Risks & Looking to The Future…

I came across an interesting article in Editor & Publisher that looks at some of the potential “pitfalls” of social media use for newspapers, which include taking private or copyrighted materials off of a Facebook page for use in a story and twittering opinions or misinformation.  In the article, editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer Bill Marimow credits social media with providing “a lot of insight,” but says, “The main problem is verification.  You have to make sure it is the truth.”

Good advice!  In terms of the future, here is an interesting quote from Gannett newspaper executive Michael Maness, “The future of content is conversation.”

Thanks for engaging in this conversation with me.  It will be fascinating to see what the integration of newspapers and social media looks like ten years from now!  Any guesses?

Asahi Shimbun & Japan’s Social Media Use

A recent article in The New York Times that revealed only 2 percent of the Japanese online use Facebook, compared to 60 percent of Americans online, led me to wonder about how Japanese newspapers are using social media.

To find out I spoke to Daisuke Nakai, a staff writer for the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.  Nakai said the newspaper is using Twitter to a wide extent, and their main Twitter account twitter.com/#!asahi has about 400,000 followers.

Twitter is the only social media platform the newspaper is using, Nakai said. Although the social networking platform Mixi is also quite popular in Japan,and has some features similar to Facebook, it is not being utilized by newspapers, he said.

“In Mixi real identities are not used…As  a general rule, the Japanese population seems to be more resistant than people living in other countries to let others know about their private lives, so I don’t know if Facebook will catch on,” he said.

Regarding the future of social media and newspapers in Japan, Nakai said, “I think that social media will become a more important tool in reporting the news, whether it means reaching out to readers for information, or readers connecting with each other.”

Did You Picture This? Citizen Photojournalism

When a Boston Globe reporter wanted to illustrate a story he was doing on a tech conference,  he jumped on the photo-sharing social media platform Flickr, got permission from the shooters and ran their photos in a strip like a contact sheet, according to an Online Journalism Review article entitled “Flickr, Buzznet expand citizens’ role in visual journalism.”  The article surmises that photo-sharing platforms such as Flickr and Buzznet may be giving us a glimpse of a “global photo album” of the future that newspapers could tap into to help illustrate stories or capture breaking news when staff photographers are not on the scene.

In France, a small, young company based in Paris called Citizenside is hoping that citizen photojournalism may be a wave of the future.  Through its 35,000 member community, the company gathers photos, checks their validity and then offers them to media outlets for purchase (75 percent of the money goes to the contributor), according to an article in the EditorsWeblog.  Photos from these “news witnesses” have appeared on the cover of the French daily Liberation, and in Le Point magazine and Le Figaro.

I suppose this is new incentive to carry a camera (or have a good camera on your phone)…Who knows when you might be in the middle of breaking news!

USA Today’s Social Media Use

As the newspaper in the United States with the largest daily print circulation at 3.3 million, I wanted to take a look at USA Today and its social media use.  So I interviewed Glenna De Roy earlier today who is a social media analyst for the newspaper.

DeRoy said USA Today views social media as an important part of  the paper’s future.  “We’re putting a lot of emphasis on strategy,” she said. “Working with journalists to integrate social media into their reporting and analyzing how well we’re doing.  The goal is to branch out and try new things,” she said, citing new partnerships with Foursquare and Gowalla, location based social networking platforms where users can check in at various venues and receive points, badges, or in the case of the latter the possibility of items from the venues where the user has checked in.

“This was an opportunity to repurpose some of our columns,” she said citing the popular “Ten Recommended Destinations” column.

DeRoy said USA Today is also successfully utilizing the relatively more traditional social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.  On Facebook, the newspaper has nearly 50,000 fans and specialized pages for travel and sports in addition to the main Facebook page.

She called Twitter use heavy, with more than 100 reporters on Twitter and 39 branded Twitter accounts.  “The reporters seem to be getting a lot out of it,” she said.  “Getting content in front of readers and asking questions of Twitter followers which is then incorporated into blog posts.”

In terms of blogs, USA Today has 24 on a variety of topics including On Deadline, a breaking news blog that is connected to Twitter, and Lifeline Live, a popular entertainment blog.

The newspaper has also set up a Social Media Lounge, a place to connect with others managing social media for the purpose of sharing.

“Regardless of the platform, the main concept that people will be reading the news and sharing with their friends will be around forever,” she said.  “If you want to remain relevant, you need to be where these people are.”

I would call these efforts innovative, without a doubt!  What do you think?

Newspaper Reinvention (Take 2) – Cleveland Plain Dealer

Regional newspapers, such as the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the US state of Ohio, are using social media platforms to increase their appeal.  The Plain Dealer website (cleveland.com) includes a section to “Get News Your Way,” with tabs to click to get news  on a mobile device, follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, as well as a “Your Photos” and “Your Videos” section for readers’ images and video clips related to Cleveland.  In addition to hosting blogs by the newspapers’ reporters, the site also invites readers to “become a cleveland.com blogger” by contributing and getting published.  Blog news, tips and advice are included on the site.

According to Lisa Griffis, assistant design director/business for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, these efforts are proving successful. “Advance websites, our parent company, grew faster than any other online news organization last year,” Griffis said.

“Cleveland.com has around 1.2 million views per day with 250,000 people visiting the site and 5 page hits per visitor…We have one person at cleveland.com whose job entails monitoring our traffic on social media sites.  We also have one person who spends a great deal of time monitoring the comment boards,” she said. “Cleveland.com is the most visited site in the Cleveland area.”

I say not a bad reinvention in progress!  What do you think?

Traditional Media Coverage of Tunisian Protests Critiqued Via Blogs

It’s interesting to read that bloggers are critiquing newspaper and other traditional media coverage of the protests in Tunisia, finding that it falls short.  This I suppose acts as a kind of cyber letter to the editor for newspapers in general.  It’s also noteworthy for this blog that these protests seem to be fueled by social media, the power of which is evident with today’s development that the Tunisian leader has fled.  On the right, a cartoon by Mike Stern, which appeared on the Committee to Protect Journalists website.

Social Media & The Ombudsman – An Interview With Andy Alexander of The Washington Post

So, how has social media impacted the role of the newspaper ombudsman?  To find out, I asked Andy Alexander, ombudsman for The Washington Post.  Here’s what he had to say:

“In a nutshell, The Post’s expansion of social media platforms has significantly impacted my job as ombudsman.  First, as you mentioned, it’s provided many additional avenues for Post readers to interact with me, as well as Post journalists.  But beyond that, the expansion has meant that Post readers simply have much more to react to.  When I began as ombudsman in early 2009, the vast majority of reader reaction was to content that appeared in the printed Post (and was then replicated on its Website).  Now, I hear constantly from readers who are reacting to Post blogs, Tweets, videos or photo galleries,” he said.

“This expansion of social media also has raised many more ethical issues for me to write about.  For example, I’ve written about Post editors and reporters who unwisely Tweeted personal opinions.  I wrote an entire column about one of The Post’s premier sports columnists who foolishly decided to Tweet a known falsehood to see if other media would pick up on his fabrication (unfortunately, they did).  I’ve also written about standards for verifying aggregated material on The Post’s Website, as well as problems with correcting errors online.  My two-year term as ombudsman ends late this month.  I suspect if you put this question to my successor in a few years, he or she will tell you that the ombudsman reacts to social media content much more than what appears in the printed Post.  It’s changing that fast.”

Citizen Journalists Make Headlines/Take 2

Another unusual citizen journalist created story made international headlines this fall after a Chinese woman was forced to have an abortion a month before her baby was due, due to China’s one child policy.  Her distraught husband posted a blog about the experience and newspapers around the world, ranging from the Belfast Telegraph to the Washington Times, ran the story. During natural disasters also citizen journalists, through the use of social media platforms, are playing an ever increasing role.

Citizen Journalists Make Headlines

Citizen journalists are using social media platforms in relatively “closed” societies such as Iran and China to supply information to the outside world.  During the 2009 protests in Iran, people used cell phones and Twitter to document the unrest.  These messages and images were picked up and published by newspapers around the world,  leading to “the biggest embrace yet of a collaborative new style of news gathering – one that combines the contributions of ordinary citizens with the reports and analysis of journalists,” according to a New York Times article.

How do you feel about this expanded role of ordinary people in closed societies?  Is this a positive direction for journalism?

Reinvention Experiment (Take 1)

My professor forwarded a thought-provoking article from The New York Times, which highlights a newspaper reinvention experiment going on in a small town in the US state of Connecticut.  The paper, The Register Citizen, is attempting to thrive financially by removing the barriers between journalists and the public.  Changes include inviting the public to participate in story meetings, providing a space for community bloggers in the newsroom,  and hosting courses on blogging and journalism.

It will be fascinating to see if this type of effort succeeds!  Is your local newspaper doing anything innovative along these lines? Do you think these efforts will help?