Social Media and Its Place in Journalism

Nearly 72 percent of all Internet users use Facebook. Twitter boasts over 190 million users. With statistics like that, it is no wonder journalists are jumping on the social media bandwagon in the attempt to provide news when and how consumers want it.

Journalists use social media in many of the same ways as consumers, to find stories, gather information, and publish content. Often, journalists find leads for a story on their Facebook homepage or Twitter feed. What you post as your status update or tweet into cyber space could be the next big story. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are also helpful to journalists in finding contacts. Just like you may Facebook stalk that kid who sits two rows in front of you in 8:00am anthropology; journalists too use social media to find potential sources for stories. Although journalists may use social media in many of the same ways a typical consumer would, their use is measured according to the journalistic standard.

Social media has many potential uses for journalists, but the question remains does using social media benefit or hurt journalism. One common argument concerning social media use among journalist is that it dissuades journalists from doing actual footwork.  If social media is used in such a manner, the quality of journalistic content will decrease dramatically. Social media may be a good place to start, but every bit of information collected from a social media site should be verified by some alternative source. It has been said that social media does not tell you what to believe, but it tells you what to look for. I think this should be the credo of all journalists who utilize social media.

The numbers of social media sites will continue to grow effect the way journalists collect and present news.  As a journalist, the key is to incorporate the use of social media while not straying from the fundamentals of journalism.

Weebly and the Web

These days, its not enough to just have an impressive paper resume. You also have to have an online portfolio. Something that, until today, I had not even thought of.

To be honest, until this semester I had never really given much thought to my online presence. Sure, I have a Facebook that I post to…occasionally. I also had every intention of building my own YouTube channel to showcase my work. Unfortunately, all these good intentions never really amounted to anything. But as I prepare to enter the professional world of broadcast journalism, it is time for me to get serious about multimedia and use it to find a job and succeed in the industry.

In that spirit, I learned how to build my own website using the web editor Weeebly. According to my professor and the College of Communications IT guru, Weebly is practically idiot proof. Anyone, they said, could build a website using Weebly. Well, clearly they didn’t know me as well as they thought. I have a terrible track record with technology. The thought of building my own website, no matter how easy, scared me. I want my website to look professional and showcase my skills well. My fear was that not being trained in website design, my website would one, turn out looking like a hot mess and two, look like every other website managed by a high school student.  

After playing with Weebly for about an hour, I finally had a template selected and was starting to personalize my site. But then came the even bigger question, what do I put on a portfolio website and how do I organize it? I have an anal-retentive personality, type A all the way. So if something is not perfect, like my website, I stress about it. After a lengthy chat with my professor I finally developed a system of organization that I think will work for me, a new page for every resume element.

As I organized my resume to fit the web, I began to get alarmed again. Advisers, professors, and professionals always tell you to keep the length of your resume down to a page, but a page translated on to a website is next to nothing. The emptiness of my online portfolio made me feel like I had just spent the last four years of my life doing nothing. Even though I know this is not true, I am still going to feel much better when I get links to video packages I have made up on my site.

Even though my online portfolio will never be complete, as I continue to build on and add to it, at least I have a small start. Looking forward, my goal is to have my website up by January so that I have an online resume by the time I start looking for jobs later this year.

Journalism's Supermen and Women

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! Well, kind of.

The backpack or multimedia journalist is the superman, or woman, of modern journalism.

Backpack journalists do it all. They are their own producers, photographers, reporters, and editors. Carrying and operating all their own equipment, developing their own stories, gathering all story components, and editing everything together to produce a cohesive whole.

Backpack journalism first appeared in the 1990’s and, thanks to its efficiency and low cost, is becoming ever more prevalent in today’s journalism. So much so, that the majority of news sources, including national news sources, now employ at least one superman or woman journalist. Becky Diamond, formerly of CNN and MSNBC, Travis Fox, of the Washington Post, Preston Mendenhall, of MSNBC, and Kevin Sites, of Yahoo News are all multimedia journalists. The content they produce as a one-man, or one-woman, band is undistinguishable from content produced by the traditional team.

Backpack journalism is the future. And for those of us looking to enter into this field, backpack journalism is our future. It may mean more work, but it also means more creative control, being able to see a story through to the end. That, for me, is the best thing about this recent revolution. Knowing that a story is yours and that you produced it from beginning to end brings such a feeling of accomplishment. I know it is going to be rough, but I am so excited to begin my journey as a backpack journalist.

I hope you all will come along with me. 

Update

Work on the final project for my journalism class has officially begun. Last week, we were divided into groups and chose topics. This week we set the schedule, wrote a project proposal, and began our research.

Before I get into the details of the group’s progress this week, a brief recap of the project is necessary. The goal of the project is to create three multimedia stories relating the topic of immigration in the Milwaukee neighborhood of Clarke Square.

We selected Clarke Square as the location for our stories due to the large Hispanic population in that area. 

Each group member has their own specific story based on the topic of immigration that they will be developing over the next seven weeks. Group member Colleen Herrmann’s story will be a narrative. For her story, she plans to follow a child of immigrants whose parent(s) are illegal immigrants who either have been or are at risk of being deported. Group member Andrew Phillips will be working on a story about the educational opportunities for immigrants in the city of Milwaukee. Finally, I will also be working on a narrative, following one person on their journey toward becoming a U.S. Citizen.

Once we had our potential stories hammered out, the footwork began, contacting people and organizations that could be potential resources. The group contacted a number of organizations in Milwaukee, including Journey House, the International Institute of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Latino Community Center. So far, we have heard back only from Journey House. Their response was definitely positive and they expressed extreme interest in working with us on this project. The group is very excited to start working with them and the community they serve to develop a better understanding of immigration and how it impacts individuals in our own back yard.

My only fears, at this point of the project, are one, that people will not be willing to open up to us about their experiences, especially on camera, and two that I will be at a disadvantage not knowing Spanish. My hope is that by working intimately with the organizations mentioned above, our group will be able to develop contacts and build relationships with members of the community who have been affected by immigration.

That is it for this weeks update. I look forward to sharing our progress with you again next week.