat reporter, again similar to an RSS feed.
Through Twitter, journalists can quickly crowdsource information and get an idea of readers’ opinions. The amount of people journalists can reach through the Internet and social media is going to do amazing things for their ability to cover a story deeply and accurately, raising the quality of their reporting. With the scare over the swine flu pandemic LaForge asks followers, “Riding the subway less? Stocking up on Purell? How has #swineflu changed your habits? Answer here: http://bit.ly/TSPVS Please RT” (LaForge, 2009). Through this simple tweet, LaForge can get an idea of the behavioral effects of the pandemic without having to interview numerous citizens.
Apart from using social media for reporting purposes, Twitter provides an effective means to connect with the community. Before starting my research, I never thought of the potential Twitter had to connect readers with journalists, but it is a very valuable use of social media. The most obvious way journalists can connect to the community and still benefit their reporting is to use the community for story ideas. It’s basically the modern version of a tip line. Community members can contact journalists directly about issues or concerns instead of e-mailing an idea to the paper. Editors can also use Twitter to find bloggers or citizen journalists and bring their work into the paper. LaForge did this for the city room’s blog, “Hey NYC bloggers, anything cooking that needs a City Room link? We'll give you a shout out” (LaForge, 2009). This not only provides the paper with free news, it gives readers the sense that the paper cares about them and wants to help them get exposure.
Most importantly, as journalists connect to community members through social media, it will create a greater trust of reporters. “By being open and being transparent we have the opportunity to build trust with our readers,” said Mary Schumacher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s art and architecture critic (Schumacher, 2008). By learning about journalists through their tweets, the community will feel like they know reporters more personally and they will trust them more. Twitter helps readers connect with news reporters in particular because they have the opportunity to see the personality that they can’t show in their articles. They can add witty comments like Saul Hansell, NYT Bits blog editor, “#moonalice plan to save NY Times? Free bagel with each paper” or “I sneezed on the train in to Grand Central this morning -- and my entire train car froze in horror” from NYT Columnist Nicholas Kristof (Kristof, 2009). While these tweets aren’t newsworthy, they allow followers to get a sense of the personality behind the name.
Something that initially surprised me when studying NYT reporters was that they actually use Twitter to have conversations with readers. While in the past readers may have been able to contact reporters on more distant terms, now the community is able to talk with reporters in a casual, social way, creating a deeper connection. LaForge brought up this question to followers, “What's the best #Twitter app for iPhone? Seeking more features than Twitterific, Twinkle. Any of them have an easy retweet button?” (LaForge, 2009). He then responded with, “Followers' consensus re best iPhone app: Twitterfon or Tweetie. The first is free, uses standard RT syntax, so I'll try it first. Thanks all” (LaForge, 2009). Stelter embraces communication with readers, “Hello to 8000th follower, @apiary15, & to those who found me via NYMag. My feed's a mix of TV & media news/links/personal life. Q's welcome.” When I was trying to contact reporters, he was the only one to respond. Not only do journalists have conversations with readers, but they also tweet with other reporters. While typically, they would point out something another reporter would find interesting, Jim Schachter, NYT digital initiatives editor said to another reporter, “@thewrap Sharon: your reporting on this is lousy. I'm disappointed” (Schachter, 2009). Twitter can be a means for journalists to hold other journalists accountable for their writing and to give them feedback and tips for stories.
By following reporters’ Twitters, you can get perspective on the industry and insight into the reporting process. Kristof tweeted of the difficulty of reporting on a major outbreak: “Covering a potential pandemic is a tightrope walk. You must encourage concern but not panic, informing but not terrifying” (Kristof, 2009). LaForge gives readers insight into the editing process, “How we edit NYT's City Room blog. http://bit.ly/3Mqti” (LaForge, 2009), while Kristof shows the writing process, “Just finished Sunday's column, as our deadlines are Friday evenings. It's torture -- my topic, I mean, not the writing” (Kristof, 2009). Although readers may have previously questioned the way stories were covered, by learning the process they will understand why things are done the way they are.
While NYT reporters are doing some things right on Twitter, they could use some lessons. For instance,
Read More: smithj
Posted by: Craig Syms
Posted on: Contagious Ideas
It makes me feel like by becoming a journalist, you have to agree to have the right of free expression taken away. I feel like it’s wrong to force journalists to keep part of themselves secret. That’s why I’m a big supporter of journalists being transparent. I would rather know what potential biases a reporter has so I can take them into account while reading his or her article. Because of this issue, I decided to study Twitter for my online community. More specifically I looked at how New York Times reporters use Twitter. I wanted to find out if they use it for social or professional purposes and if they were using the site to its fullest potential. I also looked at how transparency affects what reporters tweet.
Before I started researching, I was very against journalists using social media, with the exception of professional sites, such as LinkedIn. Even though I think journalists should be transparent, that’s not the norm for our society. I thought that reporters using social media would only lead to situations in which journalists would divulge too much information and be reprimanded professionally or lose credibility from the public. However, now I see that if used in the right way, social media can be a phenomenal resource for reporters and can serve as a means to help journalists produce higher quality pieces.
Twitter Potential & The New York Times
The social media Web site Twitter is a micro-blog that asks users to answer the question “what are you doing?” in under 140 characters. While the site allows users to post anything on their mind, it is much more than what someone ate for breakfast or where they went out last night. Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has done amazing things for journalism. According to Alana Taylor, author of PBS’s MediaShift blog, Twitter allows journalists to transform with the new digital age and develop an innovative system of reporting.
“In the past, journalists were confined to their words and research methods, all dictated by traditional routines. Now they can create new strategies, use different tools, brand themselves differently, and propose new ideas. Twitter has given them hope and direction to do this because it has given them a public forum in which to loudly speak their ideas. Twitter is hope for the future. It is promise of change. Twitter is journalism’s Obama.”
In 2008, Twitter became a source of breaking news for major events, such as the Hudson River plane crash and the massacre in Mumbai (Posetti, 2009). It’s a great tool for both professional and citizen journalists, and really for anyone in the media industry. Twitter is not only an outlet to inform others of important events and interesting articles, it is a resource to find sources and information and to connect with readers. Twitter is a space that allows users to connect with complete strangers more so than any other social media site. According to NYT Media Reporter Brian Stelter, he uses Twitter to read news, share stories, find sources and story ideas, ask readers questions and keep in touch with friends, while he uses sites like Facebook for interaction with “real-world friends” (Brian Stelter, Personal Communication, May 4, 2009).
From what I have observed, NYT journalists mostly use Twitter to promote their articles. The NYT itself has a Twitter account. Through this account, Twitter is almost an alternative to an RSS feed, with tweets of headlines and article links coming shortly after the article is posted to the NYT’s Web site. Reporters and editors use their individual Twitter accounts to share interesting news articles, or more often to promote their own pieces. NYT’s Investigative Reporter Don Van Natta Jr tweets: “A must-read: Raising Bill Gates in the WSJ. The importance of "the water incident." http://bit.ly/Owdhe” (Stelter, 2009). NYT City Room Editor Patrick LaForge promotes the “Talk to the Newsroom” blogs the city room puts together. “We added four more @CityRoom answers last night to Talk to the Newsroom about blog news decisions, tone, etc. http://bit.ly/3Mqti” (LaForge, 2009).
One of the biggest potentials I see for social media is the way reporters can take advantage of it to find sources. Through Twitter, journalists can publicize the specifications of the source they are looking for as opposed to making phone calls to friends, family or acquaintances to find a source that may not quite fit what they need. Sewell Chan, NYT city room bureau chief and reporter, used Twitter to find witnesses after an incident on April 30th. “Seeking any eyewitnesses to Lower Manhattan building collapse http://bit.ly/vnPw2” (Chan, 2009).
Twitter will also allow journalists to cover niche topics better because they will be able to find relevant sources and information by using keywords and hashtags, which organize search results. Because of the vastness of the Internet and the segregation that occurs in online communities, reporters can research niche topics very easily. Along with niche topics, reporters can use their Twitters as a medium for their beats. Stelter frequently posts articles and information related to his beat: media. This can be useful for readers who are interested in a specific topic. Instead of seeking out articles, they can follow a beat reporter, again similar to an RSS feed.
Through Twitter, journalists can quickly crowdsource information and get an idea of readers’ opinions. The amount of people journalists can reach through the Internet and social media is going to do amazing things for their ability to cover a story deeply and accurately, raising the quality of their reporting. With the scare over the swine flu pandemic LaForge asks followers, “Riding the subway less? Stocking up on Purell? How has #swineflu changed your habits? Answer here: http://bit.ly/TSPVS Please RT” (LaForge, 2009). Through this simple tweet, LaForge can get an idea of the behavioral effects of the pandemic without having to interview numerous citizens.
Apart from using social media for reporting purposes, Twitter provides an effective means to connect with the community. Before starting my research, I never thought of the potential Twitter had to connect readers with journalists, but it is a very valuable use of social media. The most obvious way journalists can connect to the community and still benefit their reporting is to use the community for story ideas. It’s basically the modern version of a tip line. Community members can contact journalists directly about issues or concerns instead of e-mailing an idea to the paper. Editors can also use Twitter to find bloggers or citizen journalists and bring their work into the paper. LaForge did this for the city room’s blog, “Hey NYC bloggers, anything cooking that needs a City Room link? We'll give you a shout out” (LaForge, 2009). This not only provides the paper with free news, it gives readers the sense that the paper cares about them and wants to help them get exposure.
Most importantly, as journalists connect to community members through social media, it will create a greater trust of reporters. “By being open and being transparent we have the opportunity to build trust with our readers,” said Mary Schumacher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s art and architecture critic (Schumacher, 2008). By learning about journalists through their tweets, the community will feel like they know reporters more personally and they will trust them more. Twitter helps readers connect with news reporters in particular because they have the opportunity to see the personality that they can’t show in their articles. They can add witty comments like Saul Hansell, NYT Bits blog editor, “#moonalice plan to save NY Times? Free bagel with each paper” or “I sneezed on the train in to Grand Central this morning -- and my entire train car froze in horror” from NYT Columnist Nicholas Kristof (Kristof, 2009). While these tweets aren’t newsworthy, they allow followers to get a sense of the personality behind the name.
Something that initially surprised me when studying NYT reporters was that they actually use Twitter to have conversations with readers. While in the past readers may have been able to contact reporters on more distant terms, now the community is able to talk with reporters in a casual, social way, creating a deeper connection. LaForge brought up this question to followers, “What's the best #Twitter app for iPhone? Seeking more features than Twitterific, Twinkle. Any of them have an easy retweet button?” (LaForge, 2009). He then responded with, “Followers' consensus re best iPhone app: Twitterfon or Tweetie. The first is free, uses standard RT syntax, so I'll try it first. Thanks all” (LaForge, 2009). Stelter embraces communication with readers, “Hello to 8000th follower, @apiary15, & to those who found me via NYMag. My feed's a mix of TV & media news/links/personal life. Q's welcome.” When I was trying to contact reporters, he was the only one to respond. Not only do journalists have conversations with readers, but they also tweet with other reporters. While typically, they would point out something another reporter would find interesting, Jim Schachter, NYT digital initiatives editor said to another reporter, “@thewrap Sharon: your reporting on this is lousy. I'm disappointed” (Schachter, 2009). Twitter can be a means for journalists to hold other journalists accountable for their writing and to give them feedback and tips for stories.
By following reporters’ Twitters, you can get perspective on the industry and insight into the reporting process. Kristof tweeted of the difficulty of reporting on a major outbreak: “Covering a potential pandemic is a tightrope walk. You must encourage concern but not panic, informing but not terrifying” (Kristof, 2009). LaForge gives readers insight into the editing process, “How we edit NYT's City Room blog. http://bit.ly/3Mqti” (LaForge, 2009), while Kristof shows the writing process, “Just finished Sunday's column, as our deadlines are Friday evenings. It's torture -- my topic, I mean, not the writing” (Kristof, 2009). Although readers may have previously questioned the way stories were covered, by learning the process they will understand why things are done the way they are.
While NYT reporters are doing some things right on Twitter, they could use some lessons. For instance,
Read More: smithj
Posted by: Craig Syms
Posted on: Contagious Ideas
