Mobile and Social Media Journalism: A Practical Guide for Multimedia Journalism [2 ed.] 1032033304, 9781032033303

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MOBILE AND SOCIAL MEDIA JOURNALISM

Now in its second edition, Mobile and Social Media Journalism  continues to be an essential resource for learning how journalists and news organizations use mobile and social media to gather news, distribute content, and engage with audiences. Merging theory and practice, the book includes checklists and practical activities in every chapter, enabling readers to immediately build the mobile and social media skills that today’s journalists need and which news organizations expect. The second edition retains a focus on journalism’s core values, such as authentication, verifcation, and credibility, while guiding readers on how to apply them to digital media activities. The book also offers an in-depth discussion of the audience’s active role in producing content, how mobile devices and social media have changed the way the audience consumes news, and what these changes mean for journalists. Updated to address the latest trends in multimedia journalism, the second edition includes two new chapters: “Writing mobile-friendly web stories” and “The spread of fake news.” This is a valuable resource for journalism students, as well as media professionals seeking to update their skills. The book features a companion website at MobileandSocialMediaJournalism.com, providing online resources for students and lecturers, including video tutorials, industry news, and sample assignments.The book’s Twitter account (@MobileJourn) and Facebook page (fb.com/MobileandSocialMediaJournalism) share the latest industry trends and offer tips for teaching the topic. Anthony Adornato is a journalism professor at Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications in New York. Adornato’s teaching and research focus on the role of social media and mobile technology in journalism. In 2020, Adornato was named a Fulbright Scholar in recognition of his international expertise on the topic. Prior to working in academia, Adornato was  an anchor, reporter, and producer at television stations in New York. Connect with him on Twitter at @AnthonyAdornato.

“Every storyteller needs to understand the critical role that mobile and social media play in our ability to communicate with today’s audiences. This book offers specifc guidance on how to leverage the power of these unique platforms with a roadmap for developing the necessary skill sets. From thoughtful discussion of social media’s misinformation crisis to a rich exploration of the distinct writing styles needed to create high quality mobile content, Adornato’s text offers educators and practitioners a foundation for developing social media and mobile reporting skills.” Deb Wenger, Ph.D., Assistant Dean, School of Journalism and New Media, The University of Mississippi “With the second edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism, Professor Anthony Adornato has packed in even more punch than in the frst edition—with timely new chapters on misinformation and writing across digital platforms. Like the frst edition, the volume is readable, practical, and essential for anyone interested in the craft of journalism today. I cannot wait to assign it to my students.” Gina M. Masullo, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Media, The University of Texas at Austin “The two new chapters—on writing mobile-friendly and recognizing and combating fake news and disinformation—follow the format that makes this book so valuable: relevant and thoroughly researched information, clearly explained and accompanied by practical exercises and advice from journalists on the job. For those who consider themselves tech-challenged, fear not: Adornato is on top of the latest online tools and includes many step-by-step instructions and examples. Throughout the book, he also wisely emphasizes journalism standards while embracing new storytelling platforms. This book should be considered a ‘must-read’ for today’s newsrooms as well as classrooms.” Suzanne Lysak, Associate Professor, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Chapman University “I have been eagerly awaiting the second edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism for my social media journalism courses. My students consistently give feedback that they enjoy the blend of practical information with a solid theoretical foundation that Anthony Adornato provides. With this newly revised and updated volume, Adornato covers the basics of the mobile reporting skillset budding journalists need to successfully launch their careers. He also provides an in-depth look at how misinformation on social is impacting the industry and society. Importantly, he offers insight into the psychology of fake news and practical tips for how journalists can identify it.” Jill Hopke, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Journalism, College of Communication, DePaul University

“This book is enormously useful for anyone looking to gain the essential social media know-how that news organizations today demand. Adornato gives us more than just a practical guide by also offering the theoretical underpinnings that help us make sense of what the evolving media landscape means for the practice of journalism. The strategies outlined here go beyond when or what to post on which platform, and focus on approaches and fundamentals that can be applicable regardless of what new social platform might emerge tomorrow. The second edition is a must-have for courses wanting to combine journalistic principles with the latest emerging technologies.” Summer Harlow, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Journalism, Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston “At a time when impactful journalism is needed more than ever, the updated edition of Mobile and Social Media Journalism presents much-needed guidance aimed at combating misinformation, and simultaneously suggests new ways to build audience trust through innovation, creativity, and technology. It offers new approaches to time-tested strategies that provide journalists with the tools needed to craft engaging content for today’s consumers. In short, Anthony Adornato’s book is a blueprint for journalists both new and seasoned. It lays out the methods needed to meet the ever-changing demands of our industry and our audience.” Dante Mozie, Instructor of Journalism, South Carolina State University “A solid introduction to the real-world challenges and opportunities of social media, Mobile and Social Media Journalism mixes academic research with practical instruction from in-the-feld journalists and offers a lens into the fast-paced newsrooms of 21st century media. As mobile devices and social media continue to transform the ways in which audiences access news, this book is an essential resource for students as well as professionals looking to upskill.” Kelly Fincham, Director, Global Media program, National University of Ireland Galway “Before Anthony Adornato wrote his fabulous book, building a proper foundation for students in my mobile/social media course was like driving around to six hardware stores. Buy some planks here, some bags of cement mix there, some rebar for the footers somewhere else. Anthony brought all the crucial and essential elements of mobile-frst journalism into one place. It has become a must-have feld manual for my course. In the second edition, he explores even more deeply topics students need to understand more than ever: the fnancial sides of the news business and its ethical imperatives.” Rick Brunson, Senior Instructor of Journalism, University of Central Florida

“Mobile and Social Media Journalism is for anyone who wants to learn how to use mobile tools and techniques for storytelling. It is a smart, approachable guide that will help you pick up your phone and start telling powerful stories. Anthony’s managed to weave MOJO ideas together with practical tips that will help you go from the basics to professional practice. I use it to help students shape their stories, and I’ve also shared it with colleagues and working journalists looking to ramp up their social storytelling skills. This book has helped me to better understand what is possible, and it was fun to read. I really appreciate the way Anthony is able to both explain and inspire. The book is not just a ‘how-to guide’—it is a ‘what-is-possible guide.’ And the best thing is that Anthony trusts in the creativity of his readers to fgure out what to do next.” Kathryn Gretsinger, Associate Professor of Teaching, Journalism, The University of British Columbia

MOBILE AND SOCIAL MEDIA JOURNALISM

A Practical Guide for Multimedia Journalism Second Edition Anthony Adornato

Second edition published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Anthony Adornato The right of Anthony Adornato to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. First edition published by Sage 2017 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Adornato, Anthony, author. Title: Mobile and social media journalism : a practical guide for multimedia journalism / Anthony Adornato. Description: Second edition. | London ; New York : Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021001244 | ISBN 9781032033303 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367460969 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003186779 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Online journalism--Study and teaching (Higher)—United States. | Journalism--Study and teaching (Higher)--United States. | Social media--United States. | Mobile communication systems--United States. Classification: LCC PN4784.O62 A36 2021 | DDC 071/.3--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021001244 ISBN: 9781032033303 (hbk) ISBN: 9780367460969 (pbk) ISBN: 9781003186779 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779 Typeset in Joanna by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Access the companion website: MobileandSocialMediaJournalism.com Cover image: National Public Radio journalists conduct a Facebook Live about developing news (Photo courtesy of Bria Granville/NPR)

CONTENTS

Preface Acknowledgements 1

Forces at the gate: An active audience Technology and journalism Before social media: One-way communication Social media: Journalism as a conversation Changing role of the audience Who are the gatekeepers now? Content producers: The power of an active audience News consumption: Mobile and social Impact on journalists Newsgathering Distribution of news Audience engagement Checklist Beyond the book Class hashtag Stay informed Discussion

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Navigating change: The mobile-first newsroom Rebooting the newsroom Breaking down silos Financial and employment picture Power of social media providers and other tech giants Mobile-first mindset Adapting to a mobile audience: Evolving business models Newspaper Television Radio Digital-only Newsroom mobile and social media editorial strategies Keep them coming back for more Different platforms, different approaches Experimenting with mobile and social news products Checklist Mobile and social media strategy analysis Discussion

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Your social media brand: Who do you want to be? Social media branding and journalism Social media audit Search Analyze and act Assume everything is public Building a social media brand Separate personal and professional accounts? Online spaces where you should be active Creating standout social media profiles Consistency Think before you post Become the go-to journalist Checklist Social media audit Build your presence Choose a beat Discussion Reminder

40 41 41 43 46 48 54 54 56 57 58 61 62 68 72 76 76 77 82 83 85 85 86 88 92 93 94 97 101 102 105 113 113 113 114 114 114

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Social newsgathering Social sleuthing: Story ideas, sources, and content Social listening Social searching Social media command center: Organize listening and searching Crowdsourcing: Social collaboration and curation Harnessing the power of the audience Reporting what you gather: Vetting and visualizing the data Checklist Social media lists Social dashboard The workout Crowdsource Reminder

116 117 118 123 128 130 131 141 144 144 144 144 145 145

From the field: The mobile journalist Digital-first mindset: Mobile and social Planning your story: The digital-first story pitch Different types of stories, different approaches Working remotely Equipment and accessories Storage and file management Mobile reporting apps Video Production apps Shooting Editing multitrack stories Readable social videos Vertical story format Live streaming Publishing video Audio Production apps Recording and editing Still images Production apps Photography Social media graphics

147 150 150 152 156 156 160 161 161 162 164 168 170 172 174 175 177 177 178 180 180 181 184

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Mobile-first workflow: A digital juggling act Managing the reporting process Workflow in action Checklist Website tutorials Mobile-first discussion Get in the mojo groove Scavenger hunt Reminder

187 187 189 190 190 190 191 191 192

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Writing mobile-friendly web stories Mobile-friendly layout of web stories Mobile audience Prioritize article pages Bite-sized, “snackable” chunks Length Visuals Writing with a mobile audience in mind Story structures Search engine optimization (SEO) Short and shareable headlines Front-load stories: Secondary headlines and key points Ledes Nut grafs Subheadings Photo captions Checklist Put on your editor’s hat Writing and layout drill Teaching moment

195 196 196 197 197 199 199 204 204 208 210 212 213 216 217 218 221 221 221 223

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Social media engagement and audience analytics What do I post while reporting? Social media optimization Writing for social media Live coverage: Reporting in realtime Beyond the “final” story: Continuing the conversation Checklist Social media activity: Sharing as you report Multimedia web story

225 226 227 230 235 241 243 243 244

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Is it working? Measuring the success of your mobile and social media activity How newsrooms use social media and web analytics Pitfalls of analytics Analytics tools Report, share, experiment, measure, adjust Checklist Making sense of the data 8

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Social media ethics and policies New dilemmas Charting an ethical course: Applying journalism ethics to social media Newsroom social media policies You can’t post that! Professional and personal activity Contacting sources on social media Interacting with the audience Verification of user-generated content Seeking permission, copyright, and fair use Correction guidelines Ownership of social media accounts Checklist Mobile and social media strategy analysis What’s the real deal? What would you do? Tweet backlash Reminders

267 271 272 275 277 279 283 288 290 292 292 292 292 293 293

The spread of fake news What is fake news? Post-truth world Why people share fake news Identifying fake news Shared responsibilities to combat fake news Technology companies Journalists Educators Public Checklist Resources

297 300 303 305 306 309 309 312 314 316 320 320

264 265

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Discussion Victim or villain? Manipulated media, real consequences 10 Mobile and social media in your career Qualifications needed in today’s newsrooms Mobile and social media jobs and internships Finding job and internship leads Breaking into the business: Leverage your digital know-how Online portfolio and brand Resume Cover letter Applying and interviewing Checklist Review job descriptions LinkedIn Alumni search Polish and present your profile Infographic resume Beyond the book Index

320 321 321 326 327 329 333 339 340 340 342 342 346 346 346 346 346 347 349

PREFACE

“Isn’t journalism dying?”

It’s a question I’m often asked when people learn I teach journalism. As a journalism instructor or student, you’ve probably confronted the same question. My answer? Journalism is alive and well. In fact, this is one of the most exciting times to teach, study, and practice journalism. I consider myself fortunate to be part of journalism’s evolution. I hope you feel the same way. Never before, in such a short amount of time, have new technologies allowed journalists to connect with the audiences and tell stories in such innovative ways. At the same time, professional journalists are needed now more than ever to make sense of, and provide context for, the onslaught of information on social media. Truthful information is the foundation of an informed, media literate citizenry. Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. These are just a few of the social media platforms and applications altering how journalists do their jobs and how people consume news. You can’t discuss journalism today without focusing on the monumental impact of mobile devices and social media. The two are dramatically transforming journalists’ responsibilities and how news organizations produce and deliver content.

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About the book That’s where this book comes in. Mobile and Social Media Journalism prepares budding journalists to use mobile devices and social media as professional journalists in three main ways: newsgathering, distributing content, and engaging with the audience. They will learn the fundamental skills that news organizations are expecting from today’s journalists. The book addresses the topics of mobile and social media together— they are intricately connected. The audience is increasingly accessing news on mobile devices and through social media, which directly impacts how and where journalists publish news. A digital-frst approach means journalists nowadays are using mobile devices to share information on social media platforms while reporting in the feld. Mobile devices are needed in the feld to streamline the process of gathering, producing, and publishing content to multiple platforms. You see, then, mobile and social go hand-in-hand. Before digging into multimedia reporting with mobile devices and social media, the book begins by taking a look at big-picture concepts and strategies related to technology’s impact on journalism. It’s important to understand where we’ve been in order to fully grasp the changes taking place today—and envision where journalism may be headed. My hope is you will walk away with a better understanding of the changing journalism landscape. An important element of Mobile and Social Media Journalism is its emphasis on applying the core values of journalism—such as verifcation and ethical decision-making—to emerging media platforms and strategies. Evolving with technology while maintaining high journalistic standards is key. Traditional journalistic values must not fall by the wayside. They’re more important than ever with so much information, and disinformation, spreading in an instant on social media platforms. Among the most important concepts in this book are the following: • • •

The audience’s active role in the news production process, and the resulting impact on journalism. Mobile and social media strategies and policies in news organizations. Building a professional journalistic brand on social media platforms.

PREFACE

• • •

• • • •

Digital-frst story pitches: creating a plan to use mobile devices and social media while covering stories. The use of mobile devices and social media to gather, produce, and distribute news content. Locating credible user-generated content from social media to enhance reporting, and at the same time, identify misleading and unbalanced content. Identifying sources and story ideas on social media platforms. Writing for social media and mobile news consumption. The use of analytics platforms to monitor and analyze the effectiveness of journalists’ and news organizations’ social media activity. The rise of disinformation, including fake news, and what role journalists play in combatting the issue.

One of the strengths of Mobile and Social Media Journalism is that it provides a structure for a course dedicated to the topic, as instructors navigate how to teach social media and mobile reporting skills. The book could also serve as a guide in other multimedia journalism courses. I’ve written the book so that each chapter builds on the previous one, but you can also read chapters in any order you choose in order to learn about specifc skills at any time. You can’t master journalism without doing. Any journalist will tell you that honing reporting skills comes from years of practice. I have structured the book with that in mind. Each chapter includes checklists—guides for students to gain hands-on experience by immediately practicing what they learn. I have my students use the checklists to build their own professional social media brands and to produce portfolios of stories using social media and mobile devices.

The back story I was compelled to write this book after launching the mobile and social media journalism course at Ithaca College in 2014. While developing the course, I was unable to fnd an appropriate textbook. The book’s structure, concepts, and checklists have already proven effective, as they have been tested in my classroom. Students walked away with a keen understanding of today’s journalism industry and skills that easily landed them jobs.

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Writing this book had me thinking about my own career in newsrooms and the changes that I saw frsthand. I’ve been working in newsrooms since I was in middle school, more than 25 years ago. Experimenting with new technologies to tell stories was critical. No matter the technology though, I always considered myself to be working in the interest of the public. As you will see in this book, social media and mobile devices can strengthen the connection between journalists and the audience. I believe this will ultimately lead journalists to better serve the public. That’s not to say sometimes the future seems a bit uncertain. Your future in the industry will require you to evolve and experiment. Evolve. Experiment. That is very much at the heart of this book.

Second edition: What’s new I strongly believe addressing together the concepts of mobile devices and social media in journalism through both theoretical and practical lenses is critical. The second edition of the book continues this approach. Updated to address the latest trends in multimedia journalism, this edition is packed with new case studies, examples, research data, and “Get to Know” Q&As with journalists from diverse backgrounds. I’m also thrilled to share with you two new chapters focused on writing and fake news. Writing mobile-friendly web stories: Identify key elements of a mobilefriendly, “snackable” page layout and understand how to format article pages in a way that grabs and sustains the attention of those viewing on a small screen. Readers will also learn to apply fundamental news writing skills to content produced for a mobile audience and explore how to make journalism discoverable to more people by using SEO strategies. The spread of fake news: This chapter’s content draws heavily on the intersection of politics, technology, and journalism. Learn what fake news is and how to identify it. The chapter also explores the motivations behind those who create fake news and the reasons why people share false information, even when they know it’s inaccurate. I also discuss the responsibilities of technology companies, journalists, educators, and the public in fighting the spread of disinformation.

PREFACE

Let’s connect There are a number of ways we can connect beyond the book. Social media pages and a companion website provide up-to-date content related to mobile and social media journalism. Social media. A Twitter feed (@MobileJourn) and Facebook page ( fb. com/MobileandSocialMediaJournalism) allow us to carry on a conversation about the topic of this book and journalism in general. I provide news on the latest industry trends and updates related to my own teaching. I also want to hear from you. I’m particularly interested in learning about how students are using what they learn in this book. Website. A companion website (MobileandSocialMediaJournalism.com) provides resources, including video tutorials, industry related news, and sample assignments.

I’d love to know how you answer the question: Isn’t journalism dying? Feel free to tweet me at @MobileJourn or @AnthonyAdornato. You can also drop me a line the old-fashioned way: email me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you!

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Insight from those in the journalism industry and experts in the feld of communications is one of the key features of Mobile and Social Media Journalism. I’m grateful for the perspectives shared in these pages by David Muir, ABC News Eric Resendiz, KABC-TV Hallie Jackson, NBC News Trish LaMonte, Advance Media New York Jaime Cárdenas, Gannett | USA Today Network Alex Migdal, CBC News British Columbia Amber Smith, Gray Television Justin Auciello, Jersey Shore Hurricane News Blair Hickman, Vox Dougal Shaw, BBC News Neal Augenstein, WTOP-FM Bill Cannon, USA Today Kelly Ann Scott, Alabama Media Group Cyndy Scheibe, Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College Chris Sperry, Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College

ACK N OW L ED GEMEN T S

Melissa Luck, KXLY-TV Kyle Stewart, NBC News Vicki Bradley, WTXL-TV Finally, many thanks also to the team at Routledge/Taylor & Francis that fostered this project along: Margaret Farrelly, Priscille Biehlmann, Judit Varga, and Fiona Hudson Gabuya.

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1 FORCES AT THE GATE AN ACTIVE AUDIENCE

In this chapter, you will

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• •

Identify how mobile devices and social media are fundamentally different from past technologies such as television and the printing press. Discover how mobile devices and social media allow two-way conversations between the audience and journalists versus the old oneway model of mass communications. Learn how social media has led to the public’s active role in the news production process and changed how audiences consume information. Understand that while journalists retain discretion on what makes the “news,” an “active” audience plays an influential role. Explore the three areas in which mobile devices and social media are impacting journalists’ work: newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-1

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Photo 1.1 Eric Resendiz is a KABC-TV journalist who lives in the Los Angeles community that he’s assigned to cover. Community engagement and storytelling on social media are key parts of his job. “If you want to be a successful journalist, it’s very much about connecting with people no matter the platform,” Resendiz said. “You learn about the heart of a community and build trust this way.” Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @abc7eric.

As a community journalist for KABC-TV, Eric Resendiz has his fnger on the pulse of what’s happening in East Los Angeles. Resendiz lives in and reports about this area of Los Angeles that was traditionally not on the radar of news outlets unless news was breaking there. “Our hyperlocal approach is about not just parachuting into a community when there’s negative news,” said Resendiz, a former intern and news

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associate at the station. “I’m building connections with community members in-person and through social media. On social media, I can chat with them about story ideas and share content that engages them.” Resendiz is part of a new generation of digital storytellers working at ABC-owned stations in the United States. The team of about two dozen community journalists focuses on hyperlocal reporting across social media, web, and television. ABC’s Community Journalists Program embeds reporters in communities where there are important stories that haven’t been told. Resendiz typically works remotely from home or a neighborhood coffee shop. He’s a mobile journalist juggling many tasks. “You wear a lot of hats as a journalist,” he said. “You have to know how to shoot and edit video stories and write for different platforms. I’m also my own assignment desk, web producer, and creative services department.” Working solo in one of the biggest television markets in the U.S., he produces multiple versions of each story—for social media, web, and TV. “I tailor my content for the platform,” said Resendiz. “Every social media site has a different audience and language.” Resendiz’s storytelling on social media—for example, Instagram Stories that incorporate polls and emojis—is a way to reach an increasing number of people who don’t watch television news. These community journalists are tearing up the handbook of traditional television news. Resendiz said he shoots 90 percent of his video using an iPhone. “If I’m under a tight deadline, the iPhone is the easiest way to get what I need.” Welcome to journalism today. The tools of the trade are now in the palms of our hands. With a single mobile device, journalists produce and share content across different platforms—social media, mobile, websites, and TV. But it’s not simply about journalists “pushing out” content on multiple platforms. Journalists are expected to interact with audiences—meet the public in spaces where they’re now spending an increasing amount of time consuming and producing information. Audiences are actively engaged with news on social media platforms and mobile devices, whether by posting photos from the scene of breaking news, tweeting with reporters about their stories, or sharing a news outlet’s story with their circle of social media followers.

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These interactions, fueled by new technologies, are reshaping journalists’ relationships with news consumers and how news is produced. FLASHBACK: WHAT’S THE INTERNET, ANYWAY? The year was 1994. NBC News Today show anchors Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel, and Elizabeth Vargas discuss, with some confusion, this new “thing” called “the Internet.” Gumbel asks, “What’s Internet anyway?” His co-anchors chime in: It’s “that massive computer network that is becoming really big now.” The anchors are also puzzled over the @ symbol in an email address displayed on the screen. “I wasn’t prepared to translate that . . . that little mark with the ‘a’ and then the ring around it,” says Gumbel. “At,” says Vargas. “See that’s what I said,” responds Gumbel. “Katie said she thought it was ‘about.’” Years after this entertaining exchange took place, it was posted online and, you guessed it, went viral. The clip shows how in such a short time span the online medium has gone from uncharted territory for journalists to a space where we produce nearly all of our work. Of course, the Internet was the launching point for what came next: the birth of social media. View the video: bitly.com/FlashbackInternet

Technology and journalism Before diving into specifc mobile and social media skills, strategies, and tools, it’s critical to understand how journalism reached this crossroads. Refecting on the past provides an important perspective on where the industry stands now and where it may be headed. From the printing press to computers, technology has always shaped how journalists perform their craft and where the public turns for news. The printing press, which gave rise to newspapers, allowed for mass distribution of news in the written form. At frst, the process of transmitting news from the feld to print was slow and cumbersome. By the time news reached people, it was days—sometimes weeks—old. The telegraph sped up the process, allowing reporters to transmit stories so people could learn of news the day it happened.

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Radio and television brought more immediacy to journalism, a new way of telling stories. Journalist were now able to bring audiences to the scene of news through the use of audio, video, and live reports. The Internet opened up an entirely uncharted world for journalism and audiences. In the late 1990s, most news outlets’ websites were simply a single static page. Print reporters were still focused on the newspaper and broadcast reporters on their stories for TV or radio newscasts. As the audience increasingly turned online for information, news outlets’ websites became more robust, and with that came new tasks for journalists. Journalists’ responsibilities went far beyond stories for print, TV, or radio—producing multimedia web stories with a mix of photos, video, and audio became the norm. You can see that each new technology has affected how and where people get their news as well as how journalists do their jobs. Fast-forward to the present day. Social media and mobile devices are the latest technologies shaping the feld, and they have reached this position in a relatively short amount of time, considering the frst iPhone was released in 2007 and Twitter was launched in 2006. Never before in such a short amount of time has a new technology had such a dramatic impact on so many facets of communications. Before social media: One-way communication The reason behind this has to do with fundamental differences between today’s technologies and those in use prior to the introduction of social media, such as the printing press and television. In the past, traditional print and broadcast journalism were based on the mass communications model of one-way communication. The characteristics of traditional mass communications are these: • • •

From one entity, person, or group to a large audience One-way communication Passive audience

Producers of information, such as journalists, told the public what they needed to know with little or no interaction with the audience, in a oneway fow of information. It’s the equivalent of someone talking at you,

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albeit with interesting and important information, but you’re not allowed or able to respond. A single voice speaks to many. That’s not much of a conversation. There’s a concentration of power in this model. News consumers were considered passive, because previous technologies didn’t foster immediate engagement with content and journalists. People received the news but had little interaction with it. Writing a letter to the editor or calling a newsroom tips line were the extent of the feedback. This model—what some call the “voice of God”—has been turned upside down with the emergence of mobile devices and social media now that nearly anyone can produce and share content. The audience has shifted from a passive one to an active one. Social media: Journalism as a conversation The audience is at the center of social media. They’re in the driver’s seat. Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu), media critic and journalism professor at New York University, describes the current audience as passengers on your ship who have a boat of their own.1 They can connect with each other and with journalists, and they have the means to speak to the world. Therefore, mobile devices and social media are characterized by • • •

Accessibility: A majority of people now has access to these tools.2 Active audience: The audience can create and publish content. Interactivity: Messages and feedback happen simultaneously.

These characteristics challenge the traditional notion of mass communications. Because of broad access to mobile devices and social media, creating and publishing content has been opened up to the masses. This is in direct contrast to the closed model of traditional media. The audience can turn to Twitter to complain about a product. They can snap images of a protest and instantly share them on Instagram. They can use Facebook to generate buzz about an event. The list of things this nowactive audience can do is endless. In addition, interactivity fosters a two-way conversation. When someone tweets at a company or journalist, for example, there’s the expectation that

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the person on the other end will respond almost instantaneously. Just like a conversation. What does this mean for journalism? Journalism has shifted from a oneway to a two-way conversation that is redefning how journalists report and interact with the audience. Think of journalism as a conversation, rather than a lecture. News outlets can’t ignore audiences active on mobile devices and social media. Journalism as a conversation is a shared action with shifting journalist–audience relationships. Journalism as a conversation fosters interactivity between the audience and journalists, an informal tone, and an openness on the part of the journalist to audience feedback. As we’ll discuss later in the chapter, this engagement can build trust with the audience. Mobile devices and social media allow journalists to strengthen their connections with the public and ultimately better serve them. As is the case with Resendiz, journalists are expected to not wait to share information on the traditional newscasts, in a newspaper, or in an online story. As the story unfolds in the feld, journalists turn to social media to share the latest, track online conversations about the story, and respond to people who reach out to them. Those are just a few of the evolving responsibilities addressed in this book. The skills you will need in today’s newsrooms go well beyond one, or even two, platforms. Let’s take a deeper look at how mobile devices and social media are impacting the audience and journalists. We start with the audience, because their changing role and habits directly affect how journalists do their jobs.

Changing role of the audience January 2009. A U.S. Airways plane makes an emergency landing in New York City’s Hudson River. Janis Krums, commuting home on a nearby ferry, snaps a photo of passengers huddled on a wing of the plane.   Krums (@jkrums) tweets out one of the frst images of what became known as the Miracle on the Hudson. “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy,” wrote Krums in a tweet heard around the world. Krums had shared his dramatic photo before any journalist could get to the breaking news scene. Within a half hour, the tweet spread well

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Photo 1.2 Miracle on the Hudson: Janis Krums tweeted out this photo in 2009 after a plane made an emergency landing in the Hudson River.Within minutes of Krums sharing this image, news outlets around the world were using it as part of their coverage.

beyond his 170 Twitter followers. News outlets around the world were showing the image, and Krums was being interviewed live on TV news networks. “This may be among the most striking instances yet of instant citizen reporting,” wrote the Los Angeles Times the day of the emergency landing.3 Indeed, the Miracle on the Hudson was a turning point, an eye-opening moment that showed the impact of social media on journalism. This was one of the frst instances in which journalists realized the power of the audience in a mobile and social media world. It is now common for social media users to share information from news scenes. In December 2019, for example, Michael Schade (@sch) posted to Twitter a series of in-the-moment photos and videos of a volcano erupting on New Zealand’s White Island. Schade had just visited the island 20 minutes prior to the eruption that killed almost two dozen people. While on a boat departing the island, he shared the dramatic visuals.

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Photo 1.3 Michael Schade captured the moments immediately following a deadly volcanic eruption on a New Zealand island. His Twitter feed became the go-to source for news outlets around the world.

Schade received so many requests from new outlets that wanted to use his content that at one point he tweeted: “Reporters can use any of these with attribution. Sorry, I can’t keep up with 1-off asks to use, don’t have great service.”   Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites are more than just ways for people to keep in touch with friends and family. They’re platforms for news. Platforms where everyday citizens can share newsworthy content alongside professional journalists. This was never more evident than during the Boston Marathon bombings and their aftermath; major news events that underscored the changing

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role of the audience. From the initial explosions at the fnish line to the manhunt for the two suspects, the chaos unfolded live—on social media. Immediately after the explosions, many people’s frst reaction was to reach for their mobile phones and share via social media platforms. Hours later, Andrew Kitzenberg (@Akitz) gave the world a front-row seat to a shootout between authorities and the suspects. Kitzenberg heard pops outside of his home in Watertown, Massachusetts, darted to look out a window, and saw gunfre. He too grabbed his iPhone and began posting to Twitter: “Shoot out outside my room in Watertown. 62 Laurel st. #mit #boston #shooting.” A round of gunshots entered his home and became lodged in his offce chair, another image he shared on Twitter. Social media users and journalists were living the frantic events in real time through his words and photos. Kitzenberg, interviewed for the CNBC documentary #TwitterRevolution, said he never even thought about calling a TV station or newspaper. “They didn’t even cross my mind. It was Twitter.”4 The tables were now turned, as journalists and others learned about news events via social media. Who are the gatekeepers now? The term gatekeeping is used as a metaphor to explain the process of selecting content that will make it through the “gates” and into a news product, such as a news website, newspaper, or newscast. Gatekeepers hold the keys to the gates. They determine which content is most relevant, for whom it’s intended, and how it will be delivered. Prior to social media, editors, news directors, producers, and reporters were gatekeepers in journalism. They were the guarders of the gates, controlling what information got through to the audience. In editorial meetings, without much input from the audience, they would decide which stories to cover and how much space or time to dedicate to them, among other considerations. Traditionally, this meant journalists relied on predictable newsgathering channels dominated by offcial sources, press conferences, news releases, and government proceedings.5

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The role of social media users in the news coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings, the volcanic eruption on White Island, and the Miracle on the Hudson raises the question: Who are the gatekeepers now? There are new forces at the gate: the active audience. The concept of traditional gatekeeping has been upended. Editors, news directors, producers, and journalists no longer have sole control over content that makes it through the gates. While they make the ultimate decisions about what news is included on a website, in a broadcast, or in a newspaper, the audience infuence on the process is unquestionable. Mobile devices and social media are now at the heart of today’s editorial discussions. Audience members have become a source of news items, as they create their own content. The audience is also able to communicate stories or topics that interest them, which in turn infuences news outlets’ judgments about an event’s newsworthiness and which stories ultimately are considered “news.” My nationwide survey of news directors, those who manage broadcast television newsrooms, explored the impact of the active audience on the gatekeeping process in newsrooms.6 Nearly all of the 126 news directors who took part in the study indicated their newsrooms regularly fnd story ideas or content from social media users that ends up in newscasts. It should come as no surprise that this practice is the norm, and is indicative of the practices in all types of news organizations. The results of the study also show that what is being talked about or “trending” on social media is a signifcant factor in choosing stories to cover. Would newsrooms cover these stories if they were not popular on social media? Eighty percent of news directors said there would be only some chance or little chance that they’d even think about covering these stories if it weren’t for their popularity on social media. As one reporter who I spoke with about the changes put it, “It used to be that we told them [the audience] what was happening. Now, because of social media, they are trying to tell us. . . . Who online 10 years ago was telling us what our top story was going to be?”7 Once-passive audience members, then, are not only consumers of news, but also infuential producers of content. Consumers and producers—habits at the heart of the changes in the feld.

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Content producers: The power of an active audience The power of the audience as producers is refected in the term “usergenerated content.” User-generated content refers to photos, videos, and other information captured by people who are not professional journalists and shared to social media platforms. CNN iReport is one of the earliest examples of user-generated content. Citizens turned into roving reporters, snapping up videos and photos of newsworthy events, and then sending them to CNN for distribution online and on air. When iReport launched in 2006, the term social media wasn’t even part of our everyday vocabulary. Many of us were just hearing about a new “website” called Facebook. The frst generation iPhone hadn’t even hit store shelves. The dominance of mobile devices and social media platforms in the years following has created a food of user-generated content. The audience now has the tools (mobile devices) in their hands to easily create content and new platforms (social media) to instantly share content with anyone. This has shifted their habits from those early days of iReport. Many nowadays don’t even consider contacting a news outlet with content. Instead, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are just a swipe and tap away. “When people are uploading content, they’re not sending it to a newsroom, they’re sharing it with their friends,” said Claire Wardle (@cward1e), of First Draft News, a non-proft dedicated to tackling misinformation.8 People sharing this content may not have intended for it to be used by journalists. But, by chance, it may happen that the content is the story or becomes a key part of a story. Journalists are relying on social media content, particularly in breaking news situations, to provide audience members with information from a location prior to a reporter’s arrival. User-generated content is also helpful when a news event is taking place in a remote area. For instance, when a Carnival cruise ship was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico, news outlets turned to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for photos, video, and other information posted by the ship’s passengers. Searches of the keywords and hashtags “Carnival” and “Triumph” revealed frsthand accounts from aboard the ship—images of sewage backed up and people sleeping on outdoor pool decks because of the

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unsanitary condition aboard the ship. Because news outlets could not get their own crews to this news event taking place in the middle of the gulf, they relied on the passengers’ social media posts to paint a picture of what was unfolding. Journalists took the same approach in their coverage of the volcanic eruption on New Zealand’s White Island. In addition to searches of “WhiteIsland” on social media, looking for content geo-tagged with the location of the island turned up photos and videos from the area. Sometimes, the audience unknowingly shares news, as was the case for Sohaib Athar. Athar didn’t realize he was tweeting about one of the most historic news event of our times—the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Athar noticed helicopters circling near his home in Abbottabad, Pakistan. He then heard a blast and ended up live-tweeting the raid by U.S. Navy SEALs on bin Laden’s compound.9 It wasn’t until later that he learned what he was tweeting about. Seven hours after Athar’s frst tweet, U.S. President Barack Obama offcially announced bin Laden’s death. Athar tweeted, “Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.”   Journalists scrambling for information about the raid came across Athar’s Twitter feed. He received hundreds of interview requests. While this type of user-generated content can be captivating and enhance reporting, there are pitfalls. Below are some of the important considerations

Photo 1.4 Sohaib Athar live tweeted the raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. Athar, who lived near bin Laden’s compound, later learned that all the activity in his neighborhood was part of the raid.

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journalists must be mindful of. These points will be addressed in future chapters. •

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Journalists must frst determine if the content has news value. Note the use of content and not news in the term user-generated content. This is an important distinction, because not all user-generated content is news. In the sea of social media content, some is newsworthy. Plenty is not. Before deciding to use newsworthy social media content in their reporting, journalists must be skeptical about information. The speed at which content travels over social media, the sheer volume of usergenerated content, and the rise of fake news make fact checking even more important now. Social media information should be held to traditional journalistic standards. Journalists must verify the accuracy and authenticity of the information. The reliance on social media content has increased the chances that newsrooms will spread misinformation. In my nationwide study of news directors, a third of respondents indicated their stations had reported information from social media users that was later found to be false or inaccurate.10 Another question to consider is whether journalists, before using the content, need to obtain permission from someone who’s posted material on social media. Since the content is on a public platform, is it fair game to use without securing permission? The short answer: not necessarily. Chapter 8 discusses copyright and seeking permissions. News outlets must not become overly dependent on social media as a source for stories. Focusing on topics from social media can lead the public to perceive those issues as more important than stories uncovered through traditional means. Social media is not a replacement for journalists attending school board meetings, walking the halls of City Hall, or poring through the county budget, for example. Putting down the iPhone and pounding the pavement in search of stories is still critical.

Social media is like the wild west—exciting but chaotic, and often lacking order. It’s the responsibility of trained journalists to make sense of all the noise, of the fre hose of information from the active audience. Though this burden falls on everyone in a newsroom, many newsrooms are hiring journalists whose sole responsibility is to manage audience

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engagement and user-generated content. For example, the job listing for an audience engagement editor at ProPublica emphasized the outlet’s relationship with the public. The person in this role would oversee ProPublica’s social media team and engagement reporters. The job description included this explanation of the role: “Our engagement reporters work to cultivate relationships with communities online and by collaborating with the public. We’ve found and reported out big investigations that way.” The ideal candidate, according to the ad, would have a history of leveraging social media platforms to further ProPublica’s journalism and mission—not just drive clicks. Fergus Bell (@fergb) knows frsthand the skills needed to be successful in that position. Bell was the frst international social media editor and user-generated content editor at the Associated Press. Bell helped develop standards for verifying user-generated content and collaborating with social media users. “Users know that they can contribute to news stories, so we need to fnd a way to work with them by giving them the credit they deserve,” said Bell. “[They] should not be people we should be battling against. We need to get into a position where we’re working together.”11 News consumption: Mobile and social The audience as producers is one piece of the evolving news landscape. How they’re getting news today—and what they’re doing with it—is also having a monumental impact on journalism. The public’s news consumption habits are undergoing a fundamental shift: mobile and social. With the swipe of a fnger, mobile devices are the go-to place to access news. Mobile phones and tablets are becoming the dominant platforms for news consumption around the world.12 They’re portable and on-demand, giving people access anytime and nearly anywhere. Think about your own habits. How do you typically get word of a major news story? It may be a local story, such as a car accident that shuts down a highway in your hometown; or, a story of national and international signifcance, such as the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. There’s a good chance you frst hear about these types of news stories through a breaking news alert on your mobile device or a social media

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post. Then, that may lead you to a news outlet’s website for more details, all while using your mobile device. You may also interact with the news by sharing it on social media or commenting on it.

KEY POINTS ABOUT NEWS CONSUMPTION •

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News is mobile. Mobile devices are becoming the dominant platform for news consumption. More and more people are visiting news websites on a mobile device. This “mobile majority” has news outlets rethinking how websites are designed and how news stories are packaged for mobile users. Given that many outlets have more people reaching their content through mobile than desktop, a top priority is testing how the content looks on mobile devices. News is social. Rather than directly typing in the web address, people are being led to news websites by social media. Social referrals— links that are shared on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter—are a crucial source of website traffic. In addition, the trend is for people to first hear about news via social media, and then engage with the content by sharing or commenting. Most adults in the United States get news on social media. Additionally, social media has outpaced print newspapers as a news source for adults.13

Not only are people increasingly reading and watching news on mobile devices, they’re learning about news while on social media sites and engaging with it—in real time as news happens. That brings us to the idea of news as something “social.” These trends show no signs of slowing down. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that 85 percent of adults in the United States access news and information via a mobile device, up from about 50 percent in 2013.14 And hitting home the point of the active audience, their encounters with news are hardly passive. The audience participates with the news, and therefore becomes part of the conversation about a topic or story. At least half of social network site users share stories, images, or videos from news outlets. Nearly as many discuss a news issue or event on social media.15 Taking a look at how people reach news websites is also eye opening. “You can no longer assume people are coming to you. You have to go out

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and get them,” said Lisa Tozzi (@lisatozzi), The Markup managing editor and former news director at BuzzFeed.16 People are less frequently opening up a web browser and typing the address of a news website. Rather, more and more people end up at news websites by clicking a link in a social media post that catches their attention.17 The active audience on social media is a key driver of traffc to news websites. This means journalists must provide engaging and meaningful content on social media platforms. Much of this book focuses on this important skill. Today’s fow of news from a journalist to the audience is a far cry from the days of waiting for the morning paper or the evening news to tell you the top stories. The idea of news as mobile and social has signifcant implications for journalists. They must adapt to where the audience is spending a considerable amount of time and how they are interacting with news— on mobile devices and with social media. This means a shift in how and where journalism is produced and delivered. “As journalism becomes ever more dependent on these new distribution platforms to fnd audiences, news publishers are forced to examine their business models and strategies for the future,” said Emily Bell (@emilybell), director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and former director of digital content for Britain’s Guardian News.18 Part of a successful strategy must be centered on where a news outlet’s target audiences are spending their time. For younger generations, it’s predominately mobile and social spaces. For older generations, it tends to be a mix of traditional and digital spaces. All we have to do is take a look at where people turn for news about politics. For 18- to 29-year-olds, social media is the most common way they get political and election news, according to the Pew Research Center.19 Social media drops off for older Americans. Those 50 years and older named TV news as their most common source. That’s not to say mobile and social don’t play an important role for this older demographic. Their media habits do include checking digital spaces—social media, apps, and news websites— for political and election news. Among all U.S. adults, radio (8 percent) and print newspapers (3 percent) trail far behind. Even though this is only one snapshot in time, these fndings are consistent with research on news consumption. It speaks volumes about the

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Table 1.1 The portion of people who get news on mobile devices is increasing rapidly.

Source: Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ FT_19.11.19_MobileVsDesktop2.jpg?resize=890,1024

future of where journalism must be delivered. What will we see in 10, 20, 30 years as the younger generations age? It’s unlikely that digital natives (students, that’s you), those born with new technologies in their hands, will change their habits. Older generations grew up accustomed to traditional print and broadcast, so they still rely on them for news more than their younger counterparts. But, don’t dismiss this demographic. As Table 1.1 shows, some

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of the most signifcant growth of news consumption on a mobile device in recent years comes from those ages 65 and older.20 Meantime, as the younger generations age, odds are they’ll continue to rely on what they’re familiar with, mobile and social spaces. This is key to the story of journalism’s future. It hits home the point of news organizations’ need to evolve with the audience, because all signs indicate that news consumption on mobile and social media will continue to increase and eventually outpace news consumption in traditional spaces—television, radio, and print—for all demographics. This isn’t to say that these traditional spaces won’t still be a source of information, but rather those outlets have to make mobile and social media a top priority for delivering news and engaging with audiences. Many newsrooms are already taking a mobile-frst mindset (see Chapter 2). It’s a necessity when you consider that the majority of traffc to news websites comes from people using mobile devices, not desktop computers. At least two-thirds of traffc to the BBC News website, for instance, is now generated by smartphones and tablets. In fact, most Google searches are now done by people on a mobile device. In response to the “mobile majority,” news outlets are developing strategies to better serve the audience and meet them in online spaces where they “hang out.”21 Making websites user-friendly for mobile device users has become standard. Responsive websites adapt to which device a visitor is using—mobile, tablet, or desktop—in order to give the user the best experience viewing and interacting with content. Google even boosts the search rankings of sites that are mobile friendly if the search was made from a mobile device.22 Video and text stories also need to be mobile friendly. (We’ll chat more about this in Chapters 5 and 6.) Journalists have to be mindful of the layout of stories and how they’re written, so the stories can be easily viewed on mobile devices. The ability to produce “readable” videos, those that are captioned and intended to be viewed on social media while using a mobile device, is a key skill. You have to make content digestible on a small screen in ways that maintain the attention span of the “mobile majority.” Or else, they might just swipe away.

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 1.5 David Muir (@DavidMuir) Anchor and Managing Editor, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir You started in television news more than 20 years ago. The media landscape looked quite different then. How has new media impacted journalism since your early days in newsrooms? I vividly remember working in local news when the primary purpose for a station’s website was to simply post pieces from a newscast that already aired. Reporters or anchors would often say, “For more on this, go to our website.” In today’s environment, social media allows us to engage in a living, breathing conversation with the viewer all day long. I think the bar is much higher for what viewers will be interested in online. They don’t want to watch a report they’ve already seen on television.

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There is an expectation we will deliver something they didn’t see or something with added value, and rightly so. It provides us with an opportunity to take the audience along on the journey, and we’ve used it during reporting trips to the Syrian border on child refugees and during our historic conversation with Pope Francis. You’re constantly connecting with the audience through social media, especially Twitter. How have these platforms changed your relationship with the audience? Viewers have been given a voice in a way that wasn’t even possible a few years ago. We learn immediately on Twitter or on Facebook about a question viewers want asked during a presidential primary debate or of factories that want us to profile them for our Made in America series. I love that. Viewers are helping to drive the conversation. I grew up watching former ABC anchor Peter Jennings, and I have long said he was masterful at having a conversation every night with America, but that conversation now truly goes both ways. Viewers can communicate with me before, after, and during the newscast, and they do. Describe how you use social media on a daily basis. I tweet during commercial breaks, but I’m not necessarily tweeting or posting on Instagram to drive people to their TV. I’m on social media, because America is on social media. And I believe our broadcast should reflect how people are living their lives. People are documenting their own lives in ways we never could have imagined. It’s helped to build an army of citizen journalists who capture moments with their own phones that, when combined with the proper context, can give us a window into something we never would have seen.

Impact on journalists The audience as producers and active consumers of news across many platforms clearly impacts the skills journalists need today. Making news stories user friendly for people viewing them on small screens is just one example.

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Budding journalists entering the feld, or those trying to stay relevant in their current jobs, will have to be able to assume a range of job responsibilities to serve the audience in spaces where they get information. All you have to do is look at job openings in the journalism industry. Mobile and social media skills are required of both new graduates and more seasoned journalists, in addition to reporting skills for traditional platforms. When The News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida was hiring a Watchdog Reporter, storytelling across multiple platforms—mobile, social, website, and print—was listed as a priority. The outlet, part of Gannett’s USA Today Network, wanted someone with a track record of fnding impactful stories and experience in using social media both in reporting and in promoting them. Among the requirements were an “Understanding of how to use social media platforms; including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit” as well as “Shooting and editing photos and video on an iPhone.” A job description for a reporter at WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Alabama highlights the importance of being able to report across social media throughout the day while also interacting with the audience: “Must manage station social media accounts including responding and reviewing messages and comments.” The ability “to determine the difference between legitimate news sources and fake media” is also critical, the job post noted. There are also newsroom positions, which we’ll address in Chapter 10, dedicated to mobile and social media: social media editor at National Public Radio, Facebook editor at The Boston Globe, and mobile newsroom developer at The New York Times. In the not so distant future, these are some of the jobs you may fnd yourself working in. So how do you make sense of what’s expected of you as a reporter? It can seem a bit overwhelming at frst. You use mobile devices and social media, but perhaps not in journalistic ways—at least not yet. You may be wondering, as a journalist, what do I tweet? How do I use social media to fnd credible sources? I should use Instagram and Reddit for . . . journalism? This book will answer those questions and many more. Future chapters show you detailed ways to use these tools as a journalist. First, in this section, I want to help you better understand, in broader terms, how mobile devices and social media are impacting journalists’ day-to-day routines.

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There are three areas to consider: newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement. Approaching reporting responsibilities through these three areas provides students and journalists with a clearer sense of what’s expected on mobile and social media platforms. It’s a way to guide you through what may seem a bit chaotic, to wrap your head around how audience habits are directly shaping how journalists do their work. Remember, worrying only about what you’re going to do for a web story or newscast is a thing of the past. The bottom line is journalism employers want reporters to use mobile devices and social media for newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement (all while maintaining the fundamentals of journalistic standards, of course). This book helps you gain hands-on experience in these three areas. Chapter 5, for example, provides you with a toolkit for a digital-frst story pitch. This kind of story pitch includes a plan for using mobile devices and social media for newsgathering, distribution, and audience engagement. For each story you cover, you’ll come up with your own, a game plan, to follow while reporting. Now, here’s a brief overview of the three key areas that you’ll learn more about in future chapters. Newsgathering Journalists use mobile and social media in a number of ways during the newsgathering process: • • •

Tips line: To fnd story ideas. Sources: To fnd sources for a story they’re working on. Content: To fnd information for a story. This often includes usergenerated content and crowdsourced information.

Before journalists head into editorial meetings, it’s common for them to scan social media platforms for what’s happening in their city. For example a reporter in Dallas, Texas might do a Twitter search of “Dallas” and some of the surrounding areas. The daily routine as a reporter is quite different from years prior, when journalists started the day by making beat calls to

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police agencies, checking in by phone with other offcial sources, and sifting through news releases. Social media is a modern-day tips line. It has become a tool to fnd stories in your community. Monitoring social media platforms is a way to listen to the public, to put your fnger on the pulse of what people are talking about. Journalists now have immediate access to a wealth of new material and voices during the newsgathering process. Scouring social media platforms, often referred to as “social listening,” can turn up impactful stories. One day I was visiting a newsroom in Syracuse, New York, when a reporter noticed a complaint on Twitter about paint dripping along a street after city workers painted new traffc lines. During a public meeting a few days prior, the mayor discussed how the city planned to save money by purchasing a different type of paint than it had previously used. The complaint on social media led the reporter to uncover a noteworthy story. She investigated whether the new paint was actually as cost effective as the city had anticipated it would be. In addition to fnding story ideas, journalists are also turning to social media to locate sources for stories they’re already working on. Let’s say you’re assigned a story about the cost of school supplies. Speaking with parents is key to telling a compelling story. How can you use social media to track down someone to interview? Tammy Palmer (@TammyPalmerNews), a reporter covering this story, logged onto Facebook. “I posted on our Facebook page, ‘Hey, any moms about to go shopping?’ That is how I connected with a mom,” said Palmer. “Before you just had to kind of stumble upon people like this, and now you can look for them online. And it gave me options, because I had a number of moms respond. I had three moms who had different scenarios. That is where it created fexibility for me.”23 Locating and using content created by the audience has also become commonplace. Earlier we discussed how journalists incorporate usergenerated content into their reporting, especially during breaking news. Another way to gather audience content is through crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is an open call by news outlets to gather a range of content including photos, data, and comments about an issue. In crowdsourcing, journalists make a specifc request from the audience. Crowdsourcing is different from searching for user-generated content that has already been

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created. It’s a call to action, inviting people to take part in the reporting process. When Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) was investigating U.S. President Donald Trump’s charitable foundation, he turned to Twitter to see if anyone could help him out. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Trump claimed he had previously donated millions of dollars out of his own pocket to charities. Fahrenthold tweeted frequently about his reporting process to verify this claim and asked his followers for any leads. Sharing photos of his handwritten notes, Fahrenthold took the audience along his investigative journey as The Post contacted hundreds of charities in an effort to fnd proof of the millions Trump said he donated. Thanks in part to information from Twitter users, Fahrenthold’s reporting uncovered that Trump made only one of the donations. “It is something I had never done before,” said Fahrenthold of his crowdsourcing efforts. “I’ve been really surprised at how many people I’ve reached and how willing they’ve been to help.”24   His followers offered plenty of tips, like the ones about Trump using money donated to his foundation to buy two portraits of himself. Such

Photo 1.6 & 1.7 Tapping into the crowd: The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold asks Twitter users to assist him in his reporting.

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actions violate U.S. tax rules, which prohibit non-proft leaders from spending charity money on themselves. A woman saw Fahrenthold’s tweets about how he was looking for more information regarding these portraits. She then searched through hundreds of user photos on the TripAdvisor page for the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort. The woman tweeted to Fahrenthold that she had found a TripAdvisor photo containing a Trump portrait at the resort. Enrique Acevedo (@Enrique_Acevedo), a journalist at Univision, noticed the Twitter exchange between Fahrenthold and the woman. Acevedo checked into Doral, which is located near his newsroom. He then tweeted that he had located a portrait of Trump hanging inside. Indeed, it turned out to be the 4-foot portrait that Trump purchased with his foundation’s money during a charity auction (online images show Trump standing next to the portrait at that event). Mystery solved. As a result of Fahrenthold’s reporting, the Donald J. Trump Foundation was forced to shut down by the New York Attorney General’s offce. Fahrenthold was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his coverage of Trump. For a much different type of story, The New York Times used crowdsourcing during a blizzard that paralyzed the northeast. The Times asked people to share their snow storm photos on Instagram and tag them with #NYTsnow. The Times published nine of the photos on the front page of its print edition. (By the way, the paper never notifed users that their photos would actually be published, nor was it mentioned as a possibility in its crowdsource request. What do you think about this? Chapter 8 will address best practices related to user-generated content.) How journalists receive content from and interact with traditional sources in the newsgathering process is also evolving as a result of mobile devices and social media. When traditional sources, such as police departments, release information, they often bypass journalists. They’re increasingly sharing information on social media pages prior to or in place of contacting news outlets. Journalists routinely monitor the social media pages of these sources, particularly during breaking news. Minutes after an active shooter was reported to be inside Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Broward Sheriff’s Offce began tweeting out details of the developing situation. @BrowardSheriff shared real-time updates about the shooting that killed 17 people. The Twitter account became the go-to source for

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Photo 1.8 & 1.9 Traditional news sources are increasingly bypassing news outlets to get information to the public.That was the case following the deadly Parkland, Florida high school shooting and when the New York City Fire Department battled a massive fre at a historic church. Using social media, the police and fre departments shared updates directly with the public.

journalists, parents of the high school students, and the world to get information.    The Boston Police Department also frst turned to Twitter, instead of news outlets, to share urgent information during the Boston Marathon bombings. This is yet another instance in which the idea of journalists as the sole gatekeepers of news is turned upside down. “In the past the police were at the mercy of the general media— to journalists—to tell their story. Now we can tell our own story. We can put out the information directly on Twitter,” said Cheryl Fiandaca (@cherylfandaca), spokesperson for the Boston Police Department at the time of the bombings.25 Fiandaca, a veteran journalist, has since returned to investigative reporting. The Boston Police Department even released on Twitter the frst photos of the suspects. Within seconds of the tweets from @bostonpolice, journalists were holding up their phones live on-air, referencing the tweets.

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Distribution of news Reporting the news is a constant, never-ending process. Distribution of news in our mobile and social media world requires journalist to: • • • •

Share on multiple platforms as they report from the feld. Provide real-time updates on stories. Adapt storytelling to the “language” of each platform. Use mobile devices to capture, produce, and publish content.

Journalists can’t wait for a news broadcast, a morning newspaper, or even a web story to deliver the latest information about a story. Because the audience expects information in real time and across multiple platforms, journalists must share nuggets of information as they report from the feld. “We operate almost like the AP [Associated Press] alerts that newsrooms use for breaking news. Well, now the everyday person is expecting those types of alerts for stories, especially for breaking news,” one reporter told me. “The end user has already established the fact that they don’t want to wait for news. They’re going to consume news on their own time. Getting it out quicker serves the audience.”26 This means embracing a digital-frst approach to reporting, thinking about what needs to be distributed on social media platforms while in the feld and ensuring all content can be easily viewed by people using mobile devices. Reporters have to juggle feeding information to audiences active in many spaces—Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and websites, among others. Depending on where you work, you’ll also be turning stories for TV, radio, or print. There is no one-size-fts-all approach to reporting on social media platforms. How and where you report a story across social media will partially depend on the type of news you’re covering—for instance, breaking news versus a feature. You may decide to produce an Instagram Story that introduces us to a person at the center of your reporting, create a Twitter thread that provides context to a developing story, or bring followers to the scene of a rally by broadcasting via Facebook Live. These are all forms of modern journalism. Indeed, one advantage of mobile devices and social media platforms is the ease they offer of going live from developing stories. When NBC

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News Chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) covered recent U.S. presidential elections, she brought followers along for the ride—live. Jackson did some live shots inside a moving car as she followed campaign busses from event to event. Those roving live reports that viewers saw on social media and television were made possible by using a mobile phone and even a selfe stick at times. No fancy equipment needed. The Texas Tribune turned to Snapchat for its coverage of the 50th anniversary of a deadly sniper shooting at the University of Texas at Austin. Why Snapchat? The news team experimented with this platform in an effort to retell the grim story of that day to a younger generation of news consumers. Using archival video and photos, The Tribune created a tappable, immersive Snapchat Story that revealed details of the shooting over the course of 96 minutes, the time period during which a former marine opened fre from the campus’s main clock tower. This Snapchat project was part of the outlet’s overall coverage across its website and social media accounts. The Snapchat Story won an Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Social Media. To view it, visit bitly.com/TheTexasTribune. Honing digital storytelling skills comes from practice—repetition, repetition, repetition. This book is intended to get you experimenting in the feld as soon as possible so you can put the strategies and skills into practice. The checklists in each chapter help you plan and prioritize the many tasks. A smartphone or tablet will be your go-to tool. With a mobile device and apps, you can easily distribute content in real time across platforms. Taking a photo or video on traditional cameras and then sharing those visuals to social media would be a cumbersome process. You would have to get the visuals onto a computer or mobile device in order to share them. That’s a time consuming workfow in today’s news environment. From small daily papers to major news outlets, it would be nearly impossible for journalists to do their jobs today without mobile devices. The Gannett Company, which owns dozens of daily newspapers across the country, including USA Today, was one of the frst outlets to hand out devices to reporters. In 2011, Gannett purchased thousands of iPhones, iPads, and portable wireless hotspots for reporters to use in the feld. Since then, mobile journalism gear—from microphones that plug directly into the devices to lights that attach to them—have been added to the mix.   Journalists are grabbing their mobile journalism gear to produce content for more than just mobile and social media platforms. Gannett and other

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Photo 1.10 A mobile device is all you need to record and edit video, snap photos, and go live from the scene of news. This team from ABC News used an iPhone to cover devastating bushfres in Australia.

outlets have their reporters use mobile devices to capture photos and video that accompany traditional website and print stories. In other words, all the multimedia elements distributed across all platforms can be produced with a single device. At TV stations, the process may look slightly different. Though reporters use their mobile devices to tell stories across social media, most video packages that air on TV newscasts are still shot with traditional video cameras. But an increasing number of TV outlets are experimenting with having their reporters use iPhones to produce stories that air in newscasts. Reporters at KGO-TV, the ABC affliate in San Francisco, California, were

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taught how to shoot their own TV stories on iPhones. It’s not just local affliates adopting the practice. Major TV news outlets around the world, including BBC News and Ireland’s RTÉ News, have been integrating stories produced with mobile devices into traditional newscasts. Distributing news across multiple platforms as quickly as possible presents challenges. Among the most notable concern is maintaining traditional journalistic values while sharing information at the speed that is now expected of journalists. You can’t be frst and accurate all the time. Those are two competing values. Fact-checking takes time. When in doubt, accuracy trumps speed. Unfortunately, there are far too many cases in which news outlets did not follow this basic journalistic principle. Then, there’s writing across all these platforms. Clear, concise, and accurate writing has always been a hallmark of good journalism. But reporters need to be mindful of their writing now more than ever. What you write in a tweet might not work for the headline of a web article. The tone of an Instagram Story might be different than that of a Facebook post. The ability to adapt your style of writing based on where you’re posting is an important skill. The brevity of social media posts also requires a new way of thinking about what information to share, how often, and how to frame it. For example, single tweets, given their character limit, do not allow for a detailed explanation. Telling a story through a Twitter thread may do the trick though. You have to be careful delivering news piecemeal, because you don’t want it to be misinterpreted by your audience. Providing context amid the consistent stream of information is key. Don’t leave your audience hanging. Audience engagement We’ve talked about newsgathering and distribution of news. Now, let’s throw audience engagement into the reporting mix. Newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement often happen all at the same time. Don’t think of them as three neatly separated buckets. They occur in concert with each other. Just take a look at a day in the life of NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson. The White House is Jackson’s “offce” where she allows the audience to “hang out” with her from time to time. During an Instagram

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Photo 1.11 NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson connects directly with social media users, offering them opportunities to “chat” with her. View the Instagram Story: bitly.com/HallieJackson.

Story, for instance, she gave followers a behind-the-scenes look at her work day, including some of the more light-hearted moments. This laid-back, informal approach is quite different than the style of her reports for TV newscasts.   Before being promoted to White House correspondent, Jackson covered Donald Trump’s campaigns for the U.S. presidency. The frenetic pace of

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reporting on the race for the White House also went far beyond producing stories for the network’s newscasts. As Jackson gathered news in the feld, from candidates’ rallies to polling locations, she kept tabs on what was being said about the campaigns on social media. Jackson almost simultaneously shared nuggets of campaign news with her Twitter followers. Meantime, her Snapchat Stories gave a somewhat comical look at life on the road as she lived out of a suitcase. (Like the times she had to type in gas station bathrooms.) Jackson and her fellow correspondents covering the elections were dubbed “The Road Warriors.” During live chats on MSNBC’s Facebook page and on Twitter, The Road Warriors answered questions from followers. “Mobile and social media are ways to open the reporting process and bring more people into it. It’s a natural part of how I report, because in this day and age I can’t wait for my next TV live shot to get info out there,” said Jackson. “The interactions we have with the audience now are so different from when I began in the business in 2006. You’re always continuing the conversation online.” Technology brings people closer not only to the news she covers, but also to her as a journalist. They get to know her as a “real” person. They can connect with her at almost any time. The collaborative nature, the idea of bringing an audience into the reporting process is at the heart of audience engagement. Effective engagement with the audience includes: • • •

Consistent and authentic interactions An informal yet professional tone Openness and responsiveness to audience feedback

It’s about news as a conversation, rather than a lecture. It’s about meeting people on platforms where they already are. It’s about responding to social media followers’ questions. It’s about listening, not simply spewing out information or promoting your stories. All of these approaches will go a long way to make the audience feel invested in your work as a journalist. This two-way conversation can help create a better understanding of issues people care about and lead to better journalism. Ongoing interactions

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can also build trust and credibility with the audience. Journalists who interact with their followers are seen as more credible and are rated more positively than journalists who use social media solely to distribute news.27 Using social media to lift the veil on the reporting process is one way journalists are doing this. Offering followers an insider’s look at what it takes to get a story, gives them a stronger connection with journalists. It’s a more authentic approach than simply tweeting out headlines and links to stories. Through this type of engagement, journalists are also demystifying the reporting process, helping the audience understand that journalism is about much more than simply pushing out information. People crave transparency, according to research conducted by The New York Times. The Times spoke with news consumers in order to understand their needs and behaviors. “In dozens of conversations with people around the world, we heard that people want more than just the story: they want to know why it’s being told, who is telling it and how it came together,” the research noted.28 David Fahrenthold, of The Washington Post, did just that in his reporting of Donald Trump’s charitable foundation. Fahrenthold used Twitter to show the public his meticulous research process. In addition to specifc crowdsource requests (such as the one related to the portrait), he took screenshots of the emails he sent to Trump’s campaign managers and tweeted them out. On legal pads, Fahrenthold jotted down notes about each of the charities to which Trump claimed he had donated. Fahrenthold frequently shared photos of those pads to keep followers updated about his progress in contacting each charity. His social media activities are not only forms of audience engagement, but also newsgathering and distribution of news.   Showing the reporting process in this way helps to educate the public about what journalism is. You may have heard it yourself: Everyone is a journalist. That’s simply incorrect. Yes, nearly anyone can “publish” content, but that doesn’t make them journalists. Journalists have the skills to put information in context, verify, and fact-check. Journalists are needed now more than ever to help the audience navigate through the “noise”—to make sense of the food of (mis)information. Social media is an avenue to let people in on what that journalistic process entails. The hope is that through authentic engagement the active audience recognizes the value of journalists, and that keeps them coming back for more—no matter the platform.

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Photo 1.12 Journalists can use social media to give the public an inside look at what it takes to report a story.

CHECKLIST Welcome to your first checklist! Each chapter has at least one. They’re a way for you to put into practice what we’ve discussed. This first checklist connects you with additional resources to keep tabs on the latest mobile and social media journalism news. ✓

Beyond the book. Let’s extend the conversation beyond the pages of this book and your classroom. Connect with me on Twitter (@MobileJourn) and Facebook (fb.com/MobileandSocialMediaJou

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rnalism). I’ll share updates on the industry and my own teaching. I also want to hear from you. Have a question about something you read here? Come across a neat example of how a journalist is using mobile and social media? Doing something cool with what you’ve learned in the book? Tweet at me! We can learn from each other. ✓

Class hashtag. As a class, create a Twitter hashtag that can be used throughout the semester. A class hashtag serves as a channel for discussions about course topics and assignments. Use it to share insights from guest speakers to your class. It’s also a great way to share with your classmates interesting items you come across related to mobile and social media journalism. Simply include your class hashtag when you share on Twitter. In future checklists, we’ll chat more about using your class hashtag.

✓

Stay informed. There are a number of trade organizations that distribute e-newsletters with related content and research. You can also follow them on Twitter. Subscribing to their e-newsletters and following them on Twitter will provide you with ideas for the Teaching Moment assignment that is part of Chapter 6’s checklist. The following are my go-to sources. I’ve provided Twitter handles and links for you to subscribe to e-newsletters:

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Poynter: @Poynter and bitly.com/PoynterSubscribe

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Pew Research Center: @pewjournalism and bitly.com/PewRese archNewsletter

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Nieman Lab: @NiemanLab and bitly.com/NiemanNewsletter

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First Draft News: @firstdraftnews and bitly.com/FirstDraftN ewsletter

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NPR Training: @nprtraining and bitly.com/NPRTrainingNews letter

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BBC Academy: @BBCAcademy

Discussion. Consider the following as a class: ¾

What are the positives and negatives of an age that allows nearly anyone to create and publish content?

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What is meant by an “active” audience? How have news consumers’ habits changed?

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Describe the relationship between journalists and the audience today.

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What are the skills journalists need in our mobile and social media world?

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This chapter highlighted how mobile devices and social media are impacting journalists’ work in three ways: newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement. For each category, find your own examples and discuss them as a class.

Notes 1 Jay Rosen, “The People Formerly Known as the Audience,” The Huffington Post, May 25, 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/the-peopleformerly-known_1_b_24113.html. 2 “Mobile Fact Sheet,” Pew Research Center, June 12, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile. 3 David Sarno, “Citizen Photo of Hudson River Plane Crash Shows Web’s Reporting Power,” Los Angeles Times, January 15, 2009. http://latimesblogs. latimes.com/technology/2009/01/citizen-photo-o.html. 4 Carl Quintanilla, “#TwitterRevolution” [documentary], CNBC Originals, air date August 17, 2013. 5 Pamela J. Shoemaker and Tim P. Vos, Gatekeeping Theory (New York: Routledge, 2009). 6 Anthony C. Adornato, “Forces at the Gate: Social Media’s Influence on Editorial and Production Decisions in Local Television Newsrooms,” Electronic News 10, no. 2 (June 2016): 87–104, doi:0.1177/1931243116647768. 7 Anthony C. Adornato, “A Digital Juggling Act: New Media’s Impact on the Responsibilities of Local Television Reporters.” Electronic News 8, no. 1 (March 2014): 3–29. doi:10.1177/1931243114523963. 8 Mina Nacheva, “Putting the U in User-Generated Content,” International Journalism Festival, May 3, 2014. http://magazine.journalismfestival.com/ putting-the-u-in-user-generated-content/. 9 Hillary Brenhouse, “Man Live-Tweets U.S. Raid on Osama bin Laden without Knowing It,” Time, May 2, 2011. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/02/ man-live-tweets-u-s-raid-on-osama-bin-laden-without-knowing-it/. 10 Adornato, “Forces at the Gate.” 11 Nacheva, “Putting the U in User-Generated Content.”

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12 “Digital News Report 2019,” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2019/. 13 Elisa Shearer, “Social Media Outpaces Print Newspapers in the U.S. as a News Source,” Pew Research Center, December 10, 2018. https://www. pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/10/social-media-outpaces-print-newspapers-in-the-u-s-as-a-news-source/. 14 Kristine Lu, “Growth in Mobile News Use Driven by Older Adults,” Pew Research Center, June 12, 2017. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/ 2017/06/12/growth-in-mobile-news-use-driven-by-older-adults/. Mason Walker, “Americans Favor Mobile Devices over Desktops and Laptops for Getting News,” Pew Research Center, November 19, 2019. https:// www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/19/americans-favor-mobiledevices-over-desktops-and-laptops-for-getting-news/. 15 Monica Anderson and Andrea Caumont, “How Social Media is Reshaping News,” Pew Research Center, September 24, 2014. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/. 16 “How is Mobile Consumption Changing Journalism?” The Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2013. http://on.wsj.com/1upNwBl. 17 Elisa Shearer and Katerina Eva Matsa, “News Use Across Social Media Platforms,” Pew Research Center, September 10, 2018. https://www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/. Mathew Ingram, “Facebook Has Taken over from Google as a Traffic Source for News,” Fortune, August 18, 2015. http://fortune.com/2015/08/18/ facebook-google/. 18 “Digital News Report 2015,” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2015/executive-summary-andkey-findings-2015/. 19 “Explore the Data,” Pew Research Center, 2019 survey data for the question: % of each group who say the most common way they get political and election news is… . https://www.pewresearch.org/pathways-2020/NEWS_ MOST/age/us_adults. “The 2016 Presidential Campaign—A News Event That’s Hard to Miss,” Pew Research Center, February 4, 2016. http://www.journalism.org/2016/02/ 04/the-2016-presidential-campaign-a-news-event-thats-hard-to-miss/. 20 Walker, “Americans Favor Mobile Devices over Desktops and Laptops for Getting News.” 21 “More than Two-Thirds Access Internet on Mobile Devices,” United States Census Bureau, August 8, 2018. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/ 2018/08/internet-access.html.

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22 “Study: 57% of Google Search Traffic is Mobile,” Retail Dive, September 5, 2017. https://www.retaildive.com/news/study-57-of-google-search-traffic-is -mobile/504146/. “Rolling Out the Mobile-Friendly Update,” Google Webmaster Central Blog, April 21, 2015. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2015/04/rolling -out-mobile-friendly-update.html. 23 Adornato, “A Digital Juggling Act.” 24 Ricardo Bilton, “How One Washington Post Reporter Uses Pen and Paper to Make the Tracking of Trump Get Noticed,” Nieman Lab, September 9, 2016. https://www.niemanlab.org/2016/09/how-one-washington-postreporter-uses-pen-and-paper-to-make-his-tracking-of-trump-get-noticed/. James Warren, “Meet David Fahrenthold, The Washington Post’s Trump Charity Sleuth,” Poynter, October 4, 2016. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2016/meet-david-fahrenthold-the-washington-posts-trumpfoundation-sleuth/. 25 Quintanilla, “#TwitterRevolution.” 26 Adornato, “A Digital Juggling Act.” 27 Jeffrey M. Jones, “Americans Endorse Reporter-Audience Social Media Interaction,” Gallup/Knight Foundation, September 6, 2019. https://news. gallup.com/opinion/gallup/266264/americans-endorse-reporter-audiencesocial-media-interaction.aspx. Natalie Jomini Stroud, “Interaction on Twitter Enhances Journalists’ Credibility,” American Press Institute, December 4, 2015. https://www.ame ricanpressinstitute.org/publications/research-review/twitter-credibility/. 28 “Looking Forward to 2020, Here are 10 Themes for News,” The New York Times, December 12, 2019. https://open.nytimes.com/looking-forward-to2020-here-are-10-themes-for-news-166d84125172.

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2 NAVIGATING CHANGE THE MOBILE-FIRST NEWSROOM

In this chapter, you will

• • • •

•

Evaluate the business of journalism today and its relationship with newsroom editorial strategies. Gain a deeper understanding of how news outlets are tapping into diverse funding streams in order to produce quality journalism. Learn what mobile-first means, and explore how it’s transforming business models and editorial strategies. Discover three factors at the heart of mobile-first: newsrooms serving as multiplatform hubs of content, the audience experience, and evolving business models. Develop a mobile-first mindset that will equip you to plan news coverage that best serves today’s audiences.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-2

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Rebooting the newsroom Journalists have to be willing to embrace change in order to thrive in the industry. An innovative and entrepreneurial spirit in newsrooms is critical at this juncture, as mobile devices and social media disrupt “business as usual.” Business models and editorial strategies are being reimagined—a reboot. Breaking down silos From local news outlets to international ones, old-school ways of doing business are being kicked to the curb. In Syracuse, New York, for instance, The Post-Standard and its website Syracuse.com had operated out of two different newsrooms. In fact, the newsrooms weren’t even in the same building. They were siloed. The print and digital operations, owned by Advance Publications, were located across town from each other. Advance Publications implemented a new, digitally focused strategy. The news operation and business model were overhauled. The wall between the print and digital came down. The Post-Standard and Syracuse.com were combined into one integrated operation called the Syracuse Media Group (renamed more recently to Advance Media New York). The news team now works out of a new headquarters, a collaborative workspace with no assigned desks. All reporters here are mobile journalists. They’re given backpacks with mobile devices and laptops they need to report and distribute news directly from the feld. It’s now every reporter’s job to tell stories across the outlet’s mobile, social, web, and print platforms. These changes came with layoffs. The shift to mobile-frst eliminated some long-standing newsroom positions while creating new digitallyfocused jobs. The newspaper laid off 115 full- and part-time employees, nearly a third of its staff. Syracuse Media Group then hired about 60 people focused on creating digital news content.1 That number has since increased. While ramping up the digital side, the news outlet reduced home delivery of its print edition from seven days to three days per week, a direct result of the drop in the number of print subscribers. “The business model is continually evolving to accommodate the inevitable decline of the print business,” said Trish LaMonte (@TrishLamonte),

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vice president of content for Advance Media New York. “We are positioning ourselves now for the day when the newspaper no longer exists.” Advance Publications was one of the frst media companies to implement such a top-to-bottom mobile-frst culture. The changes weren’t limited to Syracuse. The company owns newspapers and associated websites across the United States. It implemented a similar strategy at its other media outlets, including The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Louisiana, and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio.

FLASHBACK: EXPERIMENTING WITH “TELE-PAPERS” “Imagine, if you will, sitting down with your morning coffee, turning on your home computer to read the day’s newspaper.”2 Flashback to 1981. That’s how a San Francisco television anchor introduced a report about two of the city’s newspapers putting their print editions online. At that time, it took two hours to download a “tele-paper.” This story about the infancy of online news surfaced decades later on, where else, social media sites. What’s striking is how the newspapers were willing to experiment with the Internet at least a decade prior to most newsrooms. There’s also a bit of irony in the story, considering what we now know about the monumental changes in the way we consume and deliver news. The report goes on to say, “We’re not in it to make money. We’re probably not going to lose a lot, but we aren’t going to make much either” and “the new tele-paper won’t be much competition for the 20-cent street edition.” View the video: bitly.com/Tele-papers

More recently, Advance Media New York took another step in an effort to evolve its business model. The outlet piloted a subscription plan for Syracuse.com. After visitors viewed a certain number of articles, they hit a paywall. If they wished to view more, they had to pay $19.99 per month for unlimited access (print subscribers received unlimited digital access at no additional cost). The paywall was met with resistance and has since been taken down. That’s not a surprise. Considering access to most news websites has been free for so long, people are reluctant to pay for news. As Table 2.1 shows,

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Table 2.1 This Pew Research study shows that people are reluctant to pay for news.

Source: Pew Research Center

only 14 percent of Americans surveyed by Pew Research Center paid for local news in the year prior to the survey.3 Adding to the dilemma, research indicates that the public has little awareness of the fnancial challenges facing the journalism industry. Seventy percent of Americans believe news outlets are doing well fnancially.4 Financial and employment picture Today’s fnancial challenges in journalism are the culmination of a number of factors.

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First, the Internet provides countless channels for people to consume information, and the impact on the newspaper and broadcast industries has been seismic. Print newspaper readership has plummeted. U.S. newspaper circulation has reached its lowest level ever recorded.5 Meantime, television news viewership has steadily decreased as people increasingly turn to online resources. It’s not good enough to say, “We have been around for 50, 75, 100 years, so come to us.” The audience has plenty of other options to get news. Second, out of a need to survive, advertisers followed the audience. Businesses have shifted much of their advertising efforts from traditional platforms to online spaces where people are spending time. This has spelled trouble for media outlets relying on traditional revenue from print and broadcast advertising. Third, the recession of the late 2000s only exacerbated this situation by adding to the erosion of advertising dollars on traditional platforms. People were spending less, and that hurt many businesses’ bottom lines. Companies, including big advertisers such as car dealers and furniture stores, slashed their advertising budgets.   Table 2.2 & 2.3 The newspaper industry was hit particularly hard by the recession of the late 2000s and then again by the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Circulation and advertising revenue have declined dramatically.

Source: Pew Research Center

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The loss in advertising dollars hit news outlets, especially print, hard. Between 2008 and 2018 alone, print newspaper advertising revenue fell by 62 percent, plunging from $38 billion to $14 billion.6 This downward trend has continued. Meantime, digital advertising revenue has steadily moved in the opposite direction, but not at a fast-enough pace to make up for the drastic losses on the print side. It was a perfect storm: people going online for news coupled with a loss in the stream of traditional advertising revenue. Journalists felt the impact. During and immediately following the economic downturn that started in 2007, the journalism industry experienced layoffs of newsroom staff and the closure of some media outlets, particularly in the newspaper industry. As a result, news outlets have had to change their business models in order to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Businesses can collapse if their “theory of business”—assumptions a business is based on, including customers, competitors, values and behavior, and technology—is not revised to keep up with the changing marketplace.7 In an attempt to remain competitive, newsrooms are reaching audiences in new ways. First it was through traditional websites, and now it’s increasingly about mobile devices and social media. From the audience’s perspective, newsrooms today must meet the needs of news consumers who are focking to mobile devices and social media. It has become a cliché: The only constant in the media industry today is change. The cliché however is reality.8

The industry has rebounded in many ways since the Internet began to disrupt journalism. The hemorrhaging of jobs, particularly in print, has slowed down overall. As traditional print and broadcast newsrooms make mobile and social media a priority, they’re hiring staff members to specifcally manage these platforms. In addition, digital-only outlets are setting up shop, all part of a new business model. This has also led to the creation of new jobs within the industry, though not enough to offset the layoffs of years prior. Thousands of journalists, including many veterans, are now working at these digital-only news outlets—from smaller start-ups such as Philadelphia’s Billy Penn to bigger sites such as The Huffngton Post. There are approximately 14,000 positions at American digital-only news outlets, double the amount from 2008 in this sector.9

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Sure, there’s still uncertainty about what lies ahead. But that’s part of the excitement of teaching, studying, and practicing journalism today. I strongly believe we’re witnessing a rebirth of journalism. And you have a front-row seat. You’re part of it. “There’s a sense of energy that hasn’t existed inside the industry for quite some time,” said Amy Mitchell (@asmitch), Pew Research Center’s director of journalism research.10 Power of social media providers and other tech giants “I get my news from social media.” You’ve undoubtedly heard someone say this. But there’s more to this statement than might initially meet the eye. Who is providing the reliable news that people come across on social media? Journalists. Audiences worldwide continue to consume and value news from journalists. What has changed is how information fows from journalists and newsrooms to the audience. Social media providers and other tech giants, from Facebook to Google, play a key role in connecting audiences to journalists’ content. These platform providers have signifcant power. They have access to the audiences that news outlets need to survive and control over what content users see. Because of this, news organizations are rethinking their relationships with social media companies. It’s the topic of much discussion right now in the industry, and one you should pay close attention to. An increasing number of business and editorial strategies include collaborations with social media providers. For instance, Facebook offered news outlets as much as $3 million per year to license headlines and previews of their articles in the News Tab. While a Facebook editorial team—partially comprised of former journalists, according to the company—chooses top stories for the feed, a computerized algorithm matches users’ interests with other news content. When someone clicks a story in the News Tab, they are directed to the article on the news outlet’s website, generating web traffc for that publisher. Those clicks are key to attracting online advertisers to a website. Facebook at one point even paid newsrooms, including National Public Radio, to experiment with its Facebook Live streaming feature.

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Meantime, Apple launched Apple News Plus, a monthly subscription service that provides hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Apple calls it “Netfix for news.” Some news managers see this as an opportunity to reach new readers, others are more skeptical. Among the concerns are a loss of direct relationship with news consumers and Apple’s large cut of the subscription revenue (exact numbers have not been disclosed). Both Facebook and Google are investing hundreds of millions to fund local journalism through other initiatives. They include helping local newsrooms develop sustainable subscription and membership models as well as providing fnancial support to Report for America, a program that funds journalists reporting on under-covered issues for local newsrooms. Though these partnerships present potential new funding streams for newsrooms to produce quality journalism, they do not address the impact of social media providers and other tech giants on news outlets’ advertising revenue. Considering newspaper advertising revenue is now less than half of what it was a decade ago, newspapers, along with broadcast outlets, are trying to make inroads with businesses advertising on digital platforms.11 That has been a struggle. Digital advertising is growing signifcantly, but each sector of journalism is getting a small piece of the pie. Facebook and Google are reaping most the benefts, taking in half of all money spent on digital ads.12 Businesses are easily able to target potential customers on platforms beyond news outlets’ mobile apps and websites. This is one reason gains in newspaper digital advertising revenue are failing to make up for the drop in print advertising. A downside to social media providers’ role in the news distribution process is the fltering of content. Even though journalists and newsrooms can post their own content directly to Facebook, it doesn’t always make it through “the gates.” Let’s say someone “likes” your newsroom’s Facebook page. You might expect every time an item is posted to that page, it will show up in the feeds of people who’ve “liked” your station’s page. That’s not the case. The Facebook algorithm, a mathematical formula that predicts what will appeal to individuals, places only certain stories in followers’ feeds. Google also uses algorithms based on users’ search history. The company has come under fre for its search results that at times ranked fake

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news sites higher than legitimate news sources. Google announced it would modify the algorithm in order to fght fake news and include more original reporting from news outlets. The idea of journalists’ work being fltered in this way makes some in the industry uneasy. Newsrooms no longer have sole control of how news is distributed, and it demonstrates how powerful social media companies are. This power shift beckons the reimagining of outlets’ relationships with the audience and social media providers—that includes letting go of the traditional notion of news media as gatekeepers of information.

Mobile-f irst mindset Just as the infancy of the Internet was a wake-up call for newsrooms, so too are mobile devices and social media. Trying to stay ahead of the curve this time around, newsrooms are using lessons learned from the disruption caused by the Internet. Some are moving quicker than others. Digital-frst is a term that is often used in newsrooms. After the rise of the Internet, digital-frst meant publishing news on websites frst—where people were focking to keep up to date. Then mobile devices and social media came knocking. Today, digital-frst means mobile-frst. Again, following the audience’s lead. Mobile-frst is about making it a priority to deliver quality content that can be easily accessed by audiences on mobile devices and in social media spaces. As we discussed in Chapter 1, this mindset requires journalists to share information to mobile and social media platforms frst in many cases, prior to a web story or broadcast report. News websites and other traditional platforms are increasingly becoming the secondary places to publish information. That’s because Facebook, Twitter, and the like are the audience’s portals into the world of news. They’re the avenues where people are exposed to journalists’ work and news outlets’ brands. We also have to think about the user experience more than ever before. The content must be optimized and packaged in a user-friendly way for viewing. We’ll explore this concept in Chapters 5 and 6. The key to mobilefrst, said LaMonte, of Advance Media New York, is thinking: who are your users and what are their needs?

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KEY POINTS ABOUT A MOBILE-FIRST MINDSET •

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Multiplatform hubs of content. A news outlet can no longer plant its flag as a newspaper, television station, or radio station. The same goes for reporters. Newspaper reporters are doing more than just print. TV reporters are doing more than just TV. Radio reporters are doing more than just radio. Think of each newsroom as a hub of content. They have many different platforms to reach audiences, and stories must be told across these platforms. That means taking different approaches for each space, as we’ll discuss later in this chapter and in future ones. Audience experience. Journalists must reimagine how news is reported and in what spaces in order to make it accessible to audiences who move between devices and platforms. A positive user experience with quality content in all of these spaces is key. Engagement, a two-way conversation with your audience, is also part of this experience. Evolving business models. Different business models are emerging that tap into new revenue streams from the mobile audience and digital advertising. Solid journalism still needs to be funded. That’s always been the case. What has changed is how it’s funded.

“With an ever-increasing percentage of our web traffc coming from phones and other mobile devices, we now believe if it doesn’t work on mobile, it doesn’t work—period,” said LaMonte. “You can create the coolest graphic but if it won’t load in our app or is unreadable on the phone then it’s not worth doing.” This mindset is directly tied to the business side of journalism. A seamless user experience with content is one important factor to keep the audience coming back for more. Mobile-frst has given rise to evolving business models. News outlets are tapping into new revenue streams on these platforms. They’re experimenting with how they can monetize the news products they offer people on their small screens and how to capitalize on the digital advertising market. Here are a few additional case studies of how a mobile-frst approach is taking shape at news outlets. Note how the idea of newsrooms as

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multiplatform hubs of content, the audience experience, and evolving business models come into play in these examples. The New York Times. Today’s story pitch meetings inside The New York Times are radically different from those of years prior. The Times has done away with the system of pitching for page 1, the front page of the print edition. The process of selecting page 1 stories plays a less prominent role. Under the new system, editors now pitch stories to be considered for a list of stories that get “the very best play on all our digital platforms”—web, mobile, and social.13 Dean Baquet, the outlet’s executive editor, noted the system would give more fexibility for the paper to target people using mobile devices and social media. This is a signifcant shift in strategy for an outlet whose culture has been tied to page 1. For many reporters, getting a story on page 1 of The Times has been the holy grail, a career-defning goal. Revamping of editorial meetings was one step toward the mobile-frst strategy outlined in an internal Times innovation report. “Our home page has been our main tool for getting our journalism to readers, but its impact is waning. Only a third of our readers ever visit it,” acknowledged the report.14 “Readers are fnding and engaging with our journalism in vastly different ways.” The Times is focusing heavily on increasing its digital subscription base, which has experienced record growth (there was a signifcant increase following the 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump). Offering digital subscriptions related to its niche content, such as the Cooking and Crossword sections, has been a successful strategy. These niche subscriptions accounted for nearly a third of new subscribers at one point.15 To enhance the audience experience, The Times has also expanded its use of virtual reality, augmented reality, and data visualization in its storytelling. National Public Radio (NPR). The graying of NPR’s traditional audience has the media outlet rethinking its relationship with listeners in a new age. As its core demographic of listeners ages, NPR is strategizing how to attract a younger audience to its brand. Expanding its podcast offerings has proven effective. NPR podcasts have exploded in popularity, attracting a following across all demographics. Average weekly users who downloaded NPR podcasts jumped from two million in 2014 to 11 million in 2019.16 The mobility of podcasts, the ability to listen to them nearly anywhere, is attractive to news consumers.

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In addition, podcasts tend to be conversational in nature, giving listeners a more intimate experience than the style of other news content. The public radio broadcaster has also made its NPR One mobile app available on smart speakers, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. NPR One is a way for public radio to reach listeners who might not be tuning to terrestrial radio. The app gives users a personalized stream of mobile content. It pulls in stories from national shows, local newscasts, and podcasts. NPR One users are signifcantly younger than NPR’s traditional broadcast audience, with Millennials driving growth. Vermont Digger. When journalist Anne Galloway was laid off, she decided to build her own news outlet, the Vermont Digger. With a focus on enterprise and investigative reporting, Galloway has turned the start-up into a fnancially sound news operation. The audience and revenue have steadily grown since the VTDigger was launched in 2009. So has the number of fulltime employees. The VTDigger has more reporters than some of the traditional news outlets in the state. The digital-only outlet is testing out a host of efforts to attract an audience and grow its revenue: among them, email newsletters and podcasts. The VTDigger also rebuilt its website to make it mobile-friendly and ensure pages load faster. As a nonproft, the outlet relies on a mix of funding: donations, corporate sponsors, grants, and memberships. Like other nonproft newsrooms, the VTDigger also distributes its content to newspapers and broadcast outlets. For a fee, those newsrooms can publish the VTDigger’s reporting. The VTDigger was one of the frst recipients of grant money from the American Journalism Project. Money for the Project comes from a number of funders, including Facebook, to support local journalism. In addition, Report for America funded a reporter position at the outlet. News5 Philippines. This Filipino television outlet is focused on much more than traditional TV news production these days. News5 has become a mobile-frst newsroom. Most reporting for its TV newscasts and digital platforms is carried out by using mobile devices. News5 journalists are accustomed to writing, shooting, editing, and publishing stories from a mobile phone. News5 also created a division that produces content solely for social media. The outlet has beefed up its social videos on Facebook and YouTube. “We have evidence that our news consumers prefer to watch content rather

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than read or listen to a story,” said News5’s Ana Puod (@anapuod). “Videos are what are making money for us.”17 Compared to other social media sites, YouTube offers more possibilities to monetize video content, therefore, News5 is attempting to build a bigger following on YouTube. In 2019, News5 had a billion views on its YouTube channel.

FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 2.1 Jaime Cárdenas (@JaimeACardenas). Social Media Strategist and Analyst,The USA Today Network. Tell us about your role with Gannett’s USA Today Network. I help coordinate a social media strategy for more than 260 of Gannett’s local newsrooms across the United States. As a member of the audience strategy team, I take my social media background and combine it with analytics to better understand our audience. I work with our local newsrooms to identify and create new ways to distribute news on social

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media. I also help these Gannett newsrooms develop strategies to grow digital subscriptions and foster loyalty. What does an ideal mobile and social strategy look like? We’re not looking at social media as just a platform. It’s also a distribution vehicle to reach readers. You’re producing content in different ways depending on how people consume content on different platforms. If we’ve done a major investigation, we know how it’s going to look on page A1, but we can’t just use a photo and put some text on Instagram and call it a day. The reporting needs to be packaged in a way that is consumable for an Instagram audience. In addition, understanding audience members and building a connection with them is where a digital strategy needs to be focused. It means writing with a purpose, with a specific audience in mind. It’s identifying the audience and creating content for it. For example, one of our outlets does a really great job at cultivating a community around high school sports coverage on Instagram. That newsroom wants to tell the stories of athletes in a way that is suitable for an Instagram audience. Why Instagram? Because an overwhelming number of teens are on Instagram, and the majority do not read a printed newspaper. High school athletes are excited now about getting featured on Instagram just as their parents would have been years ago if mentioned in a paper. How do you build brand loyalty? We want people to discover our brand and then fall in love with it. Compelling content is one aspect of attracting an audience. There’s also the process of how you foster brand loyalty. That’s where the reader funnel concept comes into play. At the top of the funnel is where you have new readers who come in sideways—through search and social media. In the middle are loyal returning readers but they’re not subscribers. At the bottom of the funnel are subscribers. The job doesn’t just end with taking someone from the top to the bottom of the funnel. Retention is critical. Pay attention to your paying customer so you can retain them. We have to work just as hard to keep them. We must have ongoing conversations with our subscribers. That’s one reason why our work on social pays off—we provide them with quality content and engagement. We know that Facebook groups are becoming a bigger part of a strategy to retain an audience. By creating Facebook

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groups focused on niche topics, we build a community and foster a dialogue with people. This also requires reporters to be actively engaging on social and listening to our audience. Important skills for young journalists to have? Today’s journalist needs to be able to write for web, understand the basics of SEO and social media, and know how to edit video. When I was in college, my teachers were telling me to write as much as I could and in as many places as I could in order to improve my writing. It didn’t matter if it was a diary or a blog. “Just write,” they would say. To students who are in college today, I would build on what my teachers told me and recommend starting a YouTube channel. Video plays an important role in how current and future readers will consume news. Journalists who can write and are comfortable in front of and behind the camera are needed, because of that audience behavior.

Adapting to a mobile audience: Evolving business models Let’s take a brief look at the evolving business models in four main sectors of journalism: newspaper, television, radio, and digital-only. Each type of outlet is taking a different approach to diversifying how it makes money. Newspaper I start with the newspaper industry because it has undeniably been the journalism sector most impacted by new technologies. In response to the sharp drop in print readers and advertising dollars, the industry is experimenting with a host of approaches to generate revenue, most notably paywalls, subscriptions, and digital advertising. Most newspapers charge to access their coverage online, according to research conducted by the American Press Institute and the Reuters Institute.18 The majority do so through metered paywalls. This approach has been positive for the most part, although longer-term success remains to be seen. Metered paywalls allow readers to view a certain number of articles for free. Beyond that, they must purchase a subscription to view more.

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The Dallas Morning News, for instance, has a metered paywall that limits nonsubscribers to 10 articles a month. Readers can then buy a monthly digital subscription. Otherwise, they have to wait a month to read another 10 free articles. The newspaper tried several other approaches that weren’t successful, including a model in which some articles were free for all readers while others, such as investigations, were available only to subscribers. Bundling is also common. Newspapers with paywalls typically give online access to their print subscribers. In certain areas, however, that print edition is showing up in mailboxes fewer days of the week. Some newspapers, such as those owned by Advance Publications, have reduced the number of days they publish a print edition. A drastic decline in print subscribers is a major factor behind this decision. This strategy saves on costs of printing and home delivery while shifting attention to digital spaces. Digital strategies include not only a mobile-friendly website often behind a paywall, but also a mobile app and email newsletters. Some newspapers charge readers to access content via mobile apps as well. Access to apps is often tied to a digital subscription. In order to get full access to an app from a newspaper owned by the Gannett Company, which operates outlets in nearly every state, you have to purchase a subscription. A small number of newspapers are testing out other approaches, such as a micropayments paywall. Micropayment plans let people pay per article. One goal of this, like other strategies, is to convert these people to purchase digital subscriptions. The question remains, though: How can you compel people to pay for news online when they’ve been accustomed to getting it at no-cost? Very few news outlets charged to read online articles when they frst launched websites in the late 1990s. Asking readers to start paying years later is a challenge. As we’ll discuss shortly, audience members’ willingness to open up their wallets is tied to the value news outlets provide them: consistent quality journalism combined with a positive experience and authentic engagement across all platforms. Keeping the audience coming back for more is also important for attracting advertisers. Armed with data about website traffc, mobile app downloads, and subscriber demographics (among many other metrics), sales teams at all types of media outlets approach businesses focused on digital advertising. Beyond advertising, subscriptions, and paywalls, some newspaper outlets are branching out into hosting events. Broadcast and digital-only outlets

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are also experimenting with these non-traditional ways to generate revenue. The New York Times, for example, hosts an annual travel show in New York City. In smaller markets, outlets such as The Daytona Beach News-Journal organize home shows and job fairs, among other events. The revenue from these events can come in many forms, including tickets sales, fees paid by event vendors, advertising, and corporate sponsorship. In addition to the fnancial benefts, they are a way to deepen an outlet’s relationship with the community. Television Changes are playing out a bit differently at television outlets. TV news continues to maintain healthy viewership levels, despite a steady decrease in the number of people tuning in. But the enormous disruption that print saw may be just around the corner for TV. Nearly half of Americans say they still watch local TV news on a regular basis. However, taking a look at the younger demographic tells a different story. Fewer than 20 percent of those ages 18 to 29 often get news from local TV.19 This trend will continue. The younger generation is accustomed to getting news via mobile devices and social media, a habit that is unlikely to change as they get older. That could spell trouble for traditional TV news. This hits home an earlier point about newsrooms serving as multiplatform hubs of content—focusing on one platform, or even two, is not enough. Newsrooms have to reach this younger audience on platforms beyond TV in order to attract them as loyal and, hopefully, lifelong customers. News outlets’ fnancial health will depend in part on this approach. TV newsrooms have stepped up their mobile and social media game. One way has been to make their on-air newscasts more “social.” A majority of stations integrate social media into traditional newscasts, with most including a recurring social media segment.20 For example, they ask Facebook followers to comment about a story, and then news anchors read the feedback on-air. This also works in the other direction. Anchors ask newscast viewers to weigh in on a story by posting a comment to Facebook or tweeting at the station. So, you may be wondering how a television station, or any outlet, makes money from all of this social media activity? The hope is that this

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engagement enhances the connection with the audience and ultimately pays off by driving them to watch a station’s newscast, visit its website, and download its app. The more eyeballs on those platforms, the better chance an outlet has at attracting advertisers. Television stations have also launched mobile apps and mobile-friendly websites. How TV outlets monetize these platforms is different from how the newspaper industry does it. They sell advertising on these digital spaces, but it’s highly uncommon for TV outlets to charge for access. Not a single local TV station has a website paywall and the majority of local TV news apps are free.21 TV outlets haven’t yet felt the pressure to put up paywalls because revenue from TV commercials is strong. TV news still generates most of its revenue from commercials, with a signifcant portion of the money coming from political ads in election years. There are also new streams of advertising revenue on websites and mobile apps. Mobile marketing campaigns are a growing area of digital ad dollars, as businesses try to reach potential customers. TV stations have always used data about their newscast audiences to attract advertisers. Now, that’s just one piece of the puzzle. Metrics about the station’s digital audience, even the number and demographic of followers on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, are used to attract advertisers. This is common practice no matter the type of news outlet. With this data, stations’ sales departments are able to sell customized advertising packages that include ads on the web, mobile devices, social media, and TV. Stations may have to come up with more creative ways to bring in money, though, as all signs point to a continued decline in TV news viewing. With the TV news business still proftable, now is the time to experiment with new business models before the other shoe drops. Radio Even though habits of the listening audience are changing drastically, local radio stations have been slower to adapt. I don’t have to tell you that tuning into an AM/FM radio is becoming a thing of the past. A website or app is becoming the go-to place for listeners to stream radio. The number of Americans 12 years and older who listen to online radio has more than tripled in the past decade.22 And the majority of this group listens via smartphones rather than desktops.

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Local radio stations have beefed up their online websites to provide streaming of local news and other programming. However, when it comes to mobile apps, radio stations lag behind their newspaper and television counterparts. Despite the audience’s shifting habits, approximately 40 percent of local radio stations do not have mobile apps.23 “Spot” advertising—ads aired during radio broadcasts—continues to be the main revenue stream for radio stations. However, this traditional way of making money is on the decline. Meantime, revenue from digital advertising and “off-air” efforts has seen gains. Off-air is the one radio revenue category that is showing the most serious growth. Off-air includes sponsorships of community events hosted by stations. Podcasting is an area that could hold revenue potential for local radio stations and breathe new life into audio journalism. The challenge facing many local radio stations is the lack of resources. It’s one reason they haven’t moved more aggressively on mobile platforms, and the same problem prevents local stations from building podcast offerings. To build a bridge to the mobile audience, some radio outlets have their stations hosted on streaming services such as the TuneIn app. Users of TuneIn can listen to radio stations and podcasts from around the world. The one downfall: radio stations receive very little of the money these services generate from advertising and subscription fees. Digital-only New players have entered the journalism feld: digital-only news outlets. Digital-only news organizations present a unique opportunity for journalists to tell stories and engage with audiences on mobile devices and social media. Unlike newspaper, television, and radio, they rely solely on new media to distribute content. Most of the digital-only players are start-ups testing out different ways of being funded. Digital-only includes large outlets such as Vice and The Huffngton Post as well as hyperlocal ones such as Charlottesville Tomorrow and The Village Green. As I mentioned earlier, they’ve created thousands of journalism jobs. Even high-profle journalists from major news outlets are now working at these newer ventures. These newsrooms are also rife with opportunities for

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younger journalists who have the mobile and social media skills that are so critical to the outlets’ digital-only strategy. The outlets are flling gaps left in reporting by newsrooms that have trimmed their staffs. And they’re producing award-winning journalism. Take for example, the Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica. It takes money to fund this type of quality journalism, and digital-only outlets are trying to fgure out a consistent formula. These outlets typically don’t have the same overhead costs of traditional news outlets. Inexpensive digital tools are all they need to produce and share digital-only content. A challenge though is that they must build news consumers’ awareness about the value of their work. Even though hiring at these outlets has skyrocketed, a maintainable business model is critical to keeping these journalists employed. Where the money comes from is varied. Tech giants have invested in digital-only operations. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar invested $250 million into First Look Media, a start-up by a group of noted investigative journalists. (This followed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s purchase of The Washington Post.) Vice, Vox Media, BuzzFeed, and Business Insider are other digital-only newsrooms that have received signifcant investments from players with deep pockets. This type of funding alone isn’t enough to keep the hundreds of digitalonly news operations afoat. Smaller outlets, some of them nonprofts, have limited resources, even relying on part-time staff and volunteers to produce content. Digital-only outlets are tapping into digital advertising, sponsorships, events, and user-supported models (paywalls, subscriptions, and memberships). The Texas Tribune, a nonproft watchdog reporting outlet founded in 2009 by a venture capitalist and two journalists, is betting on several revenue streams to keep it fnancially sound. The outlet’s business plan has been highly successful. Readers can make a one-time donation or pay for a membership, money that helps keep access free to the website for everyone. None of The Tribune’s content is behind a paywall. (Membership models invite people to give voluntarily, often motivated by a belief in the mission of a news outlet. A subscription model requires readers to pay on a regular basis in order to access an unlimited number of articles.)

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Photo 2.2 & 2.3 The Texas Tribune, a digital-only news outlet, represents a new journalism business model. Instead of relying on traditional advertising to remain fnancially viable, the outlet offers a monthly membership and welcomes fnancial support from individual and corporate sponsors.

Depending on the level of giving, members receive benefts such as behind-the-scenes access to The Tribune newsroom and special perks at events hosted by the outlet. The Tribune has been successful at generating revenue—$2.5 million in one year alone—from putting on events.   The Tribune website is heavily supported by corporate sponsors, but is ad-free—for right now anyway. The outlet partners with local television and radio stations throughout the state of Texas to provide coverage of underreported stories. These collaborations build awareness about the quality of The Tribune’s reporting.

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The news team at The Village Green, a hyperlocal outlet in New Jersey, hopes the community appreciates the value of its journalism—and is willing to pay for it. The Village Green’s reporting digs into issues in neighborhoods that are often not covered by traditional news outlets. After a period of providing stories free of charge, the outlet eventually had to put up a subscription paywall. The paywall, starting at $5 per month, is now a growing pillar of The Village Green’s business plan. It accounts for 25 percent of the outlet’s revenue. In a letter to its readers, The Village Green’s founders explained the move to a paywall: Gathering news costs money. The kind of content we feature every day on The Village Green—local stories brought to you by journalists who ask questions, attend meetings, know the issues and the community, and follow up on readers’ suggestions and comments—takes time, skill and a willingness to tackle sometimes thorny issues with humanity and fairness. We don’t just aggregate what other media have written; nor do we “drop in” for the big stories then disappear. We cover the towns day in, day out. We’re here for the long haul. The revenue the paywall generates will help to ensure the continuation of The Village Green for years to come and enable us to expand our coverage to give readers even more local news, with bylines from more diverse writers and photographers.24

Newsroom mobile and social media editorial strategies By now, it should start becoming clear that the business side of journalism is tied to the editorial side of journalism. The bottom line is that newsrooms must draw an audience to their work in order to entice readers to pay for content or for a sales department to bring in advertising dollars. In turn, this money allows reporters to keep chasing down stories. You see the cycle here. That’s where newsrooms’ editorial strategies come into play. Now that we’ve discussed evolving business models of mobile-frst, the remainder of this chapter explores some key components of successful newsroom mobile and social media editorial strategies. No matter your position in a newsroom, you play a part in carrying out—and even shaping—the strategy. Your role in that process starts with being knowledgeable about the business and editorial sides of mobile-frst.

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You’ll be able to ask important questions and make informed decisions, whether it’s in a newsroom where you’re working or during a job interview. Shouldn’t we structure stories differently so people can more easily navigate them on mobile devices? How can we use new media to reach those who typically do not engage with news? What’s the newsroom’s policy for verifying user-generated content? Which mobile app does the newsroom use to produce videos? What type of content works better on Instagram versus Facebook? These are just a few of the important items for journalists to consider. Future chapters dig into these nitty-gritty details and skills. Now, though, a look at the bigger picture. An understanding of editorial strategies will equip you to plan news coverage that best serves the audience. Keep them coming back for more So how do newsrooms and journalists keep audiences coming back for more? Trust is key. “News organizations that earn trust have an advantage in earning money and growing audiences,” according to research conducted by the Media Insight Project.25 People who trust news outlets are more likely to pay for news, download news apps, and share news with their friends. Trust can be earned by providing value to the public through • • •

quality content across platforms, a positive audience experience, and authentic engagement.

If audience members are to keep craving more, they need to walk away feeling satisfed. People aren’t going to invest their time and money in a news product unless they fnd consistent value in it, which ultimately builds their trust with journalists. It’s all about a relationship with the audience, and trust is the foundation of a meaningful one. Quality Content. Journalists must remain vigilant about the quality of news they produce, or else they risk breaking the trust of the audience. That’s because people value quality content. The Media Insight Project found that accuracy of information and receiving the most up-to-date details about a news event are important trust factors for news consumers, no matter the platform.

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Eighty-fve percent of Americans rate it extremely or very important that news organizations get the facts correct; this is higher than they rate any other principle. The second most valued trust factor has to do with timeliness. In this digital age, a majority of people say it’s critical that news reports have the very latest details. They’ve become accustomed to getting the most up-to-date details at their fngertips. The trick for journalists then is to fnd the proper balance between sharing the latest information quickly and taking the time to make sure it’s accurate. Unfortunately, some outlets have lost sight of providing consistent quality content for those accessing content on mobile devices and social media platforms. Studies show a majority of people are concerned with what they perceive as overall low quality of news available on social media sites.26 Bias in the news and inaccurate information are noted as two of the biggest issues.27 The use of clickbait has also compromised quality. Clickbait is sensational content shared on social media that is intended to drive traffc to a website and increase the number of social media shares and likes. The content is often trivial, gimmicky, and lacks journalistic value. It’s a sure way to break trust. Maintaining journalistic integrity is imperative, or else the public may respond with distrust, ultimately undermining the profession and making it more diffcult to attract an audience. Knowing your audience is key to providing the appropriate quality content and building trust. News outlets have mounds of data about audience habits and demographics that help guide editorial strategies. NPR uses this data to build audience affnity for content on its NPR One app. The app emphasizes quality local content because that’s what listeners are telling NPR they want. One of the biggest indicators of people coming back to NPR One is the presence of local news. Audience data is also increasingly being used at NPR and other outlets to connect people with niche content (e.g. environment, travel, and LGBTQ) they are passionate about. Positive audience experience. Quality content alone isn’t enough to keep the audience coming back for more. The content is only as good as people’s experience with it on different platforms. In order to have a positive experience, the audience needs to be able to easily access content across devices and platforms. With so many people getting news via mobile and social media, they’re now evaluating news sources’ competency on these platforms. As Table 2.4

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Table 2.4 The Media Insight Project shows that news consumers value content that provides a seamless experience and can be easily accessed.

Source: Media Insight Project

shows, a majority of digital news consumers cite factors related to news presentation and delivery as critical to whether they trust a news source. The audience can be left frustrated by ads that interfere with viewing news, websites, or apps that load slowly, and sites that don’t work well on mobile devices. These stumbling blocks make people question the value of a news outlet. And you risk losing them for good. “If a news source or a website doesn’t have a mobile version, I don’t know why but I just feel like I don’t even want to read it,” said one participant of the Media Insight Project study.28 “It makes me feel like if you don’t have a mobile version, you’re not keeping up with the times. It just makes me not want to go to the website. It makes me question it.”

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Photo 2.4 Readers who can’t fnd the most important details of an article within the frst few paragraphs can get frustrated and swipe away. Many of CNBC’s stories begin with a list of key points.

The layout of stories is also important to perfecting the audience experience and preventing people from swiping away from your work. Including visual elements, such as lists and photos, in stories enhances the experience. These features help to break up the story text, making the content easily digestible and visually appealing for people viewing on small screens. Chapter 6 includes tips on optimizing your writing and story layout for mobile devices. 

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Personalization is another way newsrooms are trying to create a positive experience in which people feel like they can’t live without their content. Many news apps allow users to customize their experience by selecting which types of stories they’re interested in and the types of news alerts they wish to receive. Some outlets use technology that monitors what people read to automatically personalize which stories show up for them on a website or app. Finally, selling an “experience” across platforms is an important part of an outlet’s strategy. Just take a look at how the Chicago Tribune pitches its digital subscription: Unlimited Digital Access gives you unlimited access to our exclusive premium storytelling and represents the best of the Chicago Tribune online. Subscription includes the eNewspaper, a copy of the daily Chicago Tribune delivered to you digitally every morning, and the Chicago Tribune App, an enhanced mobile experience for your smartphone and tablet. Plus subscribers receive exclusive benefits such as access to subscriber-only experiences and special discounts.29

Authentic engagement. The other important piece of a mobile and social media strategy is authentic engagement. Authentic engagement with the audience builds trust. Journalists can act as a trusted source by listening and responding. That’s why social media sites are such a critical platform for journalists. They’re the places where you can have interactions with the public. Social media offers something that traditional platforms and newsrooms previously lacked—the more informal two-way conversation we discussed in Chapter 1. News can no longer “lecture.” People expect to be part of a conversation. They value being heard. Think about a trusted relationship. It’s as much about listening as it’s about talking. Authentic engagement includes what is called “social listening.” Social listening is the idea that journalists not only promote their work and share information, but also listen and respond to what people have to say on social media. Responding to feedback, asking questions, crowdsourcing stories, and holding live online Q&As are just a few ways to show you care about your audience. These interactions, this partnership, presents an opportunity to strengthen journalism. Journalists can better understand the wants and needs of the audience. In turn, bringing the audience into the journalistic

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process shows that you value their input and can leave them feeling more invested in your work. It’s about delivering more than just a tangible “product.” In a study I conducted about social media use in TV newsrooms, one manager stressed this point: “Social media allows people to have a personal and emotional connection to our newscasts and station.”30 This connection can help set you apart from the competition. Audience engagement is so important that newsrooms now have full-time staff members dedicated to this role. Among many responsibilities, they strategize the best type of content for different social media platforms, listen to news consumers’ needs, and monitor analytics that measure how users respond to the content. But the responsibility doesn’t fall just on their shoulders. Social media engagement requires all hands on deck in newsrooms. Fostering and managing these conversations is a routine part of journalists’ tasks. As the next chapter addresses, social media sites have created an opportunity for individual journalists to develop their own brands based on the value they bring to these online networks. The trust you build with your online community can make you the go-to source for information. That’s because with the overload of information— and misinformation—on social media, people still rely on trusted news sources. The Media Insight Project found that news consumers on social media look for cues to overcome skepticism about content they see there and to decide what to click. People judge the validity of news on social media based on the original source of the information and the credibility of the person who shared it. “As such, their decisions to trust any piece of news in the moment actually has roots in a longer relationship with the person or brand who shared and originated it,” said journalist Josh Stearns (@jcstearns).31 That bodes well for journalists who put time and effort into ongoing interactions with the audience. A fnal note about authentic engagement: It can foster a community. Newsrooms are tapping into social media’s potential for creating communities around shared interests and passions. Take for example the “Remember when, Columbus?” Facebook group launched by The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio. “Remember when, Columbus?” digs into the newspaper’s archives to engage modern-day audiences. The

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group highlights vintage images and memories, such as a look back at the blizzard of 1978. “Remember when, Columbus?” creates an emotional experience and connection with the audience. The site has people feeling nostalgic. They’re contributing their own photos, stories, and sentimental posts to the Facebook group. The Columbus Dispatch also produces stories about the history of the region and shares those links with the group. This helps keep the conversation going and encourages people to share the content among their circle of friends. These forms of social media engagement around specifc interests are leading to in-person engagement. The Texas Tribune launched two private Facebook groups, This is Your Texas and Campus Correspondents, to reach the state’s fastest-growing population: young and ethnically diverse Texans. To deepen engagement and tailor coverage to this demographic, the outlet takes the conversation one step further: it hosts community events. During a summer series, “Dreamers”—unauthorized immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors and whose deportations have been temporarily waived under a federal program—discussed their experiences growing up in America. Another event focused on family separations along the Texas border. These events are a way for journalists to learn more about issues impacting residents and offer community members an opportunity to ask journalists about their reporting. An overwhelming majority of people say it is important for local journalists to not only understand the history of the community where they work, but also be personally engaged with it, according to Pew Research.32 Residents who view local journalists as connected to the area give their local news outlets much higher marks compared to those who do not see journalists as engaged. Authentic engagement, positive audience experience, and quality content are the key pillars of an editorial strategy that can keep the audience coming back for more and ultimately sustain journalism. Dif ferent platforms, dif ferent approaches Each social media site is like a different water cooler. In order to be successful at engaging people on social media, you must know more about these digital water coolers and who’s hanging out at them.

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Each platform requires a different approach. When determining the most appropriate strategy, the main items to keep in mind are demographics, style, and time of posts. Demographics. Table 2.5 shows the demographic breakdown of top social networking sites. While there’s some crossover, each site appeals to a somewhat different demographic of people. Instagram news consumers, for instance, are different from other groups because they’re more likely to be nonwhite, young, and female.33 Knowing this type of data can help you tailor content to appeal to different audiences on each platform. It’s important to note that the demographic makeup of each social media platform is not necessarily representative of the general population. Therefore journalists must be cautious about their reliance and efforts on any one single social media site. Facebook continues to dominate as the social media site all Americans use the most to get news.34 It serves as a major pathway to news. Among social media platforms, Facebook is the largest driver of traffc to news outlets’ websites. At WIS-TV in Columbia, South Carolina, 75 percent of traffc to the station’s website comes from Facebook. Table 2.5 The demographic of users on different social networking sites.

Source: Pew Research Center

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Based on this type of data, news outlets are rethinking their mobile and social media strategies. The Philadelphia Inquirer social team used to dedicate a majority of its time to Twitter. That strategy changed when the staff realized that Twitter was only generating three percent of referral traffc to The Inquirer website. This may not be surprising when you consider there are signifcantly fewer people on Twitter versus Facebook. The team is now focusing much of its social media efforts on Facebook and Instagram. Connecting with younger social media users in spaces where they’re “hanging out,” such as Instagram and TikTok, can also pay off in the long run for news outlets, according to NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson). “This [18–25 year-olds] is our future audience. You have to be engaging now with this demographic,” said Jackson. “You need to bring them into the tent early because in 10 or 15 years they’ll stick with our brand if we engage them now. You’re cultivating a relationship that has the potential to last.” Style. The platform will also determine the style of content you post. Each site has distinct features and a unique culture of users. For example, Instagram users expect visually appealing content. Instagram stories typically include emojis, flters, and colorful text. The style of Instagram content could catch your Twitter followers off guard, if you were to post the same story there. “It’s just about fnding how people communicate on that specifc medium to keep viewers engaged and informed,” said Michelle Ye Hee Lee (@myhlee), of The Washington Post.35 When she was a reporter for The Post’s Fact Checker team, Lee experimented with Snapchat to deliver political fact checking to a younger demographic. The Post team is now heavily focused on producing Instagram Stories. The best social media network to share breaking news? Twitter. Six out of ten Twitter news users turn to the site to keep up with developing news.36 This data reveals the distinct strength of Twitter as a reporting tool during live events. A constant stream of posts about breaking news on Twitter fts with the culture of that space. On Facebook, that approach, one post after another in a short time span, might leave your followers annoyed. Another way to potentially turn people off is by trying to “ft in” on a certain platform without having anything meaningful to share.

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“Don’t go on a platform if you have nothing to say on it,” wrote Francesco Zaffarano (@FraZaffarano), social media editor at The Telegraph, in a column about TikTok.37 The Washington Post was one of the frst news organizations to experiment with TikTok. The Post has created an appropriate style and tone, noted Zaffarano, in its playful series of videos that shows what it’s like behind the scenes of the outlet. Other journalists followed in The Post’s footsteps. Though it’s encouraging to see newsrooms experiment with TikTok in such a laid-back style, Zaffarano said, there is a risk of patronizing younger news consumers based on a stereotype that they don’t care about real news. Delivering meaningful information in the distinct style of each platform is key. Time of posts. With mobile devices in hand, people are “snacking” on social media content throughout the day. But according to research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, there are three periods when they’re more likely to engage with digital content: frst thing in the morning, lunchtime, and early evening.38 Perhaps you want to ask a question related to a story. Four-thirty in the afternoon might not be the best time, as many people are wrapping up their works days and getting ready to commute home. Of course, news never stops. So the timing of when you post certain information will depend more on whether the news event warrants it and less on the time periods when people are most active online. The New York Times found that time of day can also infuence the type of content people will consume. “We saw that the majority of people prefer to consume hard news in the morning, and less demanding content, such as a true crime or pop culture podcast, in the evenings,” according to a Times study about people’s behaviors.39 In the morning, people tend to be willing to engage with more serious news that updates them on what happened overnight and prepares them for the day ahead. Later in the day, the demands of work and family life may have them craving lighter content as they unwind. Both time of day and cognitive load are two interconnected aspects for journalists to consider. Analytics offered by social media providers can also shed light on the most optimal times to post. For example, Facebook Insights, available for professional pages, shows the demographic breakdown of your followers and the times of day they are most likely to be on the site.

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As you can see, the differences based on demographics, style, and time of posts help to clarify the role each platform plays in the news landscape. However, this data is only one piece of the puzzle. These are general guidelines. There’s no one-size-fts-all approach. So much of this is about experimentation. In Chapter 7, we’ll explore how to access your own analytics for each of your social media networks. I have created an analytics checklist for you in that chapter. You’ll be able to see the demographics of your followers and how they’re responding to what you share, among other metrics. Analyzing this data is a good habit to get into, because it will alert you to whether your social media efforts are paying off. What’s working? What needs improvement? It all goes back to knowing your audience so you can serve them best. Experimenting with mobile and social news products Editorial strategies include experimentation with emerging forms of video storytelling as well as delivering news via podcasts, smart speakers, e-newsletters, and text messaging. Newsrooms are hiring staff dedicated to developing and testing these mobile and social news products. Video. The growth in video storytelling—particularly vertical, tapthrough, mobile-immersive content—is taking place in all types of newsrooms. The “Story” format, frst introduced by Snapchat and then adopted by Instagram, is a major area of attention for newsrooms. So much so that it’s one of the “core outputs” for Vice, according to Corey Haik (@coreyhaik), the outlet’s chief digital offcer. “This is a signifcant and required shift in order to meet the audience where they are,” Haik wrote in an article for Nieman Lab.40 This shift is not just about repurposing video shot for a web story or television newscast. Instead, producing these videos specifcally for mobile and social is driving the strategy. This often includes “readable videos,” those that provide text on the screen so that viewers on mobile devices do not have to turn on the volume in order to understand what the story is about.  Podcasts. There’s nothing more mobile than podcasts. Listening to podcasts is a satisfying way to kill time—like on that morning commute. Another major appeal is that people can maintain control over the type of

Photo 2.5 Bringing stories to life on Instagram. Outlets have stepped up efforts to build a community on Instagram by producing content specifcally for the Stories feature. Quizzes and explainer videos are among the content with which outlets are experimenting. Tappable Instagram Stories are a great way to transform data-heavy reports into digestible, visually appealing social content.

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content they listen to and when. Some podcasts have attracted a cult-like following. They’ve created a community of listeners. CNN has expanded into podcasting. The outlet’s nearly two dozen podcasts consist of original content and the audio-only version of on-air shows. CNN podcast producer Amy Eason (@AEasonNY) also turns those podcasts into audiograms, short clips of the podcasts that are posted to social media. “Research has shown that social media is one of the top ways that listeners discover new podcasts,” said Eason. “In terms of our target audience, we’re not just making content for our core CNN audience, we’re also trying to reach an audience who wants to consume CNN content, but maybe doesn’t have cable or watch TV very often. So, we see audiograms as a way of getting our podcasts in front of those consumers.”41 Smart speakers. “Alexa, play NPR News.” The audio web market continues to grow, thanks in part to smart speakers. About a quarter of Americans own a voice-activated speaker.42 Flash Briefngs—newscasts of no more than a minute—are among the most popular content being developed by newsrooms for these devices. It’s not just major news outlets experimenting. Smaller ones, such as Syracuse.com/ The Post-Standard, have jumped on board. The outlet produces a daily briefng available on Amazon Echo and Google Home. To build awareness about this news product, the outlet periodically posts about how to add Syracuse .com/The Post-Standard to a smart speaker. Diffculty in monetizing news content on smart speakers is one reason why some news outlets are more reluctant to dedicate resources to developing this digital offering. E-newsletters. The idea of a newsletter may seem a bit “old school,” but they have exploded in popularity. “Newsletters are a great way to build brand loyalty,” said Tamara Baluja (@tamara_baluja), social media editor for CBC News British Columbia.43 Baluja has developed several e-newsletters for the CBC, including a hyperlocal one focused on municipal elections. E-newsletters are a way to get your reporting in front of people who are not going directly to an outlet’s website or may not see the content you share on social media. Baluja noted that e-newsletters allow an outlet to bypass the noise on social media sites and the ever-changing algorithms of those platforms. Subscribers get content delivered directly to their inboxes.

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She said there are two categories of e-newsletters. Those that are created automatically usually push out the top headlines, leading people back to news on an outlet’s website. These can be easy to put together but might not drive engagement and loyalty like the other type of e-newsletters—those curated by journalists. Curated e-newsletters are written in a style more like that of an informal letter or email. They also tend to focus on a specifc topic. To build a subscriber base, newsrooms promote their e-newsletters on social media and in digital subscription offers. “Newsletters are only as good as the number of people who fnd your newsletters and subscribe to them,” said Baluja.44 Text messaging. Though text messaging isn’t something “new,” newsrooms are testing out how it can be used to reach underrepresented audiences. The journalists who founded El Tímpano in Oakland, California learned that neither email nor Twitter were commonly accessed by the city’s Spanish-speaking immigrant population. So, El Tímpano—Spanish for eardrum—is piloting a service that allows immigrants to receive text messages about news. In Detroit, Michigan, the team at Outlier Media, a digital news startup, launched a similar initiative. Through texting, Outlier Media connects lower-income news consumers to news and information that is relevant to them. Those who receive the texts can also reply back with questions and comments. Sarah Alvarez (@SarahalvarezMI) is frequently the one who responds to those messages. Alvarez founded Outlier Media as a way to better serve an often overlooked community of people. “I was not satisfed with covering low-income communities for a higherincome audience. I wanted to cover issues for and with  low-income news consumers,” she told Nieman Lab.45  Traditional news outlets are tapping into the potential of text messaging. An experiment at The Philadelphia Inquirer took place during midterm elections. By sending “ELECTION” to a number set up by The Inquirer, people could register to receive daily text updates during a three-week period. Some of the texts even included GIFs. The premise of this texting experiment was that the messages would be a way for people to pare down the constant stream of election news and reach out directly to journalists. Forty percent of people who received the messages responded to them at least once, and the majority said they would like to receive more news via text from The Inquirer.46

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Photo 2.6 These are text messages Outlier Media sent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CHECKLIST ✓

Mobile and social media strategy analysis. Working in teams, assess the mobile and social media activity of one news outlet and two of its journalists. For at least a month, but ideally during most of your semester, monitor the outlet’s and the journalists’ approaches to new media. As you learn more practical skills in future chapters, evaluate their approaches based on those additional concepts. At the end of the time period, present your findings to your classmates. Discuss what the outlet and its reporters did well and what they could do better. Provide specific examples in your presentation. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

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✓

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What’s the outlet’s business model? How does it make money? Reference the section of this chapter on evolving business models for guidance.

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On which platforms are the outlet and the two journalists active? Make an inventory, and regularly check their activity on those spaces (website, mobile app, social media, and traditional print or broadcast).

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Note how they use different platforms. Is there a different approach on each social media platform? Different style of content? What is your experience with the content? Is it mobilefriendly? Is it engaging? How do they engage with followers?

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How is the outlet experimenting with other ways of delivering news, such as e-newsletters and podcasts?

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Contact one of the journalists whose activity you’re monitoring or a staff member who manages the outlet’s digital efforts. Chat with this person about his or her strategy, and integrate portions of the interview into your class presentation.

Discussion. View the latest “State of the News Media” report from the Pew Research Center at journalism.org. ¾

What does the report tell us about audience news consumption habits? How about business models and economic trends in different sectors of the industry?

¾

How does the latest “State of the News Media” compare to the results of the previous year’s?

Notes 1 Lou Carlozo, “The Digital Push Is Smoother in Syracuse,” NetNewsCheck, February 21, 2013. http://www.netnewscheck.com/article/24535/advancedigital-push-is-smoother-in-syracuse. 2 Robin Wauters, “You Need to See This Video (1981 TV Report on Birth of Internet News),” Tech Crunch, January 29, 2009. http://techcrunch.com/ 2009/01/29/you-need-to-see-this-video. 3 “For Local News, Americans Embrace Digital But Still Want Community Connection,” Pew Research Center, March 26, 2019. https://www.journalism.org/2019/03/26/for-local-news-americans-embrace-digital-but-stillwant-strong-community-connection/.

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4 Ibid. 5 Michael Barthel, “5 Key Takeaways About the State of the News Media in 2018,” Pew Research Center, July 23, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/ fact-tank/2019/07/23/key-takeaways-state-of-the-news-media-2018/. 6 Elizabeth Grieco, “Fast Facts About the Newspaper Industry’s Financial Struggles as McClatchy Files For Bankruptcy,” Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/14/fast-facts-about-thenewspaper-industrys-financial-struggles/. 7 Peter Drucker, Managing in a Time of Great Change (New York: Truman Talley Books/Plum, 1995). 8 George Sylvie, Jan LeBlanc Wicks, C. Ann Hollifield, Stephen Lacy, and Ardyth Broadrick Sohn, Media Management: A Casebook Approach (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2009). 9 Elizabeth Grieco, “9 Charts About America’s Newsrooms,” Pew Research Center, November 26, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/ 11/26/9-charts-about-americas-newsrooms/. 10 Jim Bach, “Pew: Digital Ventures Bring Jobs and Money to Journalism,” American Journalism Review, March 26, 2014. http://ajr.org/2014/03/26/ pew-digital-ventures-bring-jobs-money-journalism. 11 Amy Mitchell, “State of the News Media 2015,” Pew Research Center, April 29, 2015. http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/state-of-the-news-media2015. 12 Michael Barthel, “5 Key Takeaways About the State of the News Media in 2018.” 13 Benjamin Mullin, “Dean Baquet: NYT will Retire ‘System of Pitching Stories for the Print Page 1,’” Poynter, February 19, 2015. http://www.poynter.org/ 2015/dean-baquet-nyt-will-retire-system-of-pitching-stories-for-the-printpage-1/321637. 14 Joshua Benton, “The Leaked New York Times Innovation Report Is One of the Key Documents of This Media Age,” Nieman Lab, May 15, 2015. http:// www.niemanlab.org/2014/05/the-leaked-new-york-times-innovationreport-is-one-of-the-key-documents-of-this-media-age. 15 Lucia Moses, “To Goose Subscriber Growth, The New York Times Plans to Try a Flexible Meter,” November 8, 2018. https://digiday.com/media/looking-for-the-next-tier-of-subscribers-the-ny-times-plans-to-try-a-flexiblemeter. 16 “2019 Annual Report,” National Public Radio. https://media.npr.org/documents/about/annualreports/2019_Annual_Report.pdf /. 17 Corinne Podger, “Q & A with Ana Puod: Managing a Mojo-Friendly Newsroom,” International Journalists’ Network, July 24, 2019. https://ijnet. org/en/story/qa-ana-puod-managing-mojo-friendly-newsroom.

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18 Felix Simon and Lucas Graves, “Pay Models for Online News in the US and Europe: 2019 Update,” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. http:// www.digitalnewsreport.org/publications/2019/pay-models-2019-update. Alex T. Williams, “Paying for Digital News: The Rapid Adoption and Current Landscape of Digital Subscriptions at US Newspapers,” American Press Institute, February 29, 2016. https://www.americanpressinstitute.org /publications/reports/digital-subscriptions/single-page. 19 Katerina Eva Matsa, “Fewer Americans Rely on TV News; What They Watch Varies by Who They Are,” Pew Research Center, January 5, 2018. https:// www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/05/fewer-americans-rely-on-tvnews-what-type-they-watch-varies-by-who-they-are/. 20 Anthony C. Adornato, “Forces at the Gate: Social Media’s Influence on Editorial and Production Decisions in Local Television Newsrooms,” Electronic News 10, no. 2 (June 2016): 87–104. doi:10.1177/1931243116647768. 21 Bob Papper, “2019 RTDNA/Hofstra University Newsroom Survey: Business of News,” Radio Television Digital News Association. https://www.rtdna. org/uploads/files/2019%20RTDNA-Hofstra%20TV%20website%20profit .pdf. 22 “Audio and Podcasting Fact Sheet,” Pew Research Center. 23 Bob Papper, “2018 RTDNA/Hofstra University Newsrooms Survey: Digital & Tech,” Radio Television Digital News Association. https://www.rtdna. org/uploads/files/2018%20Newsroom%20Digital%20Media%20%26 %20Technology%20Report.pdf. 24 Carolyn Maynard-Parisi and Mary Mann, “The Value of Local News: Why the Village Green Now Has a Limited Paywall,” The Village Green, May 15, 2016. http://villagegreennj.com/salon/value-local-news-village-green-nowlimited-paywall-2. 25 “A New Understanding: What Makes People Trust and Rely on News,” American Press Institute, April 17, 2016. https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/trust-news. 26 Elisa Shearer and Elizabeth Grieco, “Americans Are Wary of the Role Social Media Sites Play in Delivering the News,” Pew Research Center, October 2, 2019. https://www.journalism.org/2019/10/02/americans-are-wary-of-therole-social-media-sites-play-in-delivering-the-news/. 27 Ibid. Jeffrey M. Jones, “Americans Endorse Reporter-Audience Social Media Interaction,” Gallup/Knight Foundation, September 6, 2019. https://news. gallup.com/opinion/gallup/266264/americans-endorse-reporter-audiencesocial-media-interaction.aspx. 28 “A New Understanding: What Makes People Trust and Rely on News,” American Press Institute.

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29 “Subscriber Benefits,” Chicago Tribune. http://membership.chicagotribune. com. 30 Adornato, “Forces at the Gate.” 31 Josh Stearns, “How Journalists Build and Break Trust with Their Audience Online,” First Draft News, May 27, 2016. https://firstdraftnews.com/howjournalists-build-and-break-trust-online. 32 “For Local News, Americans Embrace Digital But Still Want Community Connection,” Pew Research Center. 33 Elisa Shearer and Elizabeth Grieco, “Americans Are Wary of the Role Social Media Sites Play in Delivering the News,” Pew Research Center. 34 Ibid. 35 Joy Mayer, “Earning Trust on Social: Engage Authentically,” Reynolds Journalism Institute, April 21, 2016. https://www.rjionline.org/stories/earning-trust-on-social-engage-authentically. 36 Michael Barthel, Elisa Shearer, Jeffrey Gottfried, and Amy Mitchell, “News Habits on Facebook and Twitter,” Pew Research Center, July 14, 2015. http:// www.journalism.org/2015/07/14/news-habits-on-facebook-and-twitter. 37 Francesco Zaffarano, “TikTok Without Generational Prejudice,” Nieman Lab, December 2019. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/12/tiktok-withoutgenerational-prejudice/. 38 “When and Where Do We Access the News?” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2015. http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2015/ when-and-where-do-we-access-the-news-2015. 39 “Looking Forward to 2020, Here Are 10 Themes for News,” The New York Times, December 12, 2019. https://open.nytimes.com/looking-forward-to2020-here-are-10-themes-for-news-166d84125172. 40 Corey Haik, “We’re Already Consuming the Future of News, Now We Just Have to Produce It,” Nieman Lab, December 2019. https://www.niemanlab. org/2019/12/were-already-consuming-the-future-of-news-now-we-have-toproduce-it/. 41 Kat Duncan, “Audio to Video: Keep Audiograms Short and Compelling,” Reynolds Journalism Institute, September 16, 2019. https://www.rjionline. org/stories/audio-to-video-keep-audiograms-short-and-compelling. 42 “Fifty-three Million U.S. Adults Now Own At Least One Smart Speaker,” Edison Research, January 7, 2019. https://www.edisonresearch.com/fiftythree-million-u-s-adults-now-own-at-least-one-smart-speaker/. 43 Tamara Baluja, “Why Newsletters Are Great for Building Brand Loyalty,” May 8, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDEE0XgxbA4. 44 Ibid.

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45 Christine Schmidt, “By Mass-Texting Local Residents, Outlier Media Connects Low-Income News Consumers To Useful, Personalized Data,” Nieman Lab, March 1, 2018. https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/03/by-masstexting-local-residents-outlier-media-connects-low-income-news-consumers-to-useful-personalized-data/. 46 Sarah Schmalback, “‘Hi, This Is Jonathan Lai.’ Why Texting Continues To Be a Big Opportunity for Newsrooms to Customize News and Start a Conversation with Their Audience,” February 14, 2019. https://medium.com/ the-lenfest-local-lab/why-texting-is-a-big-opportunity-for-newsroomsto-customize-news-and-start-a-conversation-acd8e1a84e00.

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3 YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE?

In this chapter, you will

•

• • •

Explore how social media provides journalists the opportunity to build a brand through the type of information they share and their interactions with the public. Examine online presence as an extension of your reputation as a journalist. It’s your digital business card. Discover how using social media in journalistic ways will make your brand stand out to potential employers. Learn how to conduct a social media audit and steps to build your brand as a journalist.

Remember: Whatever happens in Vegas . . . stays on Google.1 — Scott Monty, communications consultant and Forbes top 10 social media influencers

DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-3

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Social media branding and journalism If I were to do a Google search of your name, what would turn up on the Internet? I’ve never met you before. But those tweets, snappy Instagram videos, and bio descriptions all add up to convey who you are. That’s your brand. What comes to mind when you hear the name Anderson Cooper? Robin Roberts? Bob Woodward? Jorge Ramos? The images you conjure up in your mind are their brands. And if you’ve never heard of these journalists, you’ll probably search online, where what you come across will give you a frst impression of them—of their brand. Brand and branding are terms people typically associate with marketing and advertising. Some journalists turn their noses up at the idea of branding in journalism. But step away from the preconceived notion of what a brand is. In reality, journalists have always built an individual brand based on the quality and style of their writing, reporting, and delivery, among other factors. Bob Woodward, for instance, created a brand for himself long before the Internet and social media existed. Journalists’ brands have traditionally been tied to their affliations with news organizations. Today, mobile and social media allow journalists to build their own brands by sharing their work directly with the audience and fostering an informal relationship with them. Journalists don’t have to rely solely on the outlet they work for to fnd a following for their reporting. The brand they establish though their online presence can make them a go-to source for information. In turn, this also benefts their news outlets. You too have been establishing your individual brand. Every tweet, like, and comment is a refection of who you are. When you apply for a job in journalism, or even an internship, you can expect hiring managers to scrutinize your social media profles. The result of a Google search is the new resume—a digital business card. What you’ve posted can come back to haunt you. It also can set you apart from the competition by demonstrating you know how to use mobile and social media in smart ways, as a journalist.

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KEY POINTS ABOUT BUILDING YOUR BRAND •

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Go-to source. Journalists can use social media to build a tribe for their work. Become an audience’s trusted source for credible information by providing quality content and interactions. Real person. Engage authentically and conversationally to create meaningful connections with users. Be professional, but don’t be afraid to show your personality. Traditional journalistic standards. Your social media presence is an extension of your reputation as a journalist. If you wouldn’t say it to your audience in person, don’t post it on social media. Slow and steady. Building your brand takes time and requires consistency across platforms. Digital business card. Using digital tools in journalistic ways will make your brand stand out to potential employers as well.

Your online presence and digital savvy will be a key part of interviews for journalism jobs. I frequently hear from current and former journalism students who share interesting information about the process. One senior who applied for a TV reporting position in a small market was given a breaking news scenario. He was then asked to write a TV story and a web version based on the scenario, in addition to crafting posts for Facebook and Twitter. A student who interviewed for a prestigious journalism fellowship had her social media accounts dissected by members of the hiring committee. They asked questions about her approach on different social media platforms as well as about how she uses mobile devices in the feld. Fortunately, the students were well versed in the tools of the trade, and their online presence shined. Both were offered the positions. (Chapter 10 outlines what to expect during the job hunt and interview process.) Now is the time to start taking ownership of your brand across all platforms. Even though you’re a digital native—you grew up with these tools at your fngertips—do you know how to use them as a professional journalist? That’s key. The goal from here on out in this book is to build your journalistic skills with mobile and social media in three areas: newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement. We start by focusing on creating a solid foundation—your own brand.

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Social media audit

Photo 3.1 Dilbert © 2013 Scott Adams, Inc. Used by permission of Andrews McMeel Syndication. All rights reserved.

Have you Googled yourself recently? Not at all? Now is the time to do so. After all, an overwhelming majority of hiring managers say they review job candidates’ online presence, including social media profles, prior to hiring.2 No surprise there. What they fnd could determine whether or not you get an offer. More than half of employers have come across content on social media that caused them not to hire a candidate, according to a CareerBuilder study.3 A social media audit will shed light on your digital footprint and help put your best foot forward. As part of this chapter’s checklist, you’ll also team up with a classmate to audit each other’s profles. Search First, conduct a search of your name using Google and one other search engine. •

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Log out of email accounts and clear your web browser history. This will give you a better sense of what someone searching your name encounters—what’s making it to the public. Search engines tailor results based on your browsing history and other information that’s part of your digital viewing habits. If you’re logged into personal accounts and haven’t cleared your history, the results may be different from what potential employers see when they search. Search your name. If you have a common name, enter more specifc information. For example, let’s say you’re John Smith, a student

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from Champaign, Illinois, who’s studying at the University of Texas at Austin. Try several different search terms—such as John Smith and Champaign, Illinois as well as John Smith and University of Texas at Austin—to weed out results for other people with the same name. Moment of truth. Don’t stop at the frst page of results. That’s only part of your digital story. It’s equally important to click on the Images, Videos, and News tabs located at the top of most search engines. You’ll see content specifc to your name in those three areas. When I have students conduct these audits, this is the point where some of them cringe a bit. There’s typically a group of students surprised at how little the results say about who they are. These students usually have social media accounts, but are inactive on the platforms. For aspiring journalists or journalists looking for a job, social media inactivity can also infuence your social media brand. Your use of mobile and social media on a consistent basis will make you appear more engaged and more attractive on the job market. Odds are if it comes down to two candidates, one using social media in smart ways versus another who hasn’t touched social media in a while, the former is going to get the job. Now, visit each of your social media pages and other digital spaces, such as a website, associated with your name. To view them as the public would, sign out of each account. Having classmates who are not friends or don’t follow you on these accounts conduct searches is also benefcial. They can stay logged into their accounts on Facebook and Twitter, for instance, to check what they’re able to see about you. In addition, Facebook has a feature that allows you to view what your page looks like to the public. You’ll fnd this “Views As” feature on your main profle page. Analyze and act

At this point, you should analyze what your searches revealed. Here are key questions to refect on when auditing your online brand. •

About you. Are your bios informative and consistent across platforms? Do they tell us who you are? Does a professional photo accompany your bios?

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Content. What type of content do you typically share? Is it an accurate refection of your interests as a journalist? Of your general interests? Both? Frequency. How often do you post on each platform? How often do you engage with followers? Personality. What do your posts say about you? Do we get a sense of you as a person? Professional interests. What about your professional interests? Have you highlighted your journalism skills and career aspirations? Journalism skills. Speaking of skills, do posts show any sign that you use social media for fnding story ideas and sources, sharing interesting content—including your own reporting—and engaging with your followers?

If your brand doesn’t refect who you are as a journalist, there are specifc actions to get you on track to building a standout online presence. More on that in the next section of this chapter. I posted that! Now what? If you fnd something that you now regret sharing, deleting the post is your best option. But don’t assume it will be gone for good. It will take at least a few weeks for the item to no longer be picked up in search engines. Keep in mind, people may not know the context around that photo or video you posted. So if you think it would make your grandmother cringe or question why you posted it, get rid of it. I recommend deleting inactive accounts—those that you haven’t touched in a while, as long as they’re not needed as part of your professional brand. Let’s say you created a website in high school, but haven’t updated it since. As time goes on, this will refect an outdated version of you. If you don’t plan on using this website as part of your professional work, consider deleting it. The other option: Breathe new life into an old website by using it as the centralized place to highlight your work, as we’ll discuss shortly. Some items are diffcult to get rid of. Do an internet search of the name: Vandon Gene. You’ll easily discover how this self-described aspiring journalist, who worked for a Canadian news station, has made a name for himself. And not in a good way. While covering a deadly shooting in Ottawa, Canada, Gene asked CNN’s Anderson Cooper to take a selfe. Cooper rejected the request, saying it would be wildly inappropriate, considering the context. But Gene, with his mobile phone recording, wouldn’t back

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down. He continued to insist Cooper take a selfe with him. Gene posted the video to YouTube and turned to Twitter to lambast Cooper. Gene was let go from the news outlet, and that incident will forever be part of his digital business card. This case underscores the importance of acting appropriately on and off line. Journalists are accountable to the public. Journalism relies on the trust of the public. What you post on social media can easily break that trust, undermining your reputation and that of the industry. As we discuss in greater detail in Chapter 8, crossing the line on social media can ruin your brand and your reputation, and cost you your job. Anything that would make the public question your integrity, ethics, and general professionalism as a journalist should be avoided. That’s why scrutinizing your social media activity is so important. Assume ever ything is public But it’s only accessible to my friends. Not true. You should assume everything you post online is in the public domain— for good. Even the strictest privacy settings on your social media accounts don’t ensure your content is locked down. Everything you post is fair game. You don’t have any reasonable expectation of privacy on social networking platforms. A photo you post behind the wall, can easily be downloaded by a friend and shared with anyone. You also have very little control over what someone else posts about you. Certainly, if a friend tags you in a photo or posts something of you that’s undesirable, you can ask the friend to untag or take it down. But you can’t undo the potential harm done if the post doesn’t portray you positively. Fortunately, some social media platforms, including Facebook, allow you to approve or reject being tagged in posts.

CROWDSOURCING: WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO STUDENTS ABOUT BUILDING A BRAND ONLINE? That’s the question Alex Migdal (@alexem), a journalist for CBC News in Canada, posed to his Twitter followers.4 In advance of his guest class lecture about branding for journalists on social media, Migdal gathered

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recommendations by crowdsourcing. Here’s a sampling of responses from journalists and professors: Among other things: Register a domain name, ideally firstnamelastname dot com. Buy hosting. Put up a site, with a blog, that will eventually be the first thing someone sees when searching your name. Use social media in part to point people to the place where you define yourself.—@dangillmor Have a solid sense of what topics/issues you’ll talk about, lines you won’t cross, how you’ll engage with people, and be consistent. Be 110% of yourself so your “brand” is clear. Ignore bad faith criticism, but be open to criticism/growing.—@j_mcelroy Everyone loves dog photos. Share what you learn with others. Follow people who interest you. Assume everything you tweet might be scrutinized by a future boss or coworker. When in doubt, don’t tweet.—@karenkho Be an engaged human being, not just a link-sharing robot.—@sammaciag Follow journalists whose reporting + ~online presence~ you like! See what they’re doing! Before tweeting anything political or potentially controversial, think about the worst case scenario—would you be willing to defend it? If you’re not sure, don’t tweet it.—@gabrielledrolet Promote your published work passionately and aggressively, because chances are, no one else is going to do it. Also, particularly when you’re first starting out, keep your online portfolio/demo reel/clips updated with your best work so it’s always ready to go when someone asks.—@LaurenPelley Not to be a downer, but... Having a strong personal brand won’t get you a job if your work itself isn’t good! You can have lots of Twitter followers and a beautiful website, but ultimately your reporting, news judgment, and other skills are what will make the biggest difference.—@blatchfordtr Lean into a niche specialty and then spend time every day providing useful information about that specialty. Stay focused and consistent.—@24thminute Find your online niche!—@JosephJaafari For news journos in particular: accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. If it wouldn’t meet your publication’s editorial standards to run in a print story, don’t tweet it. Avoid hot takes and opinions in favor of facts and context.—@KatieBoWill

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 3.2 Alex Migdal (@alexem). Reporter and Social Media Editor, CBC News British Columbia. What recommendations would you give students with regard to leveraging social media to build their journalistic brands? It takes time to build a brand and an audience on social media. I started actively using Twitter nine or ten years ago. It’s an active, ongoing effort, and for most people, it doesn’t happen overnight. The young journalists I follow who catch my attention use social media to show who they are and to showcase strong journalism. It’s a mix of both. You can tell when someone has just started a Twitter account, and they’re just trying to figure out how to use it. It can be awkward at first,

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but stick with it. Follow people who interest you, and start engaging with people. Don’t shy away from who you are personally. What’s the best balance in showing your personal and professional sides? This is an ongoing discussion right now in many newsrooms. Journalists’ use of social media is quickly evolving right now, particularly when it comes to issues that blend into their personal lives, such as race and activism. It’s a challenge for news organizations to have all their journalists engage with social media and newsroom policies in the same way when everyone interprets them differently. I think it’s helpful when newsroom leaders offer examples of posts that work and those that may cross the line. I recommend checking with a colleague or friend if you’re uncertain about something before sharing it on social media. A second perspective is always valuable. It’s also helpful to talk about social media with your colleagues and managers and hear their perspective. How does finding your own voice play into this? I think it speaks to the importance of writing in general—figuring out your voice and how you communicate with other people. For instance, some journalists like myself switch between more casual tweets with lowercase letters, less punctuation, and emojis, to more straightforward tweets with news content. Twitter lets you experiment with that. And you’re now seeing more established, well-known journalists showing another side of themselves online—their quirks and humor, for instance—and I think that resonates with readers, who turn into followers. News organizations have also increasingly adopted this approach with their newsroom accounts. The Washington Post is a great example of a news organization that employs a fresh, humorous voice in some of their tweets. If you switch between these two styles, you have to be selective about when you do so, taking into account the type of story. If done properly, I think it resonates with younger audiences and makes your news outlet more appealing and approachable. Do you suggest maintaining separate personal and professional accounts? There are nuances to each platform. For Twitter, I recommend one account—more than one can be a lot to manage. Twitter is meant to

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meld personal and professional. When it comes to Instagram and Facebook, however, I have separate personal and professional accounts. When I’m featured on a CBC Instagram story, for instance, my outlet’s account @mentions me, so I prefer a professional account. I also run CBC Vancouver’s Facebook group on COVID-19. I post there every day and readers often message me, so I opt for a professional account that reflects the organization. I recommend having your personal Facebook and Instagram accounts set to private since readers can easily Google your name. Recommendations for creating a stand-out website? Keep it simple and clean. Have a brief introduction about who you are, highlights of your work, and what you’ve done. When it comes to clippings, select the top ones you have from your journalistic work. If you’ve done video or photography work, include that as well. While not essential, I recommend purchasing a unique URL that includes your name.

Building a social media brand Your brand is built over time by your behaviors. The content you post and your interactions—both good and bad—all make up your online reputation. In this section, you’ll learn to how to craft your professional social media brand. Trust and integrity are two of the coins of the online realm, in my opinion. . . . People will determine whether Joe is trustworthy by what he says, what he does, who he associates with, how he talks with others, who he links to, what he links to and who he’s friends with and follows. People develop that sense of Joe over a period of time watching him and talking with him. John Robinson (@johnrobinson), journalism instructor and former editor of the Greensboro News & Record5

So now is a good time to think about who you want to be as a journalist. When people see your name or come across your Twitter account, what do you want them to think of? Keep that question at the forefront of your mind as you fne-tune your digital footprint.

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Separate personal and professional accounts? I’m frequently asked: Should I create separate profles for my personal and professional activity? Having only private accounts would defeat the purpose of a journalist’s use of social media. These profles would be accessible to friends only. As a journalist, you need to optimize your profles so anyone can follow and engage with you. The best approach is to have one account for each platform, but it’s a personal decision, and there are varying views depending on who you ask. Managing both personal and professional pages on a variety of social media platforms can be time consuming. Maintaining one account on each key platform simplifes your digital life.

FACEBOOK PRIVACY SETTINGS Check the privacy settings of your personal Facebook page. Recommendations for the most privacy: • • • •

Allow only friends to see your stuff. Turn off the feature that allows search engines to include your personal Facebook page as part of search results. Enable reviewing of posts in which friends tag you before they show up on your timeline. Who can see posts you’ve been tagged in once you approve them? Limit to friends.

In addition, what are you posting on a private personal page that can’t be shared on the public one? Again, this goes back to the basic concept, everything you post should be considered public. There’s one exception: Facebook. Facebook has an option for brands— journalists, businesses, politicians, and the like—to create professional pages. This approach has advantages for a number of reasons, mainly because professional pages offer an analytics feature, something personal pages do not. In the addition, the Facebook culture is generally one where you share more personal moments with real-life friends and family. Photos of your summer vacation in Europe. A video remembrance of a family member who passed away. Sure, you may end up sharing some of this type

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of content with a general audience. But, simply put, some things are more private than others. For that reason, having a separate personal Facebook account is a logical choice. The answer to whether you need to establish two separate accounts may also be determined by the policy of the newsroom where you work. According to several studies I conducted on newsroom social media policies, two-thirds of local television news managers said it’s the policy of their station to own the professional social media accounts of reporters.6 This type of policy is common across the industry. In some cases, this means journalists are required to submit their passwords to newsroom management, and such a policy raises the question of whether employees are allowed to keep their accounts and associated followers when they leave the newsroom. This policy alone may be enough to eventually force you to establish separate personal and professional accounts. Online spaces where you should be active Your professional online presence should consist of a website, social media accounts, and video sharing site. Website A website serves as your portfolio. Create your own website to highlight your professional work and skills. It’s the perfect place to publish your reporting for journalism classes. Include the website link in all your social media profles and on your resume. When applying for jobs, the website serves as a centralized spot where hiring managers can quickly get a sense of you. I recommend creating your site through WordPress (wordpress.com). The content management system (CMS) of WordPress most closely mirrors the type of CMSs used in newsrooms. WordPress allows you to create a free account or purchase a premium plan that includes a more customized domain name. With the free version, wordpress.com is part of the website address. The paid version removes wordpress from the URL, creating a cleaner link (For example, anthonyadornato.wordpress.com versus anthonyadornato.com). WordPress has a variety of website templates. Be certain that whichever platform you choose for a website has built-in analytics. The analytics dashboard measures key metrics, as we discuss in Chapter 7, that you’ll need to understand as a journalist. Without the analytics, it will be diffcult to

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measure how website material is performing, and what role your social media activity plays in driving traffc to your website. •

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Domain name. A domain name is what people type into their browser to go to a site. It’s your unique web address. When you set up a website, you’ll be asked to select a domain name. Check whether a domain with your frst and last name is available. A domain with your full name makes it more likely that your website will turn up when someone searches for you. If a domain with your full name is already taken, use only your last name. Still, no luck? Include your middle name or initial. Bottom line, keep your web address as close to your name as possible. Home page. This is the front page of your website. The welcome mat. By default, many website templates, including those from WordPress, publish posts (these are stories or blog posts) on the homepage. In your website settings, you can change the location of where your published posts appear. You may want your About page to be the frst thing people see when they come to your site and have your posts live on another page. Site title. A site title is important, because it’s what appears in the header on a browser tab when someone visits a website. You can customize the site title in the settings section of your site. For branding purposes, using your frst and last name makes most sense. A secondary title that describes you is also useful. For example: “Multimedia Journalist” or “Digital Storyteller with a Passion for Environmental Reporting.” About page. Include a short blurb about yourself and professional photo followed by your resume. Do not simply link to your resume or attach a fle that someone has to download to view—that’s neither visually appealing nor user-friendly. Instead, embed the resume in the page for easy viewing. You can do this by frst uploading your resume to a document-sharing site, such as Slideshare.net. Then, copy the embed code from this site and place it on the About page of your website. Voilà! Your resume will be embedded on that page. Contact page. This is where you want to include your email address and links to your professional social media accounts. Make sure you hyperlink the text, allowing readers to simply click the text and be taken directly to the page to which you’re linking. Otherwise, they have to open a web browser and type in the information. Given that

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your website is in the public domain, it’s recommended that you do not include your phone number and address on this page or on the resume published to your website. An email address and links to social media accounts will suffce. Reporting page. One section should also be dedicated to your original reporting. When a visitor clicks on a Reporting tab, for example, they should see a feed of your multimedia stories. If you’re blogging about a topic or issue, it’s best to put those posts on a different page, ideally labeled Blog, so that you differentiate between your original reporting and blog posts. Portfolio page. Showcase your best work here. If you’re just starting to get your feet wet in reporting, you may not have enough content for this page. No worries. Add this page later. It could be reporting you’ve done for a campus outlet, for a class, or during an internship. Include the title of the story, the outlet, and a hyperlink. List stories on this page even if they’re already published somewhere else on your website. This makes it easier for visitors to see your most compelling work compiled in one area. Twitter widget. Widgets are the featured elements typically located on the side of a website. The Twitter widget embedded on a site gives visitors a favor of your social media activity. It displays your most recent tweets. How you add a Twitter widget depends on the platform you use for a website (see your account’s settings area).  

Photo 3.3 & 3.4 Creating your own website is one of the most effective ways to build your professional brand.These two websites are easy to navigate and link to the students’ professional social media accounts.

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Social networking platforms Your profles on these social networking sites should be open to the public: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Why these sites? They’re the most frequently used by journalists and news organizations. They’re also where audiences are most active. (LinkedIn isn’t necessarily a go-to place for news, but it’s a great tool for showcasing your brand, fnding sources for stories, and networking for jobs.) Reminder: Create a professional Facebook page instead of using a personal one for your brand. To set up a professional Facebook page, go to facebook.com/pages/create. In the “Community or Public Figure” section, select the “Journalist” category. Enter your frst and last names. Whether you’re creating new accounts or updating existing ones, make it your goal to maintain them beyond the semester. Carry these digital tools throughout your journalism studies and as you enter your career. Video sharing sites Create an account on YouTube. YouTube can serve as a centralized spot for video content you create. Video editing apps, as we’ll discuss in Chapter 5, allow you to upload your fnished video directly from a device to YouTube. From there, you can embed the video in stories on a website and share to social media. Creating standout social media prof iles Building the best version of you online begins with your profles. Be consistent with how you present yourself—through your handles, profle and cover photos, and bios—across platforms. Handles Most people in the social media world know others by their handles. A handle is a username. In the professional world, you want to be recognized by your name. So when it comes to building your brand, choose a handle that is as close to your name as possible. Think @FirstnameLastname. Username consistency also makes it easier for connections to fnd you in the social media sea. Ideally, when you choose a username, stick with it for

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all your accounts. If you previously chose a handle that has nothing to do with your brand, the good news is that many social networking sites allow you to edit it at any time. A quick note about LinkedIn. The system automatically generates a unique link for your page that doesn’t include your name. You should edit your profle URL to include your name. You can do this directly from your LinkedIn profle after you create an account. Prof ile and cover photos A profle photo is the smaller thumbnail size image associated with your account. Some social networking sites also give you the option to upload a cover photo, larger images typically at the top of your profle page. Just as you would be careful to avoid errors on your resume or in a story you write, your profle and cover photos also need to be well thought out.7 For starters, don’t leave these spaces blank. Profle photo. Would you go into a job interview looking the way you do in your profle photo? A single profle pic can impact the perception of you. Hiring managers are most likely to see you frst in that format. As people scroll through their feeds, the profle photo is often how they determine who is sharing the content, and their perception of you impacts how much they trust that content. Choose a headshot photo that is professional and shoulders up so that people can easily recognize and see your face in the thumbnail pic. Cover photo. A cover photo is an opportunity to give followers a visual sense of you as not only a journalist, but also a real person. Because of the large size of a cover photo in comparison to a profle pic, the image you choose must be of high quality. Otherwise, the photo might appear grainy. Here are some tips: •

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Upload a photo that represents your work, but keep it authentic and not overly promotional. Use a photo from the feld in order to highlight some of your recent reporting. Or give followers a behind-the-scenes glimpse via a photo that shows the inside of the newsroom or studio. Think beyond your professional world. A cover photo with coffee would let me know that we have something in common. Enjoy traveling? Upload a photo you snapped at your latest travel destination.

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These types of images humanize you. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s understandable to the audience. Even if you have the highest Facebook privacy settings for a personal account, every Facebook cover photo is public. Bios

Create two distinct bios. The frst is a short version for your social media profles. A longer bio will be used for your website and LinkedIn profles. Short bio. Your elevator pitch: short and sweet. You have 30 seconds to tell someone about yourself. In this case, you have a limited number of characters. It’s more than just your followers who will look at your short bio. This bio will turn up in results when someone searches your name online.   •

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Think about keywords that describe you professionally. Try to include a few of those in the short bio. But be specifc. If you cover arts and culture for a student newspaper, mention that. Don’t simply write journalist or student at University of X. If you intern at a news outlet, tell us where by including the outlet’s name. What are you passionate about? Drop a few hints about your interests beyond journalism. Mix in a snippet about you personally.

Photo 3.5 & 3.6 These journalists’ Twitter bios are personable and to-the-point. We get a sense of who they are—they come across as “real” people.

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Avoid buzzwords. There’s a laundry list of words that are overused in profles and resumes, so overused that they have little impact on the reader—words like creative and innovative. Speak the social media language. Use @mentions for specifc names if possible. If your profle includes the names of your student media outlet or the place you intern, use their handles. For example, I cover life and culture for @dailyfreepress or sports intern @9News. It’s critical to include your website link. Some sites have a specifc section for this that doesn’t count toward the character limit. Either way, every bio should link people back to your website. Don’t forget to include your location(s) so people know where you are geographically based. You might consider adding multiple locations. For example, the location of your school and your hometown.

Longer bio. What’s your story? Here’s a chance to tell more about yourself. A longer, more detailed bio can be used for your website’s About page and the Summary section of your LinkedIn profle. •

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This is your narrative. What’s the lead of your story? Pull out a narrative that humanizes you, just like you would if you were writing a human interest piece. Don’t overload. This is not the space for a list of activities in which you’re involved or positions you’ve had. That’s what a resume is for. Show you can write. Being able to write clearly and concisely is an important skill for journalists. Demonstrate your ability with how you craft the bio. Keep it short and succinct—maximum of roughly 200 words. Tell us about your journey. Your collective experiences in and out of school, personally and professionally, make you you. In general, this bio should highlight your professional interests, give a brief recap of experiences, and tell us something that shows you’re multidimensional.8 Personalize your story. Consider sharing what fueled your interest in journalism and how you spend your off time. Show us, don’t just tell. Use specifc examples to back up the claims you make about yourself. If you’re interested in environmental reporting, for instance, briefy describe an issue or story you’ve covered. Link to that specifc content so people can see your work.

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Photo 3.7 Danielle Allentuck’s website bio includes a mix of her professional story, skills, and interests.

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Don’t overhype. Have the goods to back up your portrayal of yourself. If you interned at a TV network, don’t write that you’ve worked for the network. That comes across as deceptive. Don’t use @mentions here. Unlike your short bio for social media, it’s not the style to include @mentions in longer bios.  Consistency

Now that you’ve created accounts and fne-tuned your profles, be consistent across platforms. First, use the same profle photos, handle, and bios for each site. Revisit these profles several times a year to make sure they accurately refect you at that point in time. Rejuvenate profles as circumstances change, such as when you get a new job or complete your degree. Also, take small steps each day to be active on social networking platforms. Creating an online presence and then abandoning it can appear worse than not having one at all. When a journalist or journalism student has a Twitter account but hasn’t posted in months or even weeks, that simply doesn’t look good to the audience or a potential employer.

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Come up with a routine, and it will become second nature after a while. Start by building time into your day to manage social media platforms. At a minimum, check social media platforms several times a day. Your social media habits should include “listening,” following users who interest you, posting original content, sharing others’ content, and engaging with followers by interacting with them and their posts. What does posting regularly mean? It’s different for each platform. Some sites are intended for less frequent posts. As a journalist, the type of story you’re covering will also factor into how frequently you share. Breaking news warrants more updates than a feature story. There’s no magic formula for how frequently you should post on each site. Much of it comes down to experimentation. Checklists in future chapters include reminders for staying active on each social networking platform and your website. Think before you post Don’t post to simply post. Have something valuable to share. Even more importantly as a journalist, know where to draw the line when sharing personal thoughts and details of your life. As you prepare for a career in journalism, now is the time to think before you post that type of content. As individuals, we all have our own opinions on topics. It has become standard for people to share those thoughts on social media. But, as journalists, we have an obligation to try to remain fair and objective as possible. Apply journalistic principles. Just as it would be inappropriate for journalists to place political signs in their front yard, the same standard applies to online platforms. As noted in the social media policy for student journalists at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, “Actions that call into question a journalist’s ability to report fairly on an issue harm not only that journalist but his or her news organization and fellow journalists.”9 Indeed, it can be diffcult to back down from posting personal thoughts about emotionally charged situations and issues, such as the shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Dozens of people were killed. After the shooting, a New York Times editor sent a memo to staff members

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reminding them to avoid editorializing, promoting their political views, or taking sides on hot-button issues, on social media.10 “Even if you personally are not involved in coverage of a particular topic, our colleagues are working hard to maintain The Times’s credibility and evenhandedness, and we should not do anything to make their jobs tougher. People following Times newsroom staffers online expect them to be well-informed and thoughtful,” wrote Philip Corbett, associate managing editor for standards at The Times. When in doubt about how posts might be interpreted, The Times’s social media policy recommends its journalists ask themselves the following questions:11 • • • • •

Would you express similar views in an article on The Times’s platforms? Would someone who reads your post have grounds for believing that you are biased on a particular issue? If readers see your post and notice that you’re a Times journalist, would that affect their view of The Times’s news coverage as fair and impartial? Could your post hamper your colleagues’ ability to effectively do their jobs? If someone were to look at your entire social media feed, including links and retweets, would they have doubts about your ability to cover news events in a fair and impartial way? What not to share

The following items are most frequently included in news outlets’ social media policies.12 Newsrooms do not want to take on the liability of a having an employee whose actions, online or offine, could jeopardize the public’s trust. Sharing this type of personal content could negatively impact your chances of even getting an interview. • • • • • •

Personal opinions about issues Political affliation Advocating on behalf of a particular cause or agenda Unverifed information from sources Your involvement in illegal activity Internal newsroom communication

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What to share As we’ve discussed, your social media activity should refect your journalistic brand while also giving followers a favor of you as a person. But what’s the proper mix of professional and personal? Consider the 80/20 rule of social media. Keep 80 percent of your content professional related, but refrain from being overly promotional. The other 20 percent should show your personality. In addition, the rule of thirds for social media is a surefre way to share the best mix of content, according to Scott Kleinberg (@scottkleinberg), former social media manager at the Chicago Tribune. “One-third of the time, promote content related to your professional brand, another third of posts should come from other sources, and the fnal third of the formula involves being human,” said Kleinberg.13 Choose from this list to experiment with your own mix of professional and personal posts. • • • • •

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Real-time updates while reporting in the feld Behind-the-scenes look at the reporting process Links to your stories and blog posts Colleagues’ stories and content from other credible sources Comment/analysis that provides context to social media posts you reshare. When you retweet a post, set it up like you would a quote or soundbite in a story. Your own questions, and responses ASAP to readers’ questions What you’re reading personally or professionally Hobbies and interests

Journalists’ use of social media raises ethical considerations beyond what to share and not to share. For instance, liking a political candidate’s Facebook page in order to stay abreast of campaign news could be misinterpreted. And is it appropriate to friend sources on Facebook? Chapter 8 delves deeper into these and many more ethical issues. TWEET CHATS A tweet chat is a scheduled conversation on Twitter about a specific topic. Tweet chats are typically held at a recurring day and time. Each tweet chat has a host who leads the discussion. The host will ask participants to

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introduce themselves and then pose questions to those following the hashtag dedicated to the discussion. People then respond to the host’s questions, tagging each response with the hashtag (and @mention, if the tweet chat has one). Participants also interact by retweeting, replying, and liking each other’s posts. Tweet chats can feel fast and furious, depending on the number of people taking part. It’s a highly energizing and engaging activity. There are tweet chats dedicated to everything from multimedia journalism and AP style to yoga and agriculture. For example, #wjchat (@wjchat) is a weekly tweet chat focused on all things related to online journalism. Start by doing an online search for tweet chats related to your interests (visit tweetreports.com). As you become more active with your Twitter community, you’ll become familiar with tweet chats dedicated to beats or topics that interest you. Tips for participating: • • •

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Introductory tweet: Alert followers that you’re taking part in a tweet chat. Use Twitter’s search bar or a social media dashboard, which we discuss shortly, to filter tweets related to the chat hashtag. A tweet chat host usually tags the questions with Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. When you respond, indicate which question you’re answering by including A1, A2, A3, etc. Don’t forget to use the tweet chat’s official hashtag (and handle, if there’s one). Don’t forget to engage with other participants and check your notifications to see who’s interacting with you. Follow people in the chat who could provide value to your Twitter experience. Consider placing them in one of your Twitter lists.

Become the go-to journalist Social media affords journalists the opportunity to become a go-to source for information by owning a beat and cultivating a community online around a chosen topic. These activities defne you as a brand. Carve out a niche on a particular topic through: •

Original reporting. Cover stories in your local community on issues related to a beat.

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• •

Curating beat-related information. Use your blogging and social media activity to curate stories from credible sources. Sharing. Use social media to share your original reporting and curated content. Beat

Journalists must be well versed on a variety of topics. Often, they don’t know what they might cover day to day. But it can be professionally rewarding to focus attention on one beat. Blogging and social media are ways for journalists to show they’re knowledgeable in a subject area, helping to differentiate them from other reporters and sources in general. This allows journalists to be part of a community around a specifc topic. Developing these relationships will be mutually benefcial. People passionate about a journalist’s given beat will turn to them frst, share their work, and pass along story ideas. Building a portfolio around a certain beat also makes you marketable to potential employers. It’s never too early to test the waters. In my mobile and social media journalism course, students choose beats, ranging from disability to sustainability. Each student uses a combination of social media, blogging, and original reporting to build a portfolio of work around a beat. This is in addition to general assignment, or nonbeat, stories they’re required to cover. The approach allows them to demonstrate their reporting versatility and an ability to dig deep into a given topic. Curating beat-related information is an important part of the process. Curation is the gathering and sorting of fragmented pieces of information, and then providing analyses and context. Journalists have always served as curators of information, but it’s even more critical today as people try to make sense of the overfow of content. That’s where journalists focusing on a beat can be valuable. They do the work of sifting through the sea of noise and providing online communities with what they need to know. They create order among the chaos of information. Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) is a textbook example of a journalist who created a brand and career around a specifc topic. It all started from Stelter’s dorm room in 2004, when he was a frst-year student at Towson University.14 He launched a blog with news and commentary about news

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outlets’ coverage of the Iraq War. He soon attracted a loyal audience, including TV industry executives. Stelter’s work around a specifc niche caught the eye of The New York Times. Straight out of college, he landed a position covering media for The Times. He continued to amass a following online through his social media savvy. Stelter is now anchor of CNN’s Reliable Sources and chief media correspondent for the network. Freelance journalist Justin Auciello (@auciello) used social media to create a niche beat and online community focused on the Jersey Shore area. Around the time Hurricane Irene hit in 2011, Auciello launched a Facebook page, Jersey Shore Hurricane News, and related Twitter account. Jersey Shore Hurricane News’s popularity grew after another powerful storm— Superstorm Sandy—devastated the Jersey Shore in 2012. His social media-only outlet became the go-to community news source. It was a lifeline for people who needed information about their homes, communities, and loved ones. Auciello’s work attracted a following by focusing on hyperlocal issues that many mainstream media outlets no longer covered with consistency in the months and years following the disasters. He has flled a desperately needed void in the communities. The platform was even used by the New Jersey Offce of Emergency Management to communicate with people who needed to be rescued, as 911 was overloaded. “When Hurricane Irene was coming, I said this was an opportunity to create a pop-up news outlet that is two-way and can democratize news where I live, because there was nothing else that existed at that point,” said Auciello, a Jersey Shore native. “It caught on very quickly because of Facebook. People were desperate for information. I came in and let people know that I needed their information and I would package that with traditional journalistic methods and standards. It snowballed from there.” Once the community was connected to Jersey Shore Hurricane News, they found value in the hyperlocal content and “the pop-up news outlet” grew organically, added Auciello. Jersey Shore Hurricane News now provides daily news, weather, and traffc updates. For young journalists, Auciello offered up several recommendations for building your brand. “Write a lot, and publish it. Create a blog where you can share your best content,” he said. He also noted the importance of building a community on social media.

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Photo 3.8 Jersey Shore Hurricane News is a social media-only news outlet.

“To build a community you need a specifc focus. It could be a very niche community or topic. Focus on what interests you. Know enough about the area or topic to be somewhat of a go-to expert for people. Stay true to the focus.”  Blog Writing blog posts regularly is a great way to show your enthusiasm for a beat. Think of your blog as your reporter’s notebook. Your website can serve as the centralized location for these posts and your original reporting. Here are tips to you get started blogging about your beat. •

Consistency. Write two blog posts each week. You can pull back on this number, depending on other type of content you’re producing

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each week. For example, if you produce a local story related to your beat one week, no need to write blog posts. You can pick up on blogging the following week. Alternating between original reporting and blogging is an ideal approach. Keep it tight. No more than approximately 400 words. Headlines should be self-explanatory and easy to understand. A headline is your promise to readers. Deliver on it. Get to the point immediately, and keep the post focused on your promise. Scanning friendliness. Online readers skim impatiently to fnd information. Use short paragraphs, headings, bulleted or numbered lists, and pull quotes. These elements make reading much easier, especially on mobile devices. They serve as guideposts for readers. Visuals. Use pictures, video, social media posts, and graphics. Visuals make blog posts more engaging and also break up text. Don’t simply grab any image online. You may violate copyrights (see Chapter 8), and that practice is unethical. You can ask for permission from the original source. The other option is to search the Creative Commons (search.creativecommons.org) and Getty Images (gettyimages.com). These are very helpful resources if you need an image to accompany a web story or blog post. Content licensed under Creative Commons can be used as long as you properly credit the source. Each piece of Creative Commons content has instructions on how to attribute the material. Getty Images (gettyimages.com) also offers royalty-free photos. You must use the embed code for each Getty image instead of screenshotting or downloading it. When placing the embed code in a blog post or story, the caption with the source information automatically appears beneath the photo. Reader engagement. Your writing should spark a dialogue. Each post should make it clear you’re open to interaction. To generate thoughtful discussion, consider asking a question that invites readers to comment. Remember to respond to comments. Show your style. Writing conversationally and in frst person brings readers closer to you and the content. Write as if you’re having a chat with a friend. Research/informational value. Don’t merely regurgitate what others are saying. Nudge the conversation along by providing thoughtful analysis. Use credible sources, and avoid sharing your opinion. Link. Hyperlinking to the sources you reference is a general rule of thumb on the web. It’s a way to give a hat tip to other sources.

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Links also provide an easy way for readers to check out what or who you’re mentioning. In addition, if you’ve already written a blog post or story related the topic of your latest post, consider linking to that content. Keywords. Place keywords in your headline and throughout your post as often as possible. This is often referred to as search engine optimization, or SEO. Using keywords makes it more likely people searching for the topic of your post will fnd it. Put yourself in the shoes of someone doing an online search. What words would they search for, if looking for information on the topic of your post? Use those. Also include these words in the tags section, which is located in the area of a content management system where you draft a post or story. Tags are keywords. Filling out this section can make your posts more discoverable to someone searching online. Share. Even if you have a following, don’t expect people to constantly check your site for new content. You have to let them know. Sharing on social media is the way much of your audience will be alerted that you’ve posted something new. It drives people to your work and can foster interaction on social media. Use related hashtags and @mentions of sources you have included in the posts. Analyze. How’d you do? Monitoring website analytics sheds light on which posts got the most hits, how much traffc was generated from your social media posts versus people coming directly to your site, and much more. More on that in Chapter 7.   Social media

The most effective use of social media for covering a beat or a general assignment story involves sharing, listening, connecting, and analyzing. Future chapters explore specifc methods related to these four areas: •

Share. Spread more than just your published work. Share information from others that you fnd interesting, relevant, and credible. Think, does what I’m about to post provide value to my followers? Follow the What to Share tips listed on page 104. When you share other users’ content, give them a shout-out by including @mentions or tagging them in posts.

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Photo 3.9 & 3.10 This blog post includes many of the important elements of blogging: keywords in the headline, a visual off the top, bullet points and subheadings for scanning friendliness, hyperlinks, and data from credible sources.This student’s blog posts about environmental issues can be found on a page titled Blog, which helps differentiate this content from her original reporting.

•

Find. Monitor social media to fnd conversations and content related to your beat. These could tip you off to story or blog ideas and give you something worthwhile to pass along to followers. Conduct hashtag or keyword searches to discover what’s being talked about. Twitter lists are also a fantastic tool. Twitter lists, as we discuss in the next chapter,

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flter your stream so that you see only tweets from users you place in a list. Connect. Become part of a community. If you’re passionate about immigration, start by following people who share information about this topic and will add value to your social media streams. Consider other journalists, nonprofts, and experts in the feld. Rely on your community. Listen and respond. Join existing conversations and invite people to weigh in. Be responsive by acknowledging audience feedback. Placing hashtags in your social media posts is a great way for others with similar interests to fnd you. Participating in a tweet chat, a real-time Q&A session on a topic that’s regularly scheduled for a specifc day/time, is also a valuable way to connect. Analyze. What’s working well? The effectiveness of your social media activity can also be analyzed by regularly visiting your analytics for each platform (Chapter 7).

TIPS FROM A HIRING MANAGER In her role as digital director for Gray Television, Amber Smith (@AmberSmith1011) trains staff on new technology and oversees website and social media content. Smith is also responsible for recruiting and hiring newsroom staff at Gray Television’s outlets throughout Nebraska. Smith offers these tips to budding journalists: Ideal candidates. My ideal candidates have already established a professional presence—somebody who is using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for professional purposes and not just for personal use. Before they get here, they should have been experimenting on a professional level—even at the college media outlets. If you’re not in the practice of using social media in a professional way, it’s a different mindset. Also, I’m looking for someone who cares about how new tools can be used in journalism. I like to see that they’re an early adopter of new platforms and social media features, not someone who is going to wait for me to say: “okay, you have to start doing this.” I also want to see that they understand how to differentiate content on each platform. Don’t put the same thing on every platform. There needs to be a purpose for each one. Don’t just “push out” content. I find while many young people consume social media constantly, it still takes hard work and effort for them to know how to use those tools to engage an audience. Most job

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candidates struggle with how to engage on social media. I see a lot of them simply pushing out content and thinking their job is done. You have to make sure you tag people, @mention them, and ask questions to maximize your reach. Be a personal professional. When I view candidates’ online presence, I like when they have some personal content on social media. If I see a clever post, as long as it’s within boundaries, that reflects positively on you. I want to see if it’s someone who is going to get along with our staff. Somebody who can be a “personal professional,” because as a reporter, you’re not just here to regurgitate the news. Your job is to deliver it in an interesting and informative way, and part of that is making you relatable to people. Don’t be dormant. Say you’re done with college and not reporting for a class or student outlet anymore: Be your own boss. Think that you’re the company. You’re working for yourself. You’re promoting yourself and your brand. Whether it be local or national news, share content. Live tweet news events as they happen. I want to see that you’re following news and active.

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Social media audit. Conduct a social media audit on yourself. Also, team up with one classmate to audit each other’s online presence. Discuss your findings. ¾

Refer to the Social Media Audit portion of this chapter for tips. Be sure to analyze bios, content, frequency of posts, personality, professional interests, and journalism skills.

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How would you describe your classmate’s brand?

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What is your classmate doing well? What needs improvement?

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After your classmate’s audit, clean up anything that doesn’t reflect who you are in a positive light.

Build your presence. Time to polish up and shine. ¾

Create a professional website. Follow the recommendations above for building a website. Establish professionally oriented accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Set up

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an account on YouTube. Remember, keep your website domain and social media handles as close to your name as possible. Invite people to like your professional Facebook page.

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Create a short bio for your social media profiles and a longer version for your website and LinkedIn page. Have at least one classmate give you feedback on your bios.

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Ensure that your profile photo and bio are consistent across all platforms.

Choose a beat. Select a beat/niche you would like to cover this semester. Ideally, this should be a topic that you plan on pursuing in your journalism career. As you enter the workforce, the goal is to carry with you the expertise and brand you build here. ¾

Write two blog posts per week.

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After publishing them to your website, share the blog posts to your social media pages.

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Discussion. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having the same social media account for personal and professional activity? Discuss as a class.

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Reminder. Continue working on the mobile and social media strategy analysis that was part of Chapter 2’s checklist. Use what you learned in this chapter to analyze the social media accounts of the two reporters you selected for the assignment.

Notes 1 Mark Glaser, “Personal Branding Becomes a Necessity in Digital Age,” MediaShift, July 16, 2009. http://mediashift.org/2009/07/personal-branding-becomes-a-necessity-in-digital-age197. 2 “The Next Chapter in Recruiting,” Jobvite, 2018. https://www.jobvite.com/ wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2018-Recruiter-Nation-Study.pdf. 3 “More than Half of Employers Have Found Content on Social Media That Caused Them NOT to Hire a Candidate,” CareerBuilder, August 9, 2018. http://press.careerbuilder.com/2018-08-09-More-Than-Half-of-EmployersHave-Found-Content-on-Social-Media-That-Caused-Them-NOT-to-Hire-aCandidate-According-to-Recent-CareerBuilder-Survey.

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4 Alex Migdal, Twitter post, January 16, 2020. https://twitter.com/alexem/ status/1217908823135928321. 5 Robinson, as quoted in Glaser, “Personal Branding Becomes a Necessity in Digital Age,” 2009. 6 Anthony C. Adornato and Suzanne Lysak, “You Can’t Post That!: Social Media Policies in U.S. Television Newsrooms,” Electronic News 11, no. 2 (May 2017): 80–99, doi: 10.1177/1931243117710279. 7 Ibrahim Ahmed, “Why Your Profile Picture Is So Important,” The National, February 26, 2015. http://www.thenational.ae/business/the-life/why-yourprofile-picture-is-so-important. 8 Mallary Jean Tenore, “10 Ways Young Journalists Can Make Themselves More Marketable,” Poynter, January 7, 2013. http://www.poynter.org/2013/ 10-ways-journalists-can-make-themselves-more-marketable/198780. 9 “Social Media Guidelines for Student Journalists,” Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. https://cronkite.asu.edu/degreeprograms/admissions/student-resources/social-media-guidelines. 10 Benjamin Mullin, “New York Times Editor: After Orlando Shooting, Don’t Editorialize on Social Media,” Poynter, June 13, 2016. http://www.poynter. org/2016/new-york-times-editor-after-orlando-shooting-dont-editorializeon-social-media/416566. 11 “The Times Issues Social Media Guidelines For the Newsroom,” The New York Times, October 13, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/readercenter/social-media-guidelines.html. 12 Adornato and Lysak, “You Can’t Post That!” 2017. 13 Scott Kleinberg, “The Rule of Thirds Will Change How You Share on Social Media,” Chicago Tribune, August 6, 2014. http://www.chicagotribune.com/ lifestyles/ct-social-media-rule-of-thirds-20140806-column.html. 14 James Breiner, “How Journalist Built His Brand From College Dorm Room,” News Entrepreneurs, January 27, 2013. http://newsentrepreneurs.blogspot .com/2013/01/how-journalist-built-his-brand-from.html.

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4 SOCIAL NEWSGATHERING

In this chapter, you will learn how to

• • • •

Harness social media for newsgathering purposes: to find story ideas, sources, and content. Locate reliable information from social media that can enhance your reporting. Filter and organize all “the noise” you have at your fingertips. Engage the audience in the reporting process through crowdsourcing.

When a reporter at The Post-Standard in central New York came across a Reddit user’s post about an “underground” Alcoholics Anonymous group in the area, it piqued his interest. The reporter asked the outlet’s social media manager to message the Reddit user in an effort to learn more about the claims. That was the launching point to what turned into a yearlong investigation called “Drunk with Power.” The Reddit user was a key source. DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-4

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The Post Standard’s reporting revealed that leaders of this group, claiming to be affliated with AA, were giving detrimental advice to those battling alcohol addiction. The four-part series chronicled how group leaders recommended that members stop taking medications prescribed to them, even those for the treatment of mental health issues, and ignore their doctors’ advice all together. Several people are believed to have died as a result of following these recommendations. Scanning Reddit, which is a massive collection of forums, and other social networking sites for potential story ideas and sources is part of the daily routine in newsrooms. Though there is plenty of noise on these platforms, in this case, sifting through the sea of mundane and trivial comments signifcantly paid off. Traditional journalistic skills were also critical in order to develop a well-researched, thoughtful, and accurate story. The two journalists investigating the claims interviewed more than 50 sources, including group members, their relatives, and addiction experts with knowledge of this “rogue” AA group. In addition, they reviewed 911 calls and police reports related to the group’s headquarters as well as audio recordings of meetings. The reaction to the story was unprecedented at the outlet, according to the team who worked on the investigation. On social media and The PostStandard’s website, there was a food of comments from about 100 people, including medical professionals and current and former members of the group, who came forward to confrm what had been reported.

Social sleuthing: Story ideas, sources, and content There’s more than meets the eye with social media platforms. On the surface, they’re a place to share and interact. But social media has also added a new layer to the newsgathering process and can help to shine light on stories of great importance. As was frst introduced in Chapter 1, social media is a valuable newsgathering tool for journalists in three ways: • • •

Tips line. To fnd story ideas. Sources. To fnd sources for a story. Content. To fnd information for a story. This often includes usergenerated content or crowdsourced information.

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In this section we explore how to tap into the wealth of material and voices on social networks. Unlocking social media’s potential for locating story ideas, sources, and content is much like being a detective. You need to understand where and how to listen, monitor, and search.

VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY Is the unbelievable video you found too good to be true? Is that source credible? Never assume the images or people on social media are who or what they appear to be. Locating reliable information is key. In chapters 8 and 9, we explore how to identify misleading content and sources.

Social media complements and enhances, but doesn’t replace, traditional reporting skills. The quality of your stories is only as good as the quality of information you gather, whether it be online or offine. As the old cliché says: garbage in, garbage out. Social listening Social listening refers to the practice of monitoring social media to discover what’s being talked about by citizens and others, such as public offcials. It’s a way to uncover potential story ideas, content, and sources as well as monitor conversations in real time about a current story. Fine-tune your listening skills to flter out the background noise and fnd what’s important.  Create Twitter lists. Twitter lists are perhaps the best way to wade through a tsunami of information. After all, when you’re following hundreds of Twitter users, it can be overwhelming to keep up with what they’re saying. In fact, some people, including myself, rely more heavily on lists than their main Twitter feed. You can place users into specifc lists. Viewing a list’s feed will show you a stream of tweets from only users in that list. Lists are a great way to monitor a conversation about a certain topic and fnd story ideas. As part of this chapter’s checklist, you’ll create several Twitter lists. A go-to list for any journalist is one that includes local newsmakers. Place the accounts of local offcials, companies, nonprofts, and community leaders in this list. This stream is a local tips line. During

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Photo 4.1 While “listening” to sources on Twitter, a student journalist came across a tweet from a farm mentioning issues with its peach crop. He then reached out via Twitter to the farm, and eventually produced a multimedia story about the issue.

a breaking news situation, creating a list of sources can be done in a matter of minutes. Add users who are sharing information about the incident, including witnesses, law enforcement agencies, and journalists. Tend to your lists periodically. Weed out unhelpful sources and add new ones. To create a list, go to the profle page of your account, and locate the Lists section. After setting up a list here, add users to it by going to their profles and selecting “Add/remove from Lists.” You can place a user in a list even if you don’t click Follow on their account. In this case, the user’s tweets will show up only in the list feed, not in your main Twitter feed. Lists can be set to be public or private. If a list is set to public, anyone can see the list and users will be alerted when they’re placed in the list.  

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Photo 4.2 & 4.3 New York Times reporter Nick Corasaniti uses Twitter lists to organize sources for stories. Corasaniti creates his own lists and subscribes to those of other users. On the right is a list that The Texas Tribune staff created in order to easily view tweets about a hurricane.View all The Tribune’s lists at twitter.com/texastribune/lists.

If you don’t want to tip someone off that you’re monitoring him or her, private lists are a handy tool. Henk van Ess (@henkvaness), a reporter and researcher, used a private Twitter list of Dutch bankers to break a story about mass layoffs. Van Ess noticed a series of unusual tweets from people on the list.1 A banker posted, “Hate unscheduled meetings.” The chatter of bankers on this list stopped for about four hours. Then, a banker wrote, “Sometimes you must leave behind what you love the most.” A tweet from someone else on this list had mentioned the name of the restaurant where the supposed meeting had taken place. So, van Ess called the restaurant and confrmed that there was a meeting of bankers at that location. By combining the individual tweets, a collective narrative became clear, and he was able to turn to traditional reporting skills to break the story. “Thanks to my list, these subtle hints were not drowned in a timeline full of friends, family and strangers, where I might have missed their implications.”2 Subscribe to Twitter lists. You can subscribe to public lists created by others. The best way to locate public lists is by visiting users’ profles to see if they have created any. For example, if your beat is immigration, look at

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the Twitter accounts of journalists who cover this topic to fnd out if they’re already curating lists related to this. To subscribe, click the Subscribe button located on the list. After subscribing to someone else’s list, you will see it in your lists area and be able to view that stream. Another way to fnd public lists is by conducting an online search with the following search structure: keyword(s) site:twitter.com/*/lists. If you wanted to see if anyone created a list related to wildfres in California, you could type the following in a search engine: california fres site:twitter.com/*/lists. The search results include lists created by California Public Media, the Los Angeles Times, and journalists from local and national news outlets. Offcial accounts. Make it a habit to monitor the social media accounts of traditional sources, such as city government, police departments, and local politicians. How journalists receive information from these more traditional sources is evolving. These types of sources now bypass news outlets in many cases, because social platforms allow them to share information directly with the public. News outlets are no longer the sole gatekeepers, controlling the fow of information. As discussed earlier in the book, the Boston Marathon bombings were a case in point. The Boston Police Department turned to Twitter to share the latest information. And offcials, such as politicians, routinely make major announcements and comment on issues through social media rather than holding traditional press conferences or issuing press releases. Local nonprofts, another traditional source that previously had to rely on journalists to get the word out to the community about their work, also heavily utilize social media. Following nonprofts’ social media pages is a great way to fnd untold stories in your community. On Twitter, one less obvious way to look for potential ideas and sources is to check the “Tweets & replies” section of an account. You can fnd this by going to any account’s main Twitter page. The “Tweets & replies” stream shows interactions between the account and users. Let’s say you’re working on a story about an airbag recall for a certain type of car. You could go to the “Tweets & replies” section of the car manufacturer’s account to discover if the company has been interacting with any Twitter users about this issue. Looking at this stream—a public conversation between a customer and a company—could shed light on the types of concerns being raised by the public and how the company is responding. You might also fnd potential sources here for a story.

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To track what’s being shared from specifc Twitter and Facebook users, consider turning on notifcations for those accounts. This will help to ensure that you do not miss potentially newsworthy posts from a source. After activating the notifcation function for a specifc user or page, you’ll receive an alert every time the source posts something. Turn on these alerts directly from a user’s profle page. Facebook Groups. Facebook Groups are rife with story ideas and sources. There are countless interest groups on Facebook. Groups are different from Facebook Pages because they aren’t designed to be “offcial” profles of entities such as public offces and businesses. Rather, groups are grassroots online communities where people come together around a common cause, issue, or activity. This includes groups to memorialize victims, and those dedicated to communities such as mothers who breastfeed and parents who have children with disabilities. For these niche communities, the groups act as news feeds and places for discussion about issues that impact them. One of the biggest daily challenges for journalists is fnding people to interview who are directly impacted by an issue. These “real” people humanize stories. Telling a story through their eyes helps the audience better relate to an issue. Groups are a perfect place to fnd these sources. To locate a group about a specifc topic, use the Facebook search tool or this phrase in a search engine: site:Facebook.com/groups “keywords”. If I were looking for a group about breastfeeding, I would type: site:Facebook.com/groups “breastfeeding”. Some groups are closed. To be part of them, you have to request access. Be transparent. If you’re joining the group as part of your job as a journalist, rather than for personal reasons, be sure to use a professional account that clearly states in your profle that you’re a journalist. If you ask questions to the group as part of a fact-fnding mission for a story, always make clear you’re a reporter working on a story. As NPR’s ethics handbook states, this approach should be used in all online spaces: Just as we do in the “real” world, we identify ourselves as NPR journalists when we are working online. So, if as part of our work we are posting comments, asking questions, tweeting, retweeting, blogging, Facebooking or doing anything on social media or other online forums, we clearly identify ourselves and that we work for NPR. We do not use pseudonyms when doing such work.3

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In Chapter 8’s exploration of social media ethics and policies, we address the ethical concerns of contacting sources through social media and how to properly use information from these platforms. Social searching Milan residents under lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic sing in unison from their balconies. A boy crawls into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. A plane makes an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport after its engine explodes. In all these cases, journalists tracked down sources and user-generated content on social media to paint a picture of what was unfolding. How would you search social media to locate information about these stories? A basic search would include keywords, hashtags, and the location of each story. That’s a good starting point. Like any good detective though, a journalist needs skills to drill deeper. Utilizing a myriad of advanced search methods depending on the situation can uncover a treasure trove of details. Advanced sleuthing by location, keywords, and time will take you past general search results. Location. Through location-based searches, journalists can zero in on a specifc spot where a story is unfolding. This type of search pinpoints social media posts in a selected area. The search often relies on users having their geo-location turned on and their accounts public, so not every post from that location will turn up in a search. Some platforms have advanced search tools through which you can select a location and search for posts within a certain radius around that location. You can also flter deeper by looking for people who have included images or keywords in their posts at a specifed location. In the case of the emergency landing at the Philadelphia airport, you could start by typing Philadelphia into a location search box and entering keywords such as “crash landing” or “emergency landing.” As you can see from the photo below, a search on Twitter during this breaking news event turned up posts from people on the fight who shared dramatic photos and videos from inside the plane’s cabin. Among the social media posts were messages from passengers, unaware if they would survive, saying “goodbye” to loved ones. One person died. 

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Photo 4.4 A simple location and keywords search can bring you instantly to the scene of developing news.

A different way to conduct a location search is by using a geocode, the longitude/latitude coordinates for a location. Many location searches through social media platform tools don’t allow you to pinpoint down to street level. That’s where geocode searching comes in handy. You can “zoom” to the location of a house or building. In Google Maps, navigate

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to the location you want to search. Right click on the pin on the map, and select “What’s here?” That’s where you’ll fnd the longitude/latitude data. Copy that into the Twitter search bar. A geocode search for tweets at or around the Cincinnati Zoo would look like this: • • • •

Cincinnati Zoo’s geocode is 39.144765,-84.508574 In the main search box of Twitter, use this search format: geocode:39.144765,-84.508574 (delete spaces after punctuation) To search a radius around that location, add the miles or kilometers after the geocode, as follows: geocode:39.144765,-84.508574,1mi To search for posts with keywords within that location, add the keywords to the beginning. For example, gorilla geocode:39.144765,-84.508574,1mi

Another method of conducting a location-based search is by fnding people who have checked in on social media to a spot. The check-in feature tags a post with the location a user selects. Some platforms, most notably Instagram, allow you to search by check-in location. So you could, for example, locate people who have checked into the Philadelphia Airport, the city of Milan, or the Cincinnati Zoo. From there, see if they’re posting anything related to the news event you’re researching. Keep in mind, just because someone checks into a location on social media doesn’t necessarily mean the person is physically at that location. People can check into these places even if they’re not at them. ProPublica’s Justin Elliott (@JustinElliott) tapped into Instagram’s location tagging when he was working on a story about Texas congressman Jeb Hensarling.4 After Hensarling became chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, his political action committee held a fundraiser at a Utah ski resort. Elliott searched for Instagram photos tagged at the St. Regis Deer Valley Resort, the location of the event. “I went through the photos and looked at each user and tried to fgure out if they were a lobbyist or lobbyist family member,” said Elliott.5 He was able to locate at least one photo of a lobbyist who attended the event. Snap Map, the geo-location feature on Snapchat, has also come in handy for journalists. Snap Map can be accessed through the Snapchat app or map. snapchat.com. On this interactive map, you’re able to pinpoint public Snapchat stories based on their location and embed them in an online article.

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Photo 4.5 The tragedy unfolding at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was also chronicled in realtime by Snapchat users, some of whom were inside the school as a 19-year-old opened fre. Seventeen people were killed. Some journalists used Snap Map to gather eyewitness accounts of the situation. It goes without saying that journalists must be ethical and use restraint with regard to how this type of sensitive content is published. Note how in this tweet NBC News’s Emmanuelle Saliba gives general details but does not share sensitive images posted to Snap Map.

Emmanuelle Saliba (@_esaliba), of NBC News, often uses the feature to get a sense of what is happening at the scene of breaking news. During antigovernment protests in Iraq, Snapchat was the only social media platform that was not blocked in that country. Using Snap Map, Saliba was able to fnd hundreds of demonstration videos posted by Snapchat users across Iraq.6  Keywords. Think about a combination of keywords that will capture content specifc to what you’re looking for. If you’re getting results that aren’t relevant or you’re getting too many results, pivot. Adjust keywords.

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Sometimes that requires creating more complex searches or thinking more simplistically. When you’re searching for content from the scene of a story, put yourself in the shoes of people there. How would a witness—not a journalist— craft a post? What would the witness say? “Imagine what your perfect source would tweet, or what you yourself would tweet in that situation, and search for the words that would probably be in it,” said Daniel Victor (@bydanielvictor), of The New York Times.7 Me and my are keywords journalists should add to searches, Victor noted in a blog post about how he tracked down sources for one particular story.8 The Times got word that there had been reports of conficts on airplanes because Hasidic Jewish men didn’t want to be seated next to women other than their wives. He was able to fnd 13 possible sources on Twitter through keyword searches using me and my along with other terms related to the issue. All fve passengers quoted in the story were found through Twitter searches. “If tasked with fnding these sources, most would probably start with words like Hasidic and fight. But that search is horribly noisy to the point of uselessness,” said Victor. He adds that some people might not know the term Hasidic, so they may use the words Jew, Jewish, and/or orthodox combined with the word fight. He added those words, along with me and my, to his search. Bingo. They were used in all of the sources’ tweets. In other situations, especially for nonbreaking news stories, fnd sources by searching social networking platforms for keywords they might use in their profles. Looking for someone in the aerospace industry to interview for a story? You could type aerospace into the keyword box on LinkedIn and your zip code in the location section. Need to interview a school bus driver? Type school bus driver and your city into the search bar of a site. Another trick is to take the keyword search outside of a platform. Turn to Google. Use advanced search phrases to fnd public social media posts and profles. Below are two of the most helpful, yet somewhat unknown, search formulas. Copy and paste the following into Google; then edit the site name and keyword(s) accordingly. •

To search by keywords in posts, site:twitter.com “keyword(s)” OR “additional keyword combination”

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∘

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Example: site:twitter.com “cincinnati zoo gorilla” OR “child falls cincinnati zoo gorilla” To search by keywords in bios, site:twitter.com bio:*keyword -inurl:status ∘ Example: site:twitter.com bio:*neurosurgeon -inurl:status

Time. Filtering by a specifc time period can be another way to sift through posts and locate valuable information. After running a Google search with any of the search formulas mentioned above, select the advanced flter for time. Search for posts sent since a date, between two dates, or on a date. Some social networking sites also have this feature. A time-based search could have been used after the Cincinnati Zoo incident to narrow down the food of posts to only those sent on the day of the incident. Or, you could use this feature to see what visitors to the zoo are saying in the days following. Zoo visitors provided frsthand accounts of what unfolded that day by posting to social media as it was unfolding. Videos recorded on mobile devices showed the boy being dragged by the gorilla and screams of people around after he crawled into the animal’s enclosure. These images were broadcast and published by news outlets around the world. Social media command center: Organize listening and searching Simplify the listening and searching process by creating your own social media command center. Among the most well-known tools to do so are TweetDeck, owned by Twitter, and Hootsuite. Both allow you to keep an eye on different parts of Twitter at once from a single dashboard. You are able create separate streams, or columns, for each of your Twitter lists, keyword(s) searches, location searches, direct messages, and more. Imagine how helpful these dashboards are in breaking news situations. Instantly create streams for keywords and a list of sources. You can flter these columns to show text-only tweets or those with visuals and set up notifcations so that you’ll receive an alert when a new tweet arrives in a column. When you no longer need a stream, simply remove it from the dashboard. From TweetDeck and Hootsuite, you’re also able to post your own tweets. 

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Photo 4.6 The TweetDeck dashboard: Different Twitter streams, including several lists, appear in one single location. These elements show up in multiple columns, or streams. Additionally, if you have multiple Twitter accounts, TweetDeck allows you to access them in a single dashboard.

USING LINKEDIN FOR SOURCING AND STORY IDEAS Though LinkedIn is a professional-oriented social networking site, it’s much more than just a place to hold your resume. You can connect with potential employers and tap into its features to find a job or internship. In the final chapter, we explore how to make the most of LinkedIn for building a professional network and job hunting. LinkedIn is a research treasure trove for journalists. Advanced People Search is a tool to find sources, from experts to former and current employees of a company. The search tool allows you to drill deep based on specific criteria including location, education, nonprofit interests, and employment history. Once you click on a potential source’s profile, you’ll see if anyone in your LinkedIn network knows the source. Connections can help you get past “no comment.” Having something in common can be a starting point to get someone to talk. That’s where the Find Alumni search function can be useful as well. Use this search area to locate alumni of your college or university based on their expertise as well as where they live and work. The alumni feature is located on your school’s LinkedIn page.

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Follow Company pages to stay updated on changes at specific companies. Search for companies related to your beat or located in your city, and then click Follow Company to get regular updates on hiring, promotions, departures, and job listings. Company pages also list current and former employees. When covering sensitive stories about a company, former employees can be more willing to talk than current ones. LinkedIn’s search tool lets you search for these “formers.” Discover what’s trending. LinkedIn groups are a way to track the latest chatter related to a beat. Monitor groups related to your reporting interests in order to find story ideas and sources. Other LinkedIn tips: •

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Who’s Viewed Your Profile? You can see who’s checking out your LinkedIn profile. The Who’s Viewed Your Profile feature works both ways though. If you enable the feature in your account settings, other users will also be able to see when you have looked at their profiles. That could tip people off if you’re working on an investigative or sensitive story. If you decide to turn off this feature, you’ll no longer see who has viewed your profile either. Request to be added to the LinkedIn for Journalists group on the site. The space is for journalists to learn more about industry news and how to use LinkedIn as a tool to uncover sources, story ideas, and scoops. LinkedIn also holds webinars for journalists. Checkout the LinkedIn for Journalists group for webinar details.

Crowdsourcing: Social collaboration and curation One way to bring the audience into the newsgathering process is through crowdsourcing. The term crowdsourcing was coined in 2006 by Jeff Howe (@crowdsourcing), then editor of Wired magazine. Crowdsourcing is the process of turning to a large group of people to solve a problem or contribute to a project. Social media provides the avenue to collaborate with a “crowd.” Crowdsourcing is different from searching for user-generated content that has already been created. In crowdsourced journalism, reporters make a specifc request from the audience. It’s an open call to gather

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Photo 4.7 A public radio reporter received an unexpected number of responses to a question she posed to Twitter followers.

a range of content including photos, data, and comments about an issue. This social collaboration, in which you invite people to participate in the reporting process, reinforces the concept of journalism as a conversation. Collaboration through crowdsourcing harnesses the collective power of the audience. Crowdsourcing is part of audience engagement strategies in newsrooms. An increasing number of outlets are hiring engagement journalists whose responsibilities are focused on collaborating with the audience. That often includes crowdsourcing. ProPublica has several engagement reporters who pull people into the reporting process in a way that informs the outlet’s work and allows the audience to be a central player in the newsgathering process. In her role as engagement reporter with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, Beena Raghavendran (@thebeenster) collaborates with local news outlets across the United States on investigative projects. “Lots of times, this looks like crowdsourcing and asking people to help us with our reporting through questionnaires, letters, emails, records requests, fyers, postcards, community meetups—the list goes on,” said Raghavendran.9 Harnessing the power of the audience Journalists crowdsource all types of stories, from general assignment reports to long-form investigative pieces. The potential benefts of crowdsourcing are these: The audience can suggest angles to a story, provide

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eyewitness accounts, and offer information that otherwise would be diffcult to locate. It also makes them more invested in your work. In Chapter 1, we discussed how The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold masterfully used crowdsourcing via Twitter in his reporting of U.S. President Donald Trump. The audience provided new lines of inquiry into his investigation of Trump’s questionable fnancial dealings. As a result of Fahrenthold’s crowd-powered reporting, the Donald J. Trump Foundation was forced to shut down by the New York Attorney General’s offce. Here are a few other ways, serious and fun, news outlets are crowdsourcing. •

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Where are the best sledding spots? During a major snowstorm, WNYC, New York City’s public radio station, posed that question to social media followers. The station created an online map for people to pin their favorite sledding spots, comment about the location, and upload photos. The map was embedded within a page on WNYC’s website. WNYC shared the link via social media. The station also asked followers to share their sledding photos on social media platforms and tag the images with #nycsledding. Who makes up the landscape of your community? Who do you already know that the rest of us should meet? Those were the two questions that KUT, a public radio station in Austin, Texas, asked community members as part of its “Hi, Who Are You?” series. People were encouraged to fll out an online form with suggestions. There were plenty of them for KUT to run with. The station produced stories about people from all walks of life, including a school crossing guard who waves to everyone and “the chatty guy” who works at the post offce. A related Facebook group created by KUT is another way for people to suggest stories.  ProPublica journalists frequently tap into the wisdom of the crowd. For a story about medical errors, they launched community crowdsourcing long before publishing a story. Their efforts included a Facebook group where people could share stories, and a questionnaire for patients and their families. These provided hundreds of sources (not only patients, but also experts) and tips. The Virginian-Pilot partnered with ProPublica to explore how children of Vietnam War veterans may be negatively impacted by a parent’s exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical used by the U.S. military as part of

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Photo 4.8 A public radio station used this form to gather story ideas from the public.

its chemical warfare program. The reporting team created an online survey that thousands of veterans, their children, and other family members flled out. The Pilot and ProPublica decided to launch the crowdsourced investigation because the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs would not recognize a link between exposure to Agent Orange and its impact on the health of veterans’ children. The crowdsourced information resulted in a host of award-winning stories that shed light on the devastating consequences, including birth defects.

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How do you develop and execute a callout? Every crowdsource effort has fve steps, according to NPR’s social media team.10 • •

Hone the question(s). Be specifc about what you’re asking the audience. Write the pitch. Be clear how the information will be used and why it’s important. Test out several different drafts. Share it. Reaching a broad audience by posting to social media is an obvious approach. But don’t forget about niche communities, such as Facebook groups related to specifc interests. Review the responses. Analyze data, and contact sources if needed. Write the story. Think about how to integrate the data into the story and how you’ll present it. Remember to thank contributors and share the fnal product.

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SIX TYPES OF CROWDSOURCING The Tow Center for Digital Journalism’s guide to crowdsourcing includes a breakdown of six ways journalists can collaborate with their communities.11 • • • • • •

Voting. Prioritizing which stories reporters should tackle. Witnessing. Sharing what you saw during a news event. Sharing personal experiences. Telling what you know about your life experience. Tapping specialized expertise. Contributing data or unique knowledge. Completing a task. Volunteering time or skills to help create a news story. Engaging audiences. Joining in callouts that can range from informative to playful.

Properly setting up your call to action is critical before sharing it. Spend time upfront thinking through the crowdsource request. This will help make sure you get the most useful data. After the fact, it may be too late. Specifc hashtags. Creating a specifc hashtag dedicated to a crowdsourced effort can be effective. Have people tag their posts with this hashtag,

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if you’re asking them to share images or comment about a topic. This is an easy way to flter posts. Any content you share about the crowdsourced project should also include the hashtag. Hashtag callouts on Instagram work particularly well when trying to gather photos. After all, visuals and hashtags make up the language of Instagram. When NPR launched its New Boom series about Millennials, a social media callout on Instagram and Twitter asked this demographic of people to share selfes and tag the posts with #NPRCensus. NPR requested that the selfes include a mirror or a sign listing the checkboxes that they would select on a census and their own categories that describe their identity. An introductory post by NPR showed what the news team was looking for. Hundreds of selfes tagged with #NPRCensus were shared, and NPR reporters interviewed some of the Millennials for radio and web stories. 

Photo 4.9 An NPR producer posted a photo to Instagram in order to show people how to participate in the “selfe” crowdsourced story.

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Surveys/questionnaires. To get robust data, surveys/questionnaires are perhaps the most effective and frequently used tools in crowdsourcing. Use Google Forms to easily create one. After building a survey, share the link to it on social media platforms. Answers are automatically fed into a searchable spreadsheet accessible through Google Forms. ProPublica almost always uses Google Forms in crowdsourcing. In the case of the medical errors investigation, as patients and providers responded, reporters began to spot patterns, story leads, and sources. “Our questionnaires are one of our most valuable sourcing tools, because they turn a jumble of stories and comments, from a range of social networks, into structured data that our team can sort and annotate,” said Blair Hickman (@amandablair), who worked on the ProPublica project.12 Keep surveys short and concise. It shouldn’t take someone more than a few minutes to respond. Ask for demographic information. If you’re

Photo 4.10 & 4.11 Fostering dialogue: NPR crowdsourced when reporting about the loss of loved ones to COVID-19. The NPR team used Google Forms to create a survey, and then shared the survey link with its social media followers.

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interested in sorting the results by demographic data—such as age group or section of your city—include those questions in the survey. Give people the option to contact you via email or phone, particularly for more sensitive stories. Some members of the crowd may have newsworthy information but may be reluctant to share it via a survey. Include at least one opened-ended question that allows participants to write anything additional. This is the equivalent of asking people at the end of an interview if they’d like to say anything else. A source may be sitting on a key piece of information that can bring a new angle to a story. Include a section for people to submit their contact info. This is important if you need to follow up with a source. Finally, have your colleagues test the survey. Get their feedback in terms of the clarity and order of questions as well as the length. Don’t forget to check how the survey works on a mobile device.   Facebook Groups. The creation of Facebook Groups by newsrooms is another way to harness the power of the audience. Facebook Groups serve as a space where the audience can talk with each other and journalists. The groups can be tailored to general interests of a news outlet’s community, such as high school sports and music, or focused on a specifc crowdsourced project. Each group should have moderators, typically reporters and/or editors, who listen to members’ ideas and reply to comments when necessary. Moderators set the tone by encouraging civil discussion. Given the amount of vitriol online, news outlets should create community guidelines that are published in each of their Facebook groups. Comment sections of online stories are flled with unproductive and sometimes downright nasty discourse. This is one reason why an increasing number of news outlets have eliminated the commenting function on their websites and instead create Facebook groups to foster community engagement. Vox launched a Facebook group for enrollees of the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, to discuss their shared experiences. The group was part of Vox’s crowdsourced reporting that investigated how the potential repeal of the healthcare law could impact those who otherwise

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Photo 4.12 The VoxCare Facebook group has community guidelines and is moderated by Vox journalists.

would be uninsured. “We’ve learned that a Facebook community can be an incredibly productive space for our readers to go through a shared experience together—and for us at Vox to interact with our audience in a completely new way,” according to Lauren Katz (@Laur_Katz), senior engagement manager at Vox.13 Vox’s health reporter originally turned to Twitter to gather information— including story ideas and potential sources—from the “crowd.” Based on the hundreds of Twitter replies she received, Vox decided to launch the Facebook group. At one point, the Vox team used Google Forms to create a survey for group members to complete. The data was incorporated into Vox’s reporting of the issue. The group, now called VoxCare, has evolved into a place to discuss health policy in the United States. It is moderated by Katz and several of her colleagues. 

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 4.13 Blair Hickman (@amandablair) Managing Editor, Vox Blair Hickman specializes in crowdsourcing, audience engagement, and innovation in journalism. Prior to joining Vox, Hickman was the audience editor at The Marshall Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom covering America’s criminal justice system, and she worked at ProPublica on crowdsourcing investigations into patient harm and unpaid internships. Tells us about your roles focused on audience engagement. It’s an interesting field because the responsibilities can vary so widely from newsroom to newsroom. A big portion of my work at ProPublica was crowdsourcing for long-term reporting projects. I was part of the health care, education, and financial teams. Because these were investigative pieces, we had a long time to work on the stories. This enabled the newsroom to see fruits of deep user engagement. For our series on patient harm, we launched a Facebook group for people who had been injured in hospitals and their loved ones to speak out. We also created a specific callout for doctors in order to bring them

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into our reporting process. We were building sources and trust through our engagement. A lot of the doctors provided expert advice for the investigation. For this investigation, it started with a reporter already having a story idea and then turning to the audience for help. But, sometimes it begins with a general idea and then the audience can help to determine if the story is newsworthy or what the story is, as was the case with an investigation we conducted into unpaid internships. At The Marshall Project, much of my job was centered on audience development, growing our audience. Engagement was at the heart of that strategy. For example, we created a partnership to host series on criminal justice in an effort to expose us to new communities interested in the topic of our reporting. The interesting thing about that was figuring out what type of content was important to potential audience members in order to onboard them as regular readers. How do you begin the crowdsourcing process for a story? It’s important to understand that crowdsourcing is a subset of audience engagement. Crowdsourcing is a task that you ask the audience to do. A lot of people get excited about the tools, and they start there. But, a crowdsourcing project needs to start well before that. What’s the story we are trying to tell and what is the info we need to collect? Do you want them to pick out a story? Do you want them to contribute to a story you’re already working on? Do you want them to send you personal experiences? Knowing what you want and who you are trying to target is the first step. And after that, it needs to be research that will help you decide the tools you need. Of those people you’re trying to reach––where do they live online? Sometimes you can just use the built-in audience you already have, such as if you want your audience to vote on story ideas. But, if it’s sharing personal experiences, that audience research is key to making sure you’re reaching people on the right spaces. That will drive your distribution strategy for a callout. It’s about understanding them as people and their media consumption habits. A good example is the patient harm story. We knew we wanted to reach doctors as well as patients and loved ones. First thing we did was launch a Facebook group, and we noticed that doctors weren’t contributing. So we called a few doctors and a lot of them felt they would be attacked if they spoke out in this group. Through that research we were

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able to come up with a strategy specifically for medical professionals. That meant launching a page with content targeted to doctors as a way to facilitate engagement. Then, once we got them to that page, there was a call to action asking them to fill out a survey. What are the challenges involved with crowdsourced reporting? Verification and the time needed to go about that process are two challenges with crowdsourced reporting. Any time you get a personal story through a callout, there are extra steps involved, and that takes time. When you talk to a “traditional” source, you typically try to vet them before you conduct the interview. You know their background, and there are cues you can pick up on during an interview to help you gauge whether they’re telling the truth. In addition, you can ask them in person if they have documents or other information that backs up their claims. With crowdsourcing, that’s a bit trickier. You can and must verify these things. But it takes time to go through all the submissions, call people, ask them questions, and attempt to verify the information they submitted. In the meantime, however, you’re exposing yourself to more themes and a better grasp of an issue than if you’re simply reaching people by telephone. That’s a great advantage of crowdsourcing. What advice do you have for student journalists? Students need to get in the habit of sharing. Many students aren’t initially active on social media. If they are, a lot of times, it’s simply for personal reasons. A key to engagement and crowdsourcing is frequent interactions, posts, and callouts. I tell students they need to be able to share valuable content during the reporting process. It’s also important to understand your audience. It’s important to have information about who you are trying to reach so you can develop the best strategy.

Reporting what you gather: Vetting and visualizing the data Once you collect information, it’s time to vet and then visualize the data, presenting it in an easy-to-understand way for readers. Interview the data. Approach it with a critical eye. There are inherent limitations in asking people to self-report. They may be outright dishonest. In other

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cases, a lapse in memory may be to blame for an inaccurate answer to a question. If you have doubts, contact the source. Use old-school interviewing skills. Ask more questions to try to determine if the source is reliable and if what the source has submitted is valid. That’s why getting contact information is so critical. You may also be able to verify without contacting a source. For example, if you were to ask followers to report how much snowfall they received in their neighborhood, you could easily corroborate a claim of fve feet. A simple check with a meteorologist would indicate whether this was possible or not. You could also look at the snowfall totals that other people in that location reported. Throw away bogus data. These approaches are no different from the those you would use to vet information gathered offine—in documents, databases, or through interviews. The same rules apply here. Now, bring the data to life. A journalist’s job is to curate information, make sense of data. Sift and sort to decide what stands out. What story is the data telling you? What’s the news value? The trick here is to decide which information to use and how to present it. Weave the information from crowdsourcing efforts into the narrative of a story. Let the audience know how the information was gathered. Including the number of people who responded adds context. Was it 15 or 150? In most cases, the data you receive will not be representative of a general population. People who respond through social media are themselves a subsection of society. Data visualization through the use of infographics can complement the written narrative. An infographic is a visual representation of factual information. The goal of an infographic is to present information in a highly visual format that enhances the audience’s ability to understand the content. This multimedia element brings the data to life.   Journalists have access to a wealth of data through crowdsourcing efforts and online databases. Infographics have become essential components in journalism to highlight data. The best infographics show, and they don’t overwhelm the audience with data. Infographics can include a host of features such as charts, graphs, timelines, word clouds, and pull quotes from sources.

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Photo 4.14 & 4.15 Infographics can take the form of charts and graphs that give a breakdown of quantitative data or they can be more descriptive in nature. Sources: The Ithaca Journal and MLive.com.

With online tools, journalists are able to create infographic components for their reports. Infogram, Tableau, Canva, and Piktochart are web-based platforms where you can easily build interactive infographics. Then, embed them in stories and share on social media. Reuben Stern (@SternReuben), of the Missouri School of Journalism, said an awesome infographic is the combination of useful information and good design. Stern offers these tips for building infographics:14 •

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Is the information worth visualizing? Can it be more easily visualized than explained in written form? The best infographics tell stories that could not be effectively communicated any other way. Do you have enough details to create an effective visual presentation? Two pieces of data usually isn’t enough to merit an infographic. You

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can simply mention in the text of the story the difference between two data points. Did the data come from reliable sources? Scrutinize data and sources. Is this something people would want to know? Just because you have data, you don’t necessarily have to include it in an infographic. In other words, don’t create an infographic simply because you have data. On the same note, if the data is too complex or confusing to explain in an infographic, leave it out. Be mindful of basic design elements. A clean design can help information shine. Start with a headline in a larger font than the headings that follow. Color can be used to call attention to parts of a graphic. Choose an infographic format appropriate for the information at hand. A chart or table is best to show how different things compare to each other. But a map would be needed if you want to show where things are located.

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Social media lists. Create three Twitter lists: one for your beat, one for newsmakers in your region, and one for sources that will keep you updated on the latest mobile and social media journalism trends. To start, place at least 15 sources in each list. For the list related to mobile and social media journalism, consider the accounts I recommended you follow in Chapter 1’s checklist. On my Twitter account (@AnthonyAdornato), I’ve created several public lists that may be helpful. You can subscribe to any of them. The Mobile/Social Journalism list is my go-to spot to see what’s being talked about in the industry.

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Social dashboard. Set up an account on TweetDeck or Hootsuite, and add a column for each of the three lists you created. Get in the habit of checking these lists at least once a day.

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The workout. Flex your mobile and social media muscles. Carve out time every day to manage your social media: both social listening and posting. Best to spread out posts during the week. It’s all about consistency. Each week attempt to be active on your social media platforms, which will depend in part on the blog posts and original reporting content that you have to share. Don’t post just to post. Some weekly recommendations:

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About 10 tweets and a combination of 10 retweets, replies, and likes. This can include several tweets about class discussions and/or readings that you found interesting. Tell followers why you’re sharing them.

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A few posts on your professional Facebook page, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

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Follow a handful of people on each platform. On Twitter, make it a goal to follow at least five new people every week, at least as you begin to build your professional brand.

Crowdsource. Create a callout, preferably for a story you’re currently working on. Or work in groups to create a callout specifically for this checklist item. ¾

Build a survey using Google Forms.

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Share the link and callout request to social media. (This may have to be done multiple times.)

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Analyze the data you collect.

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Create at least one infographic with crowdsourced information.

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If the crowdsourcing is part of a story you’re working on, embed the infographic(s) in the online article. If not, write a blog post reflecting on what you learned from the crowdsourcing experience. Also, include the infographic(s).

Reminder. Continue working on your mobile and social media strategy analysis, first assigned as part of Chapter 2’s checklist. Have you been keeping up with your blog posts (Chapter 3’s checklist)? I recommend writing two per week. Don’t forget to share them to your social media sites.

Notes 1 Henk van Ess, “How to Use Private Twitter Lists to Deepen Coverage of Companies,” MediaShift, January 2015. http://mediashift.org/2015/06/howto-use-private-twitter-lists-to-deepen-coverage-of-companies. 2 Ibid. 3 NPR Ethics Handbook, n.d. http://ethics.npr.org/tag/social-media.

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4 Meena Thiruvengadam, “Instagram for Newsrooms: A Community Tool, a Reporting Tool, a Source of Web Content,” Poynter, May 27, 2103. http:// www.poynter.org/2013/instagram-for-newsrooms-a-community-tool-areporting-tool-a-source-of-web-content/214435. 5 Thiruvengadam, “Instagram for Newsrooms: A Community Tool, a Reporting Tool, a Source of Web Content,” 2013. 6 Emmanuelle Saliba, “Protests in Iraq Find an Outlet to the World: Snapchat,” NBC News, October 25, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ protests-iraq-find-outlet-world-snapchat-n1072266?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw _ma. 7 Daniel Victor, “The One Word Journalists Should Add to Twitter Searches That You Probably Haven’t Considered,” April 27, 2015. https://medium.com/ @bydanielvictor/the-one-word-reporters-should-add-to-twitter-searchesthat-you-probably-haven-t-considered-fadab1bc34e8#.3p8egd8jq. 8 Ibid. 9 Beena Raghavendran, “The Year of the Local Engagement Reporter,” Nieman Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/12/the-year-of-the-localengagement-reporter/. 10 Serri Graslie, “6 Ways to Use Social Callouts,” NPR Social Media Desk, April 29, 2015. http://socialmediadesk.tumblr.com/post/117706055331/6ways-to-use-social-callouts. 11 “Guide to Crowdsourcing,” Tow Center for Digital Journalism, November 20, 2015. http://towcenter.org/research/guide-to-crowdsourcing. 12 Blair Hickman, “How We Used Facebook to Power Our Investigation into Patient Harm,” ProPublica, December 19, 2012. https://www.propublica.org/article/how-we-used-facebook-to-power-our-investigation-intopatient-harm. 13 Lauren Katz, “What We’ve Learned from Our Facebook Community for Obamacare Enrollees,” Vox, January 4, 2017. https://www.vox.com/policyand-politics/2017/1/4/14119810/obamacare-enrollees-community-vox. 14 Reuben Stern, “Infographics,” American Society of News Editors Youth Journalism Initiative, n.d. http://schooljournalism.org/wp-content/uploads/ adobe_captivate_uploads/Infographics_ASNE-rev/multiscreen.html.

5 FROM THE FIELD THE MOBILE JOURNALIST

In this chapter, you will

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Learn to build a mobile journalist go-bag with accessories that allow you to capture quality video, audio, and photos. Explore how to use mobile devices and applications to gather, produce, and publish content—without being tied to a physical newsroom or carrying around bulky equipment. Learn to develop digital-first story pitches, a plan for how you will use social media and mobile devices while covering stories.

A computer. A video camera. An audio recorder. A still camera. A phone. A rolodex. Nowadays, a single mobile device serves all these purposes. It’s no wonder mobile devices are the go-to tool for journalists. From the palm of their hands, reporters can easily gather, produce, and share stories to any platform from nearly anywhere. No need to cart around DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-5

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Photo 5.1 & 5.2 Correspondents from Brazilian and American TV networks use just an iPhone to record video and broadcast live.

clunky equipment. Streaming live from the feld, for instance, previously required a lot of gear and a small army of people, including a reporter, a videographer, and a live truck operator. Now, reporters simply open an app to bring people live to the scene. Mobile devices and apps simplify the process of getting content from the feld to the audience, most notably on social media. Not to mention, journalists can engage with followers on the fy. You see, then, why mobile devices and social media go hand in hand. You can’t discuss one without the other. Imagine how cumbersome it would be to take photos or record video on traditional devices and then post that content on social media. A single mobile device gives journalists the fexibility to get the job done quickly and effciently. In addition to streamlining workfow, mobile devices have made it possible for a journalist to accomplish tasks traditionally carried out by a team in the feld. Armed with a mobile device, a single reporter flls the roles of

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one or two others. In most cases, a reporter doesn’t need a photographer or a videographer. This is not limited to reporters in smaller markets. Even those who work in major markets are fying solo in the feld with only a mobile device. Yes, you have to be skilled at doing it all. Welcome to the world of a mojo, or mobile journalist. Neal Augenstein and Mike Castellucci are two of the pioneers of mobile journalism. Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP), a reporter for WTOP-FM in Washington, D.C., recognized the potential of the iPhone shortly after it was released in 2007. He became the frst radio reporter to use an iPhone as the primary tool to produce news stories in the feld. “At the time, I remember thinking to myself that the quality needs to be good enough for broadcast,” said Augenstein. “I found that by the time the pieces get edited and go through the audio processing at the station, the sound quality recorded on an iPhone was the same to a listener as that recorded on traditional equipment. I said to myself, ‘Let me see if anyone notices.’ This was February of 2010. No one has ever said, ‘Are you recording on different equipment than co-workers?’” When he frst arrives at the scene of a story, Augenstein snaps photos and records short video clips that he tweets out with the latest details. On his phone, he then records interviews, natural sound, and his voice tracks for his traditional radio reports. Augenstein uses an audio app to edit all those elements together before sending the fnal audio fle to the newsroom. The Newseum recognized Augenstein’s work in mobile journalism by displaying his iPhone 4S as an artifact representing this new era of reporting. Castellucci (@MikeCastellucci) made history with his iPhone when he was a reporter at WFAA-TV in Dallas. In 2015, he shot a half-hour broadcast entirely with his iPhone. The special, called Phoning It In, won three Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow award. Castellucci, who is now a journalism professor, continues to produce award-winning pieces using an iPhone. He outfts his device with an external mic, and uses a mini tripod and a wide-angle lens. “Not once has anybody ever complained about footage quality, not once. In fact, it’s just the opposite: ‘You got that on an iPhone?’” he said.1 View Castellucci’s work by visiting bit.ly/iPhoneStorytelling.

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Digital-f irst mindset: Mobile and social By now, you should have a solid understanding of the digital-frst mindset, introduced earlier in the book. Digital-frst means mobile and social media frst. A digital-frst approach requires journalists to use mobile devices to share and engage with audiences on social media prior to publishing on other platforms, such as a website. A news outlet’s website is important, of course, but it’s increasingly becoming the secondary spot to publish information. It all goes back to the audience’s news consumption habits— mobile and social. Planning your stor y: The digital-f irst stor y pitch In newsroom editorial meetings, journalists “sell” the stories they would like to cover. A story pitch has to be convincing and well thought out. Journalists must be prepared to answer key questions before an editor decides which story they’ll be assigned. The art of pitching story ideas takes time to hone. Done right, it can build your credibility and reliability with colleagues as a solid journalist. A well-crafted pitch has always addressed the following: • • •

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Story focus. What’s the angle of the story? Is it focused enough so people will understand the point after watching or reading it? News peg. Who cares? Why is the story important to your audience at this point in time? Sources. Does the pitch include a mix of sources to provide a comprehensive story? Does it include “real” people, those directly impacted by the issue or topic? You can humanize a story by integrating the narratives of “real” people, instead of only experts and offcials. Data/background info. What other information, such as scientifc research results or statistics from government databases, are needed to provide context and illuminate the issue at the heart of a story? This type of information can back up claims made in a story. Visuals. How will you tell the story in a visually compelling manner? What visuals do you expect to gather in the feld? Which multimedia elements (video, still images, infographics, etc.) are appropriate for this story?

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There’s a missing component to this traditional story pitch formula. It doesn’t include a game plan for using mobile devices and social media. Mobile and social must have a seat at the table—make them part of every story creation process. A digital-frst pitch outlines how you’ll use mobile devices and social media for newsgathering, distribution of content, and audience engagement. You’ll recall from our discussion in Chapter 1, those are the three areas in which new media has impacted journalism, opening up new ways to report and engage. For each story pitch, then, include the following elements to not only sell the story to editors, but also stay focused in the feld: •

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Newsgathering. How do you plan to use social media to fnd sources and content for the story? You may have already been tipped off to the idea because of something you saw on social media. What content do you need to gather on your phone in order to tell your story across platforms? Distribution of news. Sharing as you go. What’s your plan for keeping the audience up to date on social media? Which platforms will you focus on for this story? Which visual elements can you capture and share with your mobile device? Audience engagement. How can you bring the audience into your reporting process? Could you crowdsource for this story? Host a Facebook Live Q&A session?

Mobile and social media should be embedded in every one of these stages of the reporting process. Table 5.1 serves as a guide to help you brainstorm digital-frst pitches. Create your own digital-frst checklist using the items in the toolbox. For every story, explain how you will use mobile devices and social media for newsgathering, distribution of content, and audience engagement. To start, consider picking one toolbox item from each of the three categories. Over time, it will become second nature to integrate more of these elements into your reporting mix, depending on time constraints and the type of story. Notice how some items in the toolbox overlap several categories. For example, asking followers a question isn’t just a form of audience engagement; it also could be used as a newsgathering technique.

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Table 5.1 Use this toolbox to create your own digital-frst pitch for stories. Start by selecting one item from each category.

Dif ferent types of stories, dif ferent approaches What you choose from the digital-frst toolbox will depend on the news you’re covering. The type of story determines the approach, including which “channels” (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) you’ll use. And, in turn, the channel will dictate certain norms, such as the frequency of posts. A breaking story will require more frequent posts in order to keep people updated. Live streaming and sharing video/photos from a scene are ways to give the audience an in-the-moment experience of what’s unfolding. For a feature piece, on the other hand, you might consider creating an Instagram Story, hosting a Facebook Live Q&A or crowdsourcing. Of course, for a journalist, there’s no typical day. You never know what you’ll be up against in the feld. Even the most well-though-out plans may have to be scrapped. So, you have to be fexible to change your plan in an instant depending on the situation. With feature stories, you’ll typically have more time to brainstorm a strategy, something that’s not the case for breaking news.

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Photo 5.3 Philip Bromwell leads video storytelling efforts at RTÉ News in Ireland. Many of the outlet’s video stories, shot and edited on mobile devices, are produced in the vertical format for social media.

Tailoring content to each platform is important in order to engage specifc audiences. In terms of workfow, this often means that journalists are creating original content for social that does not get published on traditional platforms. You can’t simply take what you produce for television, radio or a website and “dump” it on social media. There needs to be a more strategic approach based on the language, style, and demographic of each social media channel. “Audiences know when they are seeing great content that is designed for the platform they are on currently,” said Tamara Baluja (@tamara_baluja), social media editor for CBC News British Columbia.2 “Each platform is unique so be intentional.” 

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 5.4 Dougal Shaw, right, using a mobile device while on assignment. Shaw flms all of his stories with an iPhone. Dougal Shaw (@dougalshawBBC) Video Innovation Journalist, BBC News When did you realize the potential of using only a mobile device for reporting? When I first got an iPhone. I used it as a second camera. If I was filming someone, I would take 30 seconds of video with a small tripod—put my iPhone in a fixed position and leave it recording. Even though you’re just one person working alone, once I edited the footage together from the iPhone and the traditional camera, it looked like I had a sophisticated two-camera shoot. Then, I started to notice there was little difference between the kind of video I was shooting with an iPhone, which looked so good, and what I was getting with traditional cameras. I said to myself, “Why don’t I just do the entire story on an iPhone? It would make my life so much easier.” At the beginning, even though I loved the freedom of being a “self-shooter”—the video journalist who goes out and does the job of three people—it was physically demanding to use a traditional camera kit. I was weighed down with spare batteries and lenses, plus the heavy tripod. I wanted to be nimbler. That’s when the idea started to form in my

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mind, if I could do everything on my phone, I could literally fit everything I need in one rucksack. It was an accident that forced me to do this permanently. I turned up at a coffee shop to do a story about free Wi-Fi. I got there, I was about to do an interview, and I realized my main camera wasn’t usable because my battery had run out. Rather than admit to the embarrassment of it and do the shoot later, I pulled out my phone and recorded the entire report on it. I then forced myself to go on a “mojo diet”—shooting only on mobile to see if this workflow would suffice. I’ve stuck to it. Do you shoot for TV or digital? Both? My first priority is to create really compelling visual content that will do well on our BBC News app and social accounts. My first thought is: “How am I going to make a good digital video?” That means there’s no restriction on the length. It can be 30 seconds or 10 minutes, depending on the content. Once I’ve produced my digital offerings, I make a two-minute TV package. That’s the last thing I do. I also frequently turn radio pieces from the audio. I literally do 12 different versions of the same story sometimes. Tell us about your go-to gear. Using an iOgrapher case, I create a rig with my iPhone and a mic. I hardly ever use a light. I find that the iPhone is good at dealing with light. The big issue can be sound—the mic on the iPhone is designed to speak right into it, which does not work for interviews, so I prefer a high quality mic. I have three different options in case something goes wrong. The main one I use is an XLR condenser mic. To get that into the iPhone, I use a Rode iXLR adaptor. I shoot in the Filmic Pro app because it gives you more control than the native iPhone camera. How do sources react when you show up with just a phone? Many times they tell me that they were really nervous before the interview but that when they saw me pull out a phone, they were relieved. People are more relaxed, given how accustomed they are to mobile devices. It’s a lot more natural compared to traditional cameras, especially for those who are not media trained. My rig is small—it’s not a big intimidating object and it doesn’t take long to set up—so I can just wander up to people and stand at a natural distance like it’s a normal conversation.

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The only time it’s a disadvantage is when you interview people on the street to get their opinions about something, what’s called vox pops. If they see you do it on the phone, they might not believe you work for a news outlet. I do a business series called CEO Secrets, and I interview leaders of big global companies. People often say, “They’re not annoyed when they see you show up with just a phone?” In fact, they never are. They’re curious and they say, “Wow, that’s cool you’re shooting with just a phone. Tell me more about it.” People’s familiarity with mobile devices also came in handy during the pandemic. You can coach sources how to shoot video and send it to you. Advice for budding journalists? If you learn to master mobile journalism, it’s great for your career and creatively satisfying. Master these skills now. Once you’re in a newsroom, they’re so deadline driven that you have to pave your own path. Using your mobile device allows you to make your own opportunities. You can execute a great video idea on your own with barely no equipment.

Working remotely Your “offce” as a journalist is, well, just about anywhere. Odds are you won’t be returning to the newsroom to write and “fle” most stories. The news needs to be published on multiple platforms, and you have the tools to do that from the feld. Mobile devices allow mojos to be “mobile” in more than one sense. They give them the fexibility to produce stories with a single device and to set-up an “offce” anywhere. In the rest of this chapter, you’ll learn how to make the most of your mobile device to gather, edit, and distribute news. With the proper production apps and techniques, you can capture quality content while working quickly under deadline.  Equipment and accessories Before you head into the feld, organize the essential equipment and accessories. They can all ft into one backpack—a journalist’s go-bag. Most newsrooms will issue many of these tools of the trade when you’re hired. If you’re a freelancer or student journalist, you can build your own toolkit inexpensively.

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Photo 5.5 Build your own mojo rig. The iPad Mini is placed in an iOgrapher Filmmaking Case, which is attached to a lightweight tripod. This set up also includes lav and natural sound microphones that plug directly into the iPad, and a wide angle lens.

There are dozens of mobile apps and a big market for smartphone accessories, but the bottom line is keep it simple. That’s the mojo mantra. Weighing yourself down with equipment and accessories defeats the purpose of a mojo. Here are the essentials to get the job done: •

Mobile device with network connectivity. No surprise that the iPhone and the iPad are the mobile devices of choice for journalists. Other devices simply don’t compare to the functionality and versatility of Apple products for multimedia reporting. Many Apple iOS editing apps also offer features such as multitrack video editing, which is critical when producing professional-quality content. No matter the device, it must have network connectivity through Wi-Fi or a cellular network connection. Network connectivity is obviously needed in

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order to carry out tasks in the feld, such as sending content back to the newsroom, posting to online platforms, and live-streaming. If you’re using a smart phone, you’ll be connected via your cellular data plan. The signal strength will vary depending on where the story takes you. If a tablet, such as an iPad, is your device of choice, there are a couple of ways to connect to a network. You can either purchase a data plan, if that’s an option through the provider, or fnd a way to connect to Wi-Fi. Connecting to Wi-Fi available in public places, such as coffee shops and libraries, isn’t always a reliable option. You never know where you’ll be, and you don’t want to waste time trying to fnd Wi-Fi you can tap into. A portable Wi-Fi hotspot can do the trick. There are two choices for portable hotspots. Many providers give you the option to turn your smartphone into a Wi-Fi hotspot for an additional fee. This is often referred to as “tethering.” Or, you can purchase a standalone mobile hotspot. Portable chargers. The last thing you need is for your device to go dead in the middle of a story. A device’s battery can drain quickly when it’s getting such a workout in the feld. A portable charger is a lifesaver. They cost as little as $15. Plug a mobile device into it, and you can work as the device charges. Don’t forget about a car charger—another great way to charge on the go. Filmmaking case with lenses. In order to build a simple and fairly inexpensive mobile journalism rig, you’ll need a special case for your device. I highly recommend the iOgrapher Filmmaking Kit, which starts at $50. It includes a case and two lenses—a wide-angle lens and a 2x telephoto one for close-up shots. The lenses screw onto the front of the case. You can use the handles on each side of the case to prevent shakiness in your shots, and it can also be attached to a tripod for greater stability. On top of the case, there are spots to mount audio and lighting equipment. Monopod/tripod. One of the limitations of using a mobile device is that, depending on the situation, it can be diffcult to get steady video shots by hand. Overcome this challenge by using a tripod or monopod. A tripod has three legs, whereas a monopod is a single pole. Traditional tripods are heavy and bulky. There are mini tripods made for mobile devices that can ft into your mojo bag. These smaller tripods and monopods give you the stability and fexibility you need in the feld. Recommendations: Manfrotto Compact Light Aluminum

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Tripod (about $60) and Joby GripTight GorillaPod (about $25). Selfe stick? Yes, include it in your kit. A selfe stick can be handy for getting different visual angles, such as aerial shots, and recording reporter stand-ups. External microphones. The quality of audio recorded on a mobile device is quite good overall. But an external microphone may be needed to get professional-quality audio, particularly when interviewing someone in a location with background noise. Your best bet is to purchase lavalier and natural sound microphones that plug directly into your mobile device. Recommendations: Rode  smartLav+ (about $80) and Rode VideoMic GO Shotgun Microphone (about $100). If I had to pick one of the two to buy, I’d go with a lavalier mic. Headphones. The type of headphones you use to listen to audio is important. Avoid earbuds. Instead, toss into your toolkit a pair of headphones that cover your ears. These do a better job of blocking out background noise, so you can hear the actual audio coming into your device. Keep in mind, many of the microphones that plug into mobile devices do not have a headphone jack, making it impossible to monitor audio while recording. There’s a fx for this. Purchase a jack adapter that allows you to connect both a mic and headphones. Optional gear. Bringing along a laptop isn’t a necessity, but it can make the job of writing stories in the feld much easier than tapping with your fngers on your device’s keyboard. If you’d rather leave the laptop at work or don’t have one, consider a portable Bluetooth keyboard. The portable keyboard makes it possible to type stories quickly on your mobile device. There are many other attachments on the market for mobile devices, including mini lights, grips, and gimbals.

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MOJO CHECKLIST Preparation begins well before you head to a story. There’s nothing more frustrating than having something go wrong in the field that could have easily been prevented. So don’t wait until you’re in the field to complete this checklist. Store this mojo checklist in your go-bag. •

Do you have all the gear you normally use? Mic(s), headphones, tripod, etc.

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Do you have enough memory on your device(s)? Check your device settings for this information. Are your devices charged? What about your portable charger? Did you remember your car charger? Do you have batteries for equipment that needs them? Do you have all the cords for your devices? Do you have all the social media and production apps on your phone that you’ll need to get the job done? Have you tested the mic(s) you plan on using? Have you searched for locations where you can tap into Wi-Fi, if you need it? Certain apps pinpoint on a map where public Wi-Fi spots are located. Recharge and repack as soon as you get home or back to the newsroom.

Storage and f ile management “Storage is very important if you’re going to be a mobile journalist,” said Allissa Richardson (@DrAlliRich), a journalist and professor of mobile journalism. “Things happen and things get lost, and you don’t want to be the one who had the exclusive and now it’s gone.”3 With the Dropbox and Google Drive apps, storing and managing fles on mobile devices is as easy as doing it on a computer. Dropbox and Google Drive allow you to access and upload fles from any device—mobile, laptop, and desktop computer. You can move raw materials and fnished audio, video, and written stories from your device into either of these apps. That provides an easy way to share content with coworkers. Create a shared folder in Dropbox or Google Drive, and drop in the content you want others to have access to. Dropbox and Google Drive are connected to many of the mobile journalism production apps, giving you the option from within each to transfer fnalized reports directly to Dropbox and Google Drive. As an alternative, after producing a video or audio report using an app, you can save the fnal version to your device and then upload it to Dropbox or Google Drive. In most production apps, you can also import raw material—video, audio, and photos—stored in your Dropbox or Google Drive accounts.

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If your device is running low on storage in the feld, these apps can be a lifesaver. Transfer content from your device into one of these two apps to free up space. After moving the items, such as photos, you can delete them from your device. The items will remain wherever you transferred them to, Dropbox or Google Drive. Mobile reporting apps In Chapter 3, we discussed the social networking platforms you should be active on as a journalist. If you haven’t yet, be sure to download the apps for each of those platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. In addition to those, you need production apps that allow you to edit photos, video, and audio. The next section includes the best mobile apps for journalists for these purposes. I’ve also noted top recommendations in each category below based on my experience using the apps in the feld, my students’ use of them as part of my courses, and feedback from journalists. The majority of these apps have a free version with all the features you need to get the job done under deadline. Don’t wait to test out apps for the frst time in the feld. Do this well before you use them to cover a story. Experiment with different apps to fnd which is the best ft for you. As you do this, think about how quickly each app allows you to produce quality content. To quickly snap a photo or record a video to post on social media, you can use your device’s camera and then share via social media apps. But for more highly produced reports, such as radio wraps or video packages that will be embedded in a web story or aired in a newscast, the production apps listed here are essential.

Video Video storytelling is a skill that is fundamental for journalists no matter the type of outlet at which they work. Every type of newsroom is producing some sort of video content. Those who do it correctly understand their audience and tailor the content to the platform. Videos produced specifcally for mobile and social media have exploded in popularity. They tend to be short and can be easily viewed nearly anywhere at any time. The amount of time people spend watching digital video is steadily increasing.

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While individual reporters are expected to produce videos on their own for many stories, newsrooms are also hiring staff members focused specifcally on new forms of video storytelling, most notably vertical and readable text videos. For instance, NBC News hired a team of journalists to produce a daily vertical newscast called Stay Tuned. First launched on Snapchat, Stay Tuned has expanded to Instagram. Stay Tuned is geared toward a younger demographic of news consumer. The team also creates explainer videos for its YouTube channel and is experimenting with TikTok. Production apps Which app you choose depends on the type of video content you’re producing. Some video apps allow multitrack editing—the ability to mix a combination of reporter voiceovers, natural sound, sound bites, and visuals (video and photos). Others do not give users this type of fexibility, limiting the production level of video packages. Meantime, certain video apps are better suited for producing short social media videos on the fy—such as the kind that include text on screen. The following apps have a variety of options to share your fnished product, including emailing, posting to social media, saving to your device, and uploading to YouTube. iMovie and Adobe Premiere Rush are the apps I have my mobile journalism students use when producing longer-form videos. They are easy to use for video stories that require a combination of visuals and audio tracks. You can create a traditional TV style news package with these apps. It’s also simple to produce stories that include visuals, interviews, and natural sound, but no reporter track. There’s a lot of fexibility within both apps. Each has multiple tracks for video and audio, and are packed with many of the same features as traditional desktop video-editing software. You can detach audio from video, layer video and photos, add text slides, and much more.  LumaFusion, which also offers multitrack editing options like the ones mentioned above, is one of the most sophisticated video production apps on the market. Its advanced features include color correction, the option to import customized graphics, and the ability to create videos with a variety of aspect ratios (landscape and square, for example).

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Photo 5.6 The iMovie app allows layering of video and audio, among many other features.

Filmic Pro is not an editing app but rather one that you can use to record video. The app has manual controls typically seen on traditional video cameras. Open the app to record video, and you’re able to lock focus, exposure, and white balance. It also gives you the option to monitor audio levels as you record within the app. Adobe Spark Video and Mojo are perfect for producing videos for social media. I have my students produce social content with these apps throughout a semester. Both come with animated templates that can be customized with video, photos, and text. You also have the option to choose the dimensions of your video. In the Mojo app, for example, the vertical format is designed for Instagram Stories. These two apps do not offer multitrack editing. Videolicious is useful for quick turnaround videos, such as breaking news updates from a scene and social media teases about a story. Select visuals from your mobile device in the order you want them to appear in the video. You then have the option to open the mic and use a forward-facing

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camera to record your voice or a stand-up shot. As you narrate, you tap the screen when you want the next visual to appear. Recommendation: For those getting the hang of shooting and editing on a mobile device, start with iMovie or Adobe Premiere Rush. Once you get the workfow down and feel confdent in your mojo skills, consider taking the leap to LumaFusion. When you need to produce videos specifcally for social media, I highly recommend Adobe Spark Video and Mojo. Shooting Regardless of the app or equipment you’re using, maintain the fundamentals of quality videography, audio reporting, and photography. Don’t throw traditional production skills out the door simply because you’re using a mobile device. Despite all the new gadgetry, quality is still king. Shaky video and inaudible interviews are what distinguish a novice from a professional. Maximize what the device can do well, and recognize its limitations. Minimize what it can’t do well. One beneft of mobile devices, beyond the mobility and simplicity of producing content, is that they can be less intrusive for interviews. Any reporter who produces video will tell you that the biggest barrier to getting someone to talk is the camera. A mobile device can make that experience less intimidating for interview subjects. “When you’re flming someone who is a bit of a nervous contributor, or a member of the public who hasn’t had media training, they can clam up a bit when they’ve got a big camera in their face, as they feel overwhelmed. But if you’re doing it on the phone, it’s much smaller and an object they’re used to, so they’re defnitely much more relaxed and forthcoming in interviews,” said BBC reporter Dougal Shaw (@dougalshawBBC), who shoots on an iPhone. Shaw uses the LumaFusion and Filmic Pro apps to produce video reports.4 Follow these rules when shooting and editing mobile video: •

Airplane mode. Put your device in airplane mode to prevent incoming calls or messages from interrupting the audio or video you’re recording.

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Horizontal or vertical? There’s much talk in the industry about whether video should be shot holding the device horizontally or vertically. There’s no correct answer. It depends on the platform. If you’re shooting for a TV broadcast or web story, the general rule of thumb is to turn your device horizontally when you shoot video. The video will ft the orientation of television and computer screens while also working across different types of mobile devices. As mobile consumption continues to grow, though, news outlets are turning to vertical video to optimize their content. Instagram Stories, for instance, are designed for vertical video. “What we’re trying to do is make sure that we’re producing video that works specifcally for each platform, so we don’t expect one video that we produce is going to work across our site, across social networks, across devices,” said Mica Gelman (@mbgelman), senior editor and head of video at The Washington Post.5 The basics. The same video journalism basics you would use with a traditional camera apply to shooting video on a mobile device—most of the time. With vertical video, breaking some of the rules actually gives the mobile audience a better experience. ∘ Record a sequence of shots around specifc actions, events, or locations. Wide, medium, and close-up shots are key to building sequences. A series of shots that don’t seem to ft together can leave viewers disoriented. A sequence of shots related to a specifc subject creates a seamless progression. When that sequence ends, you’re ready to start a new one. You have to get the appropriate series of close-up, medium, and wide shots in the feld in order to be able to edit sequences. Wide shots help to establish the context of the scene by showing a full view of what it looks like. Close-up shots, on the other hand, show viewers details that can’t be viewed from a wider vantage point. They give people an up-close experience. Come up with a shot list prior to heading out in the feld.  ∘ Don’t stay in the same spot for all your shots. Move around the scene to get different angles as you shoot sequences. ∘ Always get a sequence of video clips of people you interview. These will be needed to cover voiceovers in which you mention a specifc person. Even if you aren’t producing a video package with a reporter voiceover, you can still use this video to cover portions of a person’s interview. In my experience, this is the one

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Photo 5.7 Focus on these specifc shots in order to build a sequence that slowly reveals surprises. Courtesy of Andrew Lih and Lam Vo under the Creative Commons.

∘

item many new video journalists forget to shoot in the feld. Don’t simply interview someone and pack up. Get video of them in their natural environment, doing what they normally would if a camera were not there. The rule of thirds is a foundational composition principle of videography and photography. Imagine your screen is divided by straight lines into thirds horizontally and vertically, with four

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Photo 5.8 Vertical vs. Horizontal: For vertical video you can break the rule-of-thirds principle.

∘

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points where the lines intersect. Where those lines meet, you should try to position the primary subject of your image. Most mobile devices have the option to superimpose the rule of thirds grid onto the camera screen. On an iPhone or iPad, go to the device settings to turn on this feature. Break this rule when shooting vertical video: put the subject, particularly people you interview, in the center of the screen.  There’s nothing worse than looking through raw footage and realizing you didn’t get enough of a particular shot to use in a story. Therefore, hold each shot for about 10 seconds, or as long as an action requires. Shoot for steady shots. It’s always preferable to use a tripod or monopod in order to avoid shaky video. If that’s not possible to get the shots you need, bring your arms and hands close to your body, and lean against something to stabilize the camera. It’s tempting to move a mobile device more often than you would move a traditional camera. Avoid the urge to pan and tilt unless it’s absolutely necessary. There should be a reason to record these types of shots. For example, to show how tall a building is or how long a line is. When recording a stand-up for a package or a social media post, capitalize on what’s happening around you to bring people to the scene. Show and tell. Using the front-facing camera can give viewers an in-the-moment intimate experience with you and the story

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you’re covering. You can also use a monopod, tripod, or selfe stick to shoot a more traditional stand-up. Zoom with feet. Don’t use the zoom controls in the camera. The resolution quality is degraded when zooming manually by using your fngers. Instead, when you want to get a close-up shot, walk closer to the subject. Short clips. Recording short clips of video—not more than 1:30 each— is recommended in order to avoid issues when importing them into editing apps. Some apps have the tendency to crash or jam up when working with big video fles. Get in the habit of stopping the video recording and restarting it periodically. During an interview, you can do this after an interview subject has fnished responding to a question. Lighting. One challenge of shooting with mobile devices is fnding the proper lighting. You have to rely on natural lighting most of the time. For starters, avoid shooting into the sun. When recording interviews, the sun should be behind you so that it acts as natural light on the subject. In low-light indoor situations, turn on as many room lights as you can and open shades or curtains. When recording interviews indoors, bring subjects to a window, and have them face it so the natural light flls their face. The window should not be behind the subject. The same principles apply for reporter stand-ups—position yourself so that you’re facing the sun or other dominant light source. Play back at the scene. Watch your video and make sure you have usable audio before you leave the scene. Play back interviews right after you record them—while the person is still with you. That will make it much easier to rerecord in case there’s an issue with the quality of audio or video. Editing multitrack stories

Generally speaking, there are three types of video stories: those created for social media, traditional TV news packages with reporter voice tracks, and video packages produced to complement a written web story. This latter type often uses the narration of interview subjects to tell the story instead of a reporter’s voice track. When editing multitrack video stories, use the same methods as you would with a desktop editing system.

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Layer audio, then visuals. First, build the audio portion of your story: lay down your voiceover tracks and/or sound bites. Then, layer video and photos on top of those audio elements. Build video sequences by editing together a series of related shots. Mix up the type of shots: a variety of close-up, wide, and medium shots give viewers’ eyes the visual variety to keep their attention. Avoid jumping from one video clip to another that is unrelated to the action in the previous one. Start strong. Begin the video with some of your most compelling shots. If you can start with natural sound, even better. Hook the audience within the frst fve seconds. For example, if you’re covering a story about a children’s music program, begin with video and natural sound of the students performing. But don’t give away all the best content in the beginning—spread it throughout the video. Match video with audio. Whether it’s your voice we hear in the video or that of a person you interviewed, the images we see over the narration should generally match what’s being talked about. For instance, when you mention a specifc person in your narration, we should see a sequence of shots of that person. Show us, don’t just tell us. Text. Remember to include a lower-third, or title, graphic the frst time we hear from a person you’ve interviewed. Place the person’s name on the upper line and title on the bottom line. It’s also customary to include a lower-third graphic at the beginning of a package to describe what the story is about. Place the description on the upper line and the location on the bottom line. Text slides—a solid color background with writing—is another visual element that comes in handy. These are particularly useful when the video does not have a reporter track to explain and set up background information. You can weave together text slides and sound bites from your sources to build the narrative. Avoid repetition. If the video will be embedded in a web story, it should not repeat what’s written in the text portion. Instead, the video element should complement the article. It could focus on one particular person instead of including all the sources that are part of a written story. When one of my students reported about several runners who qualifed to compete in the Olympic marathon trials, her text story was a general overview of the athletes and the competition. The video focused on the training of one specifc runner. Think through all the types of shots you would need to support a video about a single

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person. In this case, tagging along on a training session, starting with the runner lacing up her shoes, provided compelling visuals to produce a video package that had a different angle from the written story. Length. The sweet spot for total video length for social media is approximately 30–60 seconds; for websites, it’s 60–90 seconds. Readable social videos

The use of text in videos, particularly those produced for social media, is becoming more common, as people often don’t have the volume turned up on their phone. Sometimes this has to do with being in a public place. Text on the screen helps viewers comprehend a video story without having to turn on the audio. The text provides context and background information. It can also pique their interest in a story, giving them a reason to listen. Research on viewing habits of mobile device and social media users shows that captioned videos are watched longer than those without text. Text on video is therefore one strategy for audience retention. There are two types of readable videos: those in which every spoken word is captioned and others that include text more sparingly on screen to highlight key points. Any of the video apps listed above can be used to produce these types of videos but Adobe Spark Video and Mojo are the easiest to use in the feld when you need to create and post a social video quickly. Tamara Baluja, of CBC News British Columbia, collaborates with reporters in her newsroom to produce readable videos, or what she calls text on video. “Text on video is like a billboard on the highway. A user scrolling through a Facebook feed is like a driver whizzing by the billboard—you only have a second to catch his or her attention. The user wasn’t looking for this content, so it’s up to you to draw him or her in,” said Baluja. Some of the most compelling readable videos are produced by AJ+, a mobile and social media news operation run by Al Jazeera Media Network. All of the outlet’s videos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are captioned. The frst few seconds of AJ+’s social videos are also structured in a way that entice a social media user to stop scrolling, watch, and share the content. Lead the story with your most engaging close-up shots, even if this means telling the story out of order. Social videos do not have to include audio or actual video clips. When The Post-Standard in central New York reported about census data that indicated

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Photo 5.9 & 5.10 Two readable videos: One was formatted for Facebook, the horizontal one was published on YouTube.

a serious poverty issue in that region, the news team created an explainer video for social media. The video included text about the data and still photos—no narration or video.   Tips to keep in mind when producing readable videos for social media: •

• • • • • • •

Storyboard videos before editing them. Draft a script of the text that will appear on the screen and list of visuals that will accompany each text portion. Don’t cram too much text on the screen. Keep it simple. Text should be on the screen long enough so that viewers can read it twice. Be consistent with the style of font. Stick with one throughout a story. Use large font sizes. Consider using color to make words pop. Begin with close-up shots that bring people to the scene, particularly impactful for those viewing on a small screen. Credit all content that you did not gather on your own, such as stock photos and images provided by a source. If you use stock music in the background, be certain it doesn’t alter the editorial nature of the story. The music should complement but not distort.

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Vertical stor y format The vertical story format, frst introduced by Snapchat and then adopted by Instagram, is another form of readable social media videos that has exploded in popularity. Users tap their way through these stories to reveal more information and advance to the next clip. It’s a truly mobile-frst immersive experience, according to Cory Haik (@coryhaik), chief digital offcer of Vice Media Group.6 Haik considers the vertical story format to be the future of visual storytelling, so much so that Instagram Stories are now one of three core outputs on which her news team is focused. She said Instagram Stories are a way to deliver information that is relevant and personal to a younger generation of news consumers. “This is a signifcant and required shift in order to meet the audience where they are,” added Haik. This visual form of storytelling lends itself well to showing behind-thescenes of your reporting, giving the audience a peek at the newsgathering process. If structured with a proper narrative arc, Instagram Stories can also be an engaging way to tell the story of a specifc individual, event, or place. Storyboard these videos in order to ensure you’re building a clearly defned arc to the story. Brainstorm. Write down what text, visuals, and Instagram features will be used for each clip.  

Photo 5.11 Tamara Baluja produced an Instagram Story for CBC News’s account focused on Indigenous communities in Canada. She used the tap and reveal feature to engage with the audience and slowly build a story arc around one character. The video was initially shot for another platform but Baluja was able to crop the footage to ft the vertical format of Instagram Stories.

Photo 5.12 The Economist has been experimenting with polls, quizzes, and graphs in their Instagram Stories as a way to deliver dataheavy reporting in an easily digestible manner.The interactive data-driven Stories have helped the outlet build a following of more than 5 million Instagram users.

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Horizontal video does not work in this format, so shoot vertically when producing a Story. Record in the camera app instead of directly using Instagram. If you make an error in the text, you will have the original video or photo so that you can delete the incorrect clip in your Story and share a new one. Shoot intimately with framing in mind for mobile audiences but be sure to leave space where you plan to place text. Other suggestions: •

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As you see ft based on the type of story, add Instagram features such as emojis, gifs, polls, and geolocation tags. Including hashtags and the location will make your Story discoverable by users who don’t follow you, helping to grow your audience. When taking people along your reporting journey, start the Story with a video introduction to set the scene and end with a video of yourself signing off. You can switch between selfe-mode and the front-facing camera. Mix up the Story by varying the order of photos and video. When including a clip of someone talking or compelling natural sound, write a caption and consider using one of Instagram’s “Sound On” icons. Give viewers a reason to turn on the audio. Though Stories disappear after 24 hours, you can pin each as a permanent highlight to your Instagram profle. Live streaming

Going live via social media is a skill that reporters in all sectors of journalism—not just TV—are expected to have. Streaming live brings people to the scene of a story and builds anticipation in ways other social media posts can’t. Most social media platforms have a live feature, with Facebook Live being particularly popular among news outlets and the audience. There should be a reason why you’re live streaming though. Don’t simply use technology for technology’s sake. Be authentic. The draw is that people like watching things as they happen, as they unfold organically. Live videos are also a way for the audience to interact in realtime with journalists. When streaming live from breaking news, tell people what they’re looking at, and provide a recap periodically, as new people will continue to join

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the stream. Use your ethical judgment when deciding what to stream. In dangerous or unfolding situations, be mindful that you could broadcast a worst possible scenario. If you choose to chat with someone live, such as a witness, pre-interview them to be certain they’re comfortable with the format and are able to answer your questions in a meaningful way. Be ready to interact with viewers. Live videos tend to get 10 times more comments than recorded ones that are uploaded.7 If you don’t have the time to respond to viewers’ questions during the live stream (it can mean a lot of multitasking!), do so afterwards by replying to them in written form. Facebook Live can also be used to answer questions about news stories related to specifc beats. Experts can take part in a Q&A session with the audience. For example, Johanna Wagstaffe (@JWagstaffe), a meteorologist and seismologist who works for CBC News Vancouver, answered questions during a 20-minute Facebook Live about recent earthquakes in the region. The Facebook Live received approximately 430 comments. A social media editor monitored and curated the questions. While Wagstaffe broadcasted live from the newsroom, the editor text messaged select questions directly to Wagstaffe’s phone so she did not have to worry about managing them herself. Unlike breaking news, these the types of live streams can be planned in advance and promoted on your social media. When launching a live video, include a short line in the post that tells people what they’ll be watching. When the live stream ends, you have the option to publish the archived video to your account so people can view it even if they weren’t able to watch live. Live videos and the archived versions of them tend to receive much more engagement than any other type of social media posts. In fact, Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes live videos. Publishing video When publishing a pre-recorded video to social media, upload it directly from your device to the platform instead of sharing a link to the video. This approach will prevent users from being forced to visit another site to view the video. That’s cumbersome. On Facebook, for instance, a video shared from YouTube can’t be played directly in a post. Instead, a user is directed to YouTube. The best way around this issue is to publish native videos—those uploaded directly to social media platforms. Native videos perform better

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on social media than those shared from video hosting sites such as YouTube or Vimeo. They’re user-friendly, and social media providers’ algorithms reward native videos—exposing this content to a larger audience. Before sharing a video, write a couple of sentences in the text portion of the post in order to let users know what the video is about or to provide additional context. Link to related content, such as a written story. Videos created specifcally for web stories, should be uploaded to a video hosting site. Most video production apps allow you to upload fnished videos directly to these sites with a few taps. The other option is to save the fnished videos on your mobile device and upload them directly from your device’s camera storage to the video site. You can then copy the embed code for an uploaded video and paste it in a web story or page. I recommend setting up a YouTube channel that serves as a central place to house your video journalism. The audience data for YouTube is impressive. The increasing popularity of video content is one reason why YouTube has become the second most-used search engine behind Google.8 Posting content to YouTube is a way for journalists to reach an audience that might not otherwise turn to traditional news platforms such as television, radio, or even online news sites. Three-quarters of adults in the United States use YouTube, according to Pew Research.9 Among 18- to 24-year olds that number is 90 percent. In addition, the number of people who get news from YouTube has doubled since 2013.10

GENERATION YOUTUBE Recognizing the potential to reach a new audience of news consumers on YouTube, NBC owned stations, like other news outlets, are dedicating resources to the creation of content specifically for the site. In 2019, NBC launched a YouTube channel called Local X, or LX. “The millennial and the younger-generation audience is really different from the traditional audience that’s been watching the news for a long time. So LX is an avenue where we can throw any rule out the window and innovate without the risk of losing our core [local TV] audience”, said Meagan Harris (@MeaganMHarris), LX news director.11 Harris recruited a team of passionate digital-first storytellers to experiment with this new formula. Ngozi Ekeledo (@NgoziEkeledo) was on a traditional TV news career path, as a sports anchor at several local

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stations before joining the LX team. Now, working out of NBC’s Boston affiliate, she specializes in producing video stories, ranging from short explainer ones to longer documentary-style pieces, about culture and identity. “The stuff I’m watching is on YouTube, or it’s videos being shared on social media, Instagram, Twitter. And I love the style of it,” said Ekeledo. “The cinematography aspect of it is what really drew me to LX. I was like, ‘I’m ready to do things like this. This is why I got into journalism.’”12

Audio Production apps The built-in audio-recording feature on mobile devices does a solid job of recording sound, and most allow you to monitor audio levels as you record. However, they’re limited in the ability to edit beyond a simple trim of an audio fle. To produce audio reports, you’ll need an app that offers multitrack editing. With all of these apps, the audio fles can be emailed and shared on social media. Ferrite Recording Studio is aimed at journalists and podcasters, in terms of functionality and workfow. You can record interviews and voiceovers, rearrange tracks, make fnely tuned edits, and mix ambient and natural sounds into a report. While recording within the app, you can monitor audio levels. This is the go-to app for Neal Augenstein, of WTOP-FM and wtop.com in Washington, D.C. Since 2010, he’s been doing all feld production and reporting on an iPhone. Hokusai Audio Editor is another multitrack audio editor that is straightforward to use. The interface is simple and makes it easy to quickly edit tracks side by side or mix them together. Live “scrubbing” means you can hear the sound under your fngertip as you make your adjustments. You can also monitor your sound while recording. SoundCloud is the ideal spot to upload the fle of your completed audio story. Like YouTube and Vimeo are for videos, SoundCloud can be a centralized place for your audio reports. From SoundCloud, you can embed the audio clips directly into a web story and share via social media, among other options.

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Recommendations: Given the popularity of podcasting, there’s an overwhelming number of audio apps. I recommend Ferrite Recording Studio and SoundCloud. Recording and editing Getting quality audio is also vital for video. It’s as important as the visuals. Whether you’re producing a video package or an audio-only story, here are best practices to capture professional quality audio. • •

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Airplane mode. You don’t want the audio to be interrupted. Monitor with headphones. When possible, listen to the audio as you’re recording. Ear buds are not a good substitute for headphones. Headphones give you the best sense of what’s being captured on your device, mainly because they block out more background noise. Don’t cover the device’s mic. Know where your device’s microphone is located so you can make sure your hands aren’t blocking it while recording audio with it. When this happens, you’ll get muffed, scratchy audio. Get close. The closer you get to an interviewee, the better the audio will be. This is particularly important if you aren’t using an external mic. Ask the person to speak louder if needed. Step away from noise. When interviewing someone, fnd a location in which background noise will not interfere with the audio. Let’s say you’re covering a public meeting in an auditorium and want to interview people after it ends. Find a spot away from the crowd of people talking after the meeting. External microphone with windscreen. Overcome many audio challenges by using an external microphone. If you’re recording an interview in a loud environment, use an external mic to ensure the best quality audio possible. Plug the mic into your device before launching any apps to make sure it’s detected by the operating system. If you fnd yourself in a situation where you don’t have an external mic, a pair of standard headphones could come in handy. They typically have a microphone attached to the cord. Use a windscreen when the situation calls for it. Natural sound. When capturing natural sound—such as fre truck sirens or demonstrators chanting—the built-in microphone usually

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is all you need. In windy conditions, however, an external mic with a windscreen is recommended. The built-in microphones on mobile devices are easily overtaken by wind noise. Phone interviews. There are two ways to record audio from phone interviews. You can use an app, such as Call Recorder, that saves calls as an audio fle on your device. Then, import the fle to a video or audio app in order to edit it. The other option, one recommended by Augenstein, is to have the sources record the call with their device. Augenstein has interviewees open the built-in voice app on their device, hit record before the conversation begins, and then email him the fle directly from the app once the call is over. He’s even created a short video tutorial that he sends to sources prior to this type of interview. Voiceovers. Always use an external microphone for voiceovers. Hold the mic about six inches away from your mouth to prevent a popping sound. Record voiceovers as audio fles using the device’s voice recording function. There’s another option recommended by journalist and mobile media trainer Ivo Burum (@citizenmojo). For voiceovers in video packages, Burum flms the voiceover instead of audio-recording it.13 This provides all the fles you’ll use as video clips when you start to edit. Burum advises holding your hand over the camera when you record tracks this way. The clips will be all black and easier to fnd among the video fles. You then pull only the audio portion of that clip into your project sequence. Play back at the scene. Again, just as you do with video, get in the habit of doing this so you don’t get burned with bad audio. Editing. With the proper app, editing audio-only stories is straightforward. Place voiceovers, sound bites (also referred to as actualities in the radio industry), and natural sound on separate tracks. This layering approach makes it easy to locate and adjust the key audio elements. For example, typically Track 1 contains all voiceovers, Track 2 is dedicated to sound bites, and the third track has any natural sound. Natural sound under voiceovers and sound bites should be adjusted so as not to overpower the other audio. The audio levels of voiceovers and sound bites should be consistent, so one isn’t any higher or lower than any other. After exporting your fnished piece, listen to it to make sure the audio sounds the way you want it to. 

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Photo 5.13 The Ferrite app allows you to quickly edit multitrack audio stories.

Still images Production apps The cameras on most mobile devices now include basic photo editing features such as cropping and color adjustment. Typically, that’s all you’ll need as a mojo. There are a range of photo apps that provide more sophisticated editing tools. You can snap photos from within these apps or import from your device’s photo storage. Posting photos to social media sites, saving to the device’s photo storage, and emailing are also standard features. Adobe Photoshop Express is intended for easy touch-ups. Don’t expect this app to be as powerful as the desktop version of Adobe Photoshop. Use it to adjust hue, color, brightness, white balance, and a handful of other elements. Compared to the traditional Photoshop software, there’s not much of a learning curve with this app. Simplifed tools give users the effects and changes they want without much effort. Snapseed is a good ft for both novice and more skilled photographers. The app has more than a dozen different editing tools from basic to more advanced, most of which include different adjustments. One advantage of

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Snapseed is that it allows you to selectively adjust parts of a photo. Snapseed also saves your adjustments as reeditable layers (or “Stacks” in Snapseedspeak). The Stacks tool lists every edit you have applied, making it easy to remove one or more. Camera+, like most photo apps, includes a variety of flters and editing tools. The main advantage of Camera+ is that you can shoot in manual mode from within the app. This approach allows you to manually control the exposure, focus, and white balance to get the best image. Camera+ also has a stabilizer that automatically takes the shot when your hand is most stable. Adobe Spark Post and Canva apps can be used to create graphics for your social media posts and web stories. Users are able to choose from preset templates and also import their own photos. Then, add text. Both apps optimize content for different platforms—choose the social media site on which you plan to share the graphic and the app will automatically adjust the size accordingly. Recommendations: For editing photos, you can’t go wrong with any of the frst three apps listed above. Adobe Photoshop Express might be a good starting point though. As for producing graphics, it’s a toss-up between Adobe Spark Post and Canva. Photography Photographs shot on mobile devices have even proved worthy of The New York Times’ front page. In a 2013 front-page feature of New York Yankees’ player Alex Rodriguez, The Times used a photo taken by professional photographer Nick Laham. Laham didn’t use any professional equipment. He snapped photos of Rodriguez with his iPhone—and in the Yankees’ locker room bathroom. Latham then edited the photos through Instagram.  The Times was one of the frst major newspapers to publish a front-page photo taken with an iPhone.   With reporters able to capture high quality images on a mobile device, some professional news photographers have found themselves out of a job. For example, in 2013, the Chicago Sun-Times let go its entire photography staff of 28 people.14 The outlet’s reporters then received iPhone photography training to start producing their own photos and videos—now the norm across all areas of journalism. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no true replacement for our valued colleagues who are trained photographers, but the reality is that in many

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Photo 5.14 & 5.15 In 2013, photographer Nick Laham captured this New York Times front page photo with his iPhone. Now, years later, this practice is no longer a novelty. In a LinkedIn post, a local news photographer describes how sticking to the fundamentals makes all the difference, no matter the device. In addition, from a workfow perspective while covering this protest, it made more sense for him to use his iPhone than a traditional camera.

day-to-day reporting instances journalists are required to shoot video and photos on their own with a mobile device. Here are the fundamentals of shooting still photos on mobile devices. •

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Composition. Composition has to do with the position of the subject and the angle at which the photo is shot. Traditional composition techniques will help you take eye-catching shots. As we discussed with shooting video, follow the rule of thirds. Place your main subject at one point where horizontal and vertical lines intersect. Also, use your foreground and background to place objects or scenes in relation to your main subject. For example, placing a tree in the foreground of a photo with a person who is the main subject will provide depth of feld and make the image more multidimensional. Zoom with feet. As with video, zooming with fngers degrades the quality of the visual. Move closer to a subject to avoid making your picture look pixelated and blurry.

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Stay still. The steadier your mobile device is when you’re snapping a photo, the clearer your image will be. Lighting. Use available light as you would with video. Bright light sources should come from behind the camera. Don’t set the fash to automatic. Turn it on and off as needed. Manual fashes can often blur photos. iPhone and iPad cameras have a feature called high dynamic range, or HDR. HDR lets you produce a quality image when taking photos that have high-contrast light sources, such as a bright blue sky and a darkcolored building in the same shot. In HDR mode, your device combines multiple different exposures of the same photo to create one properly exposed image. You can turn HDR on directly from the device’s camera. Set focus and exposure. The device will automatically adjust focus and exposure. Exposure refers to the amount of light in a photo. To get a better-quality photo, take control by adjusting these two elements. With the camera open, just tap on the screen where you want to set the focus and exposure. The camera does a good job of handling the rest. But, if you still want to adjust the exposure, tap the screen and then move your fnger up and down it to brighten or darken a photo. You can also lock focus and exposure. Press and hold on the screen to lock in settings. The words “AE/AF lock” will be displayed. To remove the lock, just tap anywhere else on the frame. Whenever there are signifcant changes inside the frame, your focus and exposure settings will be lost unless they’re locked. These techniques work with shooting video as well. Shoot in burst mode. The burst mode allows you to take multiple photos in a matter of seconds. Simply hold down the shutter button and the device will start taking photos one after another. It’s an easy way to capture the perfect action shot. Aspect ratio. Horizontal photos typically look better than vertical ones in web stories, which means you’ll want to hold your device horizontally. Vertical and square photos, on the other hand, are better suited for most social media sites. Bottom line: Consider the platforms on which your photos will be published. You can use a photo editing app or the editing function built into many social media sites to adjust the aspect ratio of photos. Variety of shots. In order to produce a compelling multimedia story across platforms, you need a variety of visuals. First, think

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tight, medium, wide. Second, move around in order to get photos from different angles. Third, get different styles of photos. Earlier we talked about coverage of several runners who were training to compete in Olympic marathon trials. If you’re assigned to this story, you would undoubtedly need to take photos of the athletes in action—training. Portraits of each runner could also be used in a web story and on social media. I’d shoot for an environmental portrait, a photo of a subject looking at the camera that is taken in a surrounding specifcally chosen to tell their story. In this case, at a track or a spot inside their home where they keep medals won from previous races. File size. When transmitting photos back to the newsroom through email or a fle-sharing service such as Google Drive, you might be given an option to select a photo size. When possible, maintain the original size of the photo. “Small” photos generally will not look good on websites. Minimize use of flters. Filters raise ethical concerns. Using them can alter a photo’s editorial content. A photo with a flter applied to it should accurately portray what a journalist saw when taking the photo. In addition, flters can degrade the quality of an image, especially when the size of the photo is increased. Social media graphics

Images can also include graphics—not just photographs. One way of creating engaging social media posts is by incorporating graphics. If produced properly, these graphics can be eye-catching in a sea of posts. On a social media graphic, you can place key points about a story in a visuallyappealing way. On a single graphic shared to social media, NPR creates a list of the latest information during breaking news coverage. The outlet also frequently produces social media graphics that include powerful quotes from sources. Social media graphics can be easily made with the Adobe Spark Post and Canva apps. Some news outlets build their own social media graphic templates. Creating your own template makes it easier to produce a graphic quickly while under deadline. Be certain the font size is large enough for people to read and that you don’t jam too much text on the graphic. 

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Photo 5.16 An example of a social media graphic with a quote from a source.

INSTAGRAM: KING OF VISUALS Instagram is all about visuals. Images tell the story here. The platform is a spot for journalists to showcase people and places at the heart of a story. A single photo can speak volumes about a story, serving as a powerful way to connect followers to your reporting. “It’s a very serene experience viewing one image at a time on your phone,” said Ryan Kellett (@rkellett), senior director of audience engagement at The Washington Post. “That intimacy makes it a great place to follow reporters and photographers who can take you to stories they are covering.”15 Capitalize on the platform’s swipe feature. Create a series of photos about one particular story. A week in review—photos that recount the main stories of the past week—is also an element to consider. On your main Instagram feed, less is more. Post a few times a week, but avoid sharing consecutively in a short amount of time—unless it’s in the Story feature. Instagram’s focus is on the visual components of a post, so keep the text portion concise. Hashtags are king here. Use them in nearly every post.

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One of the limitations of Instagram is that clickable links aren’t allowed in posts. However, URLs placed in your profile are hyperlinked. There’s a simple and common workaround if you want to give people a story link. Add the link to your bio, and then, in the post, direct followers to your profile for a link to more information.

Photo 5.17 This NBC News Instagram post highlights the most compelling images from the week’s news. @mentions are used to credit the photographers.

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Mobile-f irst workf low: A digital juggling act Managing the reporting process Today’s do-it-all journalists must have the fexibility to report, write, shoot, edit, post to social media and web, and—if they work for a radio or TV station—produce a broadcast story. Workfow is all about coordinating and planning how to tackle the list of tasks. It’s a process that can be messy, chaotic, and exhilarating—a digital juggling act of sorts. With practice, workfow will become second nature. You’ll create your own routine. Here are the key workfow considerations. Plan. Planning the workfow process starts before you get to a scene. What content does your newsroom expect from you? How will you get content back to the newsroom, if needed? That’s where Dropbox or Google Drive come in handy. Some newsrooms also have their own upload systems. All the apps you need should already be on your device and equipment in your go-bag. Follow the tips on the Mojo Checklist. What about social media platforms? Which platforms are appropriate for the story? Have a grasp of how your newsroom relies on you, the reporter, to provide content for different platforms while in the feld. There are newsroom social media accounts, and then your professional ones. You obviously will manage your own. However, for a newsroom’s accounts, there are two approaches: centralized and decentralized. In the centralized approach, only certain staff members, usually a digital team, have access to an outlet’s social media accounts. In this approach, the team members often rely on reporters’ posts to their own professional social media accounts from the feld, particularly during breaking news the reporters cover. They’ll reshare that content from the outlet’s main accounts. In other newsrooms, more commonly at smaller outlets, the process is decentralized. Many newsroom staff members manage the outlet’s accounts. Use the Digital-First Story Pitches toolbox (Table 5.1) to think through different elements you could use during the reporting process. The type of story—feature versus breaking news—will very much determine the most appropriate tools. Prioritize. Triage the situation when you’re in the feld. What are the most critical elements you need to gather for a story? Capture those right away, because you might not have another chance. “When I arrive on the scene, I immediately look for images that I may not be able to capture again, such as a house burning. I can record a 10-second

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video, tweet it out with what I know at that point, and then follow up with the latest information. I can also snap a couple of photos and then tweet them out,” said radio reporter Neal Augenstein. “Then I record an audio or video interview with the public information offcer for the fre department, for example. I prefer video interviews, because they allow me to have both video and audio elements. If I only need audio for a report, I simply strip out the video during the editing process.” Workfow priorities will differ depending on the type of outlet you work for. Many TV stations still have their reporters shoot and edit broadcast video packages using standard cameras and computer editing software. That’s in addition to using mobile devices to gather and post content for social media posts and web stories. A TV reporter, then, has to decide if recording certain video on a mobile device is the best approach. They could put the phone aside for a bit and record with a traditional video camera. The advantage of recording on a mobile device is that the quality of the video is typically good enough to use across all platforms—TV, web, and social. Simon Perez, a former TV reporter who is now a journalism professor at Syracuse University, recommends using both devices when the situation calls for it. “Use your smartphone, which you already have with you on every assignment, to tell your story more creatively,” said Perez, who returns to his former station, KPIX-TV in San Francisco, each summer to report.16 A strategically placed smart phone can be used to give a second angle to an interview, he noted, as if it were a two-camera shoot. You can also record video and stand-ups in a hurry, capturing feeting moments that are critical to a story Publish. Assume that you will have to publish social media posts and a web story with photos and/or video. That’s in addition to producing stories for radio or TV, depending on where you work. Publishing content is not an end point, rather sharing content on different platforms takes place throughout the reporting process, as will be discussed in detail in Chapter 7. It can be as simple as a few taps to get a photo or video on social media. Or it may require using a production app to create an audio or video component. Keep your workfow simple. Avoid having to transfer audio or video fles to another device for editing and publishing. That takes up valuable time.

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Workf low in action Let’s say you’re sent out to breaking news, a house fre. You have to make lightning-fast decisions. The workfow might look something like this. • •

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Initial post. Alert Twitter followers that you’re heading to a house fre and will update them when you arrive on scene. Follow through on your promise: Share as you go. With your iPhone, you snap photos and video of frefghters battling smoke and fames. You also record interviews with a witness and the fre chief. You share the latest details in a series of tweets that include photos. In your tweets, you @mention the fre department’s Twitter account. You then open the Facebook app and use Facebook Live to stream video from the scene. You show people what’s unfolding. We hear your voice giving us tidbits of information. Your decision to stream live was based on the fact that the fre chief told you everyone made it out of the house without injuries. Newsroom’s counting on you. A social media editor back in the newsroom is monitoring your posts and sharing your information on the outlet’s main social media accounts. She retweets your furry of tweets, creates a Facebook post with the latest details and photos you shared on Twitter, and sends out a breaking news alert to mobile app users. Multimedia web story. After four minutes of live-streaming on Facebook, you call the newsroom to let colleagues know you’re about to write a 300-word story for the website. You spend the next 15 minutes drafting the story and editing a short video clip. You use the iMovie app to piece together video clips and portions of your two interviews, upload the fnished video directly from your iPhone to YouTube, and then embed the video in your story. You also include a photo in the written article. Audience engagement. You have several Facebook comments you need to respond to, as neighbors in the area saw your live stream and are looking for more information. A Facebook follower claims crews had diffculty locating nearby fre hydrants because they were buried in snow from last week’s storm. This could be an important element to the story. You track down the fre chief to ask about this, and update followers.

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Feeding content to the newsroom. The social media editor in the newsroom needs your photos and raw video so she can create some additional content, including a graphic, for the outlet’s social media accounts. No problem. You have the Google Drive app on your phone. You simply place the video and photos from your mobile device into a shared folder on Google Drive. Collaborators with access to the shared folder can retrieve the content from any device. Not done yet: Continue updating. You update your web story and social media accounts throughout the afternoon until the scene is clear. Once you’re confdent you have all the information you’ll get from the scene, you head back to the newsroom. You work at an outlet that prints a newspaper three days a week. The print version doesn’t come out tomorrow, so you’re off the hook this time around for writing a story for the newspaper. Analytics. During the next morning’s editorial meeting, the social media editor discusses social media and website analytics. Your tweets received a lot of engagement, and your web story was the second-most viewed for the day. Your Facebook Live video had 300 views.

Sound like a juggling act? You have to go in with a game plan, yet be fexible enough to change that plan on the fy. That’s always been the case with reporting. Hang on for the ride. Time to fex your mobile and social media muscles.

CHECKLIST ✓

Website tutorials. For video tutorials on how to use many of the production apps mentioned in this chapter, visit the book’s companion website, MobileandSocialMediaJournalism.com.

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Mobile-first discussion. You’re a reporter assigned to the story below. How would you use a mobile device and social media to cover these breaking news and feature stories? Use the toolbox in this chapter as a guide (Table 5.1) to think through newsgathering, distributing information, and audience engagement. Discuss with your class what the workflow from the field might look like. Scenario 1. Shortly after arriving to work at 8:00 a.m., you hear on the police scanner that a train has derailed. You head to the scene,

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which is 30 miles north of your newsroom. By the way, you’re able to listen to the police scanner anywhere, thanks to an app that gives access to hundreds of law enforcement scanners across the country. You arrive to see a crowd of onlookers at the scene. You see that several of the train cars are toppled over, and traffic in the area is at a standstill. The train is operated by CSX. Scenario 2. Your city is unveiling murals that will adorn the downtown streetscape. Five artists were selected to paint the murals on sides of buildings and bridges. The artists’ projects were chosen following an open call by the city for mural proposals that speak to the theme of social justice. Thirty artists submitted proposal. ✓

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Get in the mojo groove. Time to practice mojo newsgathering and production. Use several different video apps to produce videos for a campus or community story. ¾

Main video: Use the iMovie or Adobe Premiere Rush app to produce one video that includes sound bites, no reporter voice track, to tell the story. Upload the video to your account on YouTube and post it to your social media. Remember to follow best practices for shooting and editing video.

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Social video: Use the Adobe Spark Video app to create a short readable social media version of the story.

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Instagram Story: Following the tips outlined in this chapter, produce an Instagram story while in the field. Consider testing out the Mojo app for this.

Scavenger hunt. Complete the following tasks in no more than two hours. Use your class hashtag for each tweet. Think like a reporter. Double check your facts and spelling of names. Offer an introductory tweet to followers in which you explain the posts that will soon follow. ¾

Professor on the street (not a professor you know). Photo of and quote from a professor on campus. Ask the professor what role social media plays in our society today. Be sure you include the professor’s title and department.

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Student on the street. Social media graphic that contains a photo of and quote from a student. Ask the student where he or she gets news and if he or she uses social media to keep up on the news. Be sure you include the student’s year in school and major. To create the graphic, use Adobe Spark Post or Canva.

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Little-known fact. Photo of something you think many people might not know about your campus. Include a description of what you’re showing people.

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School spirit! Photo of and quote from someone you don’t know revealing school or civic spirit.

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Twitter video from a scenic spot on campus. Explain what you’re showing people.

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Respond to at least two tweets from classmates also taking part in the scavenger hunt.

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Create a Wakelet that contains all your own tweets and several of your favorite tweets from classmates. In the Wakelet, write a short narrative reflecting on the experience and what you learned. Professors, have students submit their Wakelet link to you. Wakelet is a platform that allows you to pull social media posts into a single page and write text around the posts. It’s an ideal way to gather your social media activity for assignments in one spot.

Reminder. Continue working on your mobile and social media strategy analysis, first assigned as part of Chapter 2’s checklist. Have you been keeping up with your two blog posts per week mentioned in Chapter 3’s checklist? Don’t forget to share them to your social media sites. The weeks in which you’re doing original reporting, you’ll have plenty on your plate, so no need to write blog posts during that period. Finally, in order to maintain consistent social media activity, aim for the following each week: ¾

About 10 tweets and a combination of 10 retweets, replies, and likes. This can include several tweets about class discussions and/or readings that you found interesting. Tell followers why you’re sharing them.

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A few posts on your professional Facebook page, LinkedIn, and Instagram. This should be fairly easy to achieve once you get in the rhythm of blogging and reporting.

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Follow a handful of people on each platform. On Twitter, make it a goal to follow at least five new people every week, at least as you begin to build your professional brand.

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Notes 1 Paul Greeley, “WFAA Reporter Works Alone with His iPhone,” TVNewsCheck, January 29, 2016. http://www.tvnewscheck.com/marketshare/2016/01/29/wfaa-reporter-works-alone-using-his-iphone. 2 Tamara Baluja, “Powerful Storytelling on Social Media,” May 7, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osmK6dCK7n8. 3 Jessica Weiss, “7 Tips for Budding Mobile Journalists,” MediaShift, December 7, 2014. http://mediashift.org/2014/12/7-tips-for-budding-mo bile-journalists. 4 Caroline Scott, “Ditching the DSLR: Why a BBC Journalist Filmed Only on a Mobile Phone for a Month,” journalism.co.uk, August 1, 2016. https://www. journalism.co.uk/news/ditching-the-dslr-how-a-bbc-journalist-swoppedhis-professional-camera-for-a-mobile-phone-for-a-month/s2/a660935. 5 Catalina Albeanu, “Why The Washington Post Is Integrating Vertical Video Into Its Strategy,” journalism.co.uk, July 7, 2016. https://www.journalism.co. uk/news/washington-post-vertical-video/s2/a653586. 6 Cory Haik, “We’re Already Consuming the Future of News – Now We Have to Produce It,” Nieman Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/12/werealready-consuming-the-future-of-news-now-we-have-to-produce-it/. 7 “How to Use Facebook Live Video for Your Business,” Quick Sprout, February 8, 2019. https://www.quicksprout.com/facebook-live/. 8 Adam Wagner, “Are You Maximizing the Use of Video in Your Content Marketing Strategy?” Forbes, May 15, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ forbesagencycouncil/2017/05/15/are-you-maximizing-the-use-of-video-inyour-content-marketing-strategy/. 9 Patrick Van Kessel, “10 Facts About Americans and YouTube,” Pew Research, December 4, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019 /12/04/10-facts-about-americans-and-youtube/. 10 Aaron Smith, Skye Toor, and Patrick Van Kessel, “Many Turn to YouTube for Children’s Content, News, How-to Lessons,” Pew Research, November 7, 2018. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/11/07/many-turn-toyoutube-for-childrens-content-news-how-to-lessons/. 11 Andrew Heyward, “NBC’s Digital Storytellers Leave the Past Behind— Including Their Own,” Knight-Cronkite News Lab, December 5, 2019. https://cronkitenewslab.com/digital/2019/12/05/nbc-visual-storytellersleave-past-behind-including-their-own/. 12 Ibid. 13 Lino Lotveit, “How to Mojo: Using Mobile Phones for Reporting,” Global Investigative Journalism Conference, October 15, 2015. http://gijc2015.org/ 2015/10/15/how-to-mojo-using-mobile-phones-for-reporting.

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14 Robert Channick, “Chicago Sun-Times Lays off Its Photo Staff,” The Chicago Tribune, May 30, 2013. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-30/business/chi-chicago-sun-times-photo-20130530_1_chicago-sun-times-photostaff-video. 15 Rachel Barron and Alexa Lardieri, “Newspapers Hunt for New Readers on Instagram,” American Journalism Review, April 7, 2015. http://ajr.org/2015/ 04/07/newspapers-hunt-for-new-readers-on-instagram. 16 Simon Perez, “A Second Camera in Your Pocket,” Radio Television Digital News Association, February 19, 2018. https://www.rtdna.org/article/a_second_camera_in_your_pocket.

6 WRITING MOBILE-FRIENDLY WEB STORIES

In this chapter, you will

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Identify key elements of a mobile-friendly “snackable” page layout. Understand how to format article pages in a way that grabs and sustains the attention of those viewing them on a small screen. Learn to apply fundamental news writing skills to content produced for a mobile audience. Explore how to make your journalism discoverable to more people by using search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.

Writing is the basic building block of journalism. “Being a good writer is still the most fundamental skill a reporter needs to have, along with innate curiosity,” said Trish LaMonte (@TrishLamonte), vice president of content for The Post-Standard and its website Syracuse.com. DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-6

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When interviewing for a job in a newsroom, expect to be given a writing test in which you must draft at least one web story and posts for different social media platforms. We’ll talk more about these writing tests in Chapter 10, Mobile and Social Media In Your Career. This chapter is intended to build upon newswriting fundamentals that you’ve learned in other courses. The emphasis here is on applying these skills to writing for a mobile audience. We discuss not only writing, but also the layout of web stories. These two elements go hand-in-hand, driven by how people are consuming news on small screens. Journalism is a public service to your audience. Keep the readers at the forefront of your mind when drafting a story and planning its layout on a website. No matter how compelling the content of a well-written story, if it’s not easily viewable on a mobile device, you risk losing some audience members. They might just swipe away in frustration.

Mobile-friendly layout of web stories Mobile audience Remember how people consume news. Viewing a story on a mobile device is becoming the norm. In multiple surveys, including those conducted by Pew Research, the Associated Press and the American Press Institute, a majority of respondents indicated they favor mobile devices over desktops and laptops to get news.1 They not only engage with news while swiping through social media feeds, but also read articles on their mobile devices. This impacts how journalists design and write stories that will be viewed on mobile devices. The user experience is critical. Reading text on mobile screens is different than reading on larger screens. The size of the screen limits the amount of information that can be displayed. In addition, there are so many distractions. People tend to multitask while on a mobile device. They may not have the time, let alone patience, to read an entire story. Journalists must structure the layout of a web story so that the audience has a seamless experience no matter the device they’re using—mobile or computer. When I grade my students’ multimedia stories, I frst view them on my iPhone. I give feedback on the layout of the stories before I assess

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the writing and content. Get in the habit of doing the same. Think small screen. How does the story look on a mobile device? “Mobile-frst means that every reporter conceptualizes and writes stories to be consumed on the smallest of devices,” said media consultant Mario García (@DrMarioRGarcia), an instructor at Columbia University School of Journalism. “In a mobile-frst environment, we go from small to large, not the other way around. Everything is created for mobile consumption, then adapted to other, larger platforms.”2 Prioritize article pages Another trend to consider is that readers are increasingly coming to news websites in a “sideways” manner—by clicking a link to a story they saw on social media or found through a Google search. This behavior leads to some interesting conclusions, according to Ryan Kellett (@rkellett), senior director of audience engagement at The Washington Post. “The article page is the new homepage,” said Kellett.3 Newsroom website analytics show that article pages, not homepages, are the frst point of contact a signifcant number of readers have with news organizations. “That means as an organization you have to prioritize your article page in a signifcant way,” he said. “Readers may have no idea of who you are. You have to bring it into focus for readers quickly. That involves the design of the page.” Bite-sized, “snackable” chunks Once they’re on the page, you need to catch and hold their attention. People tend to scan before they decide to read a story, especially mobile users. Kellett noted that visitors to The Washington Post often scroll to the bottom of an article and then return to the top. They evaluate the layout and type of content to determine if it’s worth their time to read. Eye-tracking technology enables researchers to learn about how online readers view content, including article pages. People read online pages in an F-shaped pattern, according to researchers.4 The frst paragraph is typically read in its entirety. From there, readers scan and skim. They begin

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reading along the left side of the screen and as they read their eyes move to the right across the screen. They scroll along the page for visual cues such as subheadings and images. Breaking up the text of a story is critical to keeping readers on the page. Long strings of text, particularly when viewed on mobile, can be overwhelming. Instead, create “snackable” content, bite-sized chunks of information that are more easily digestible than lengthy text with no visual cues. You can accomplish this through an approach that eye-tracking researchers call the Layer-Cake Pattern.5 What does the recipe involve? Below are the ingredients to assemble an appetizing story layout. The next section of this chapter will expand on how to write some of these elements. • • •

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Short paragraphs. Keep them to no more than two sentences. Lengthy pieces of text with no spacing can deter people from reading. Visuals. One of the most effective ways of breaking up text is by inserting visuals in an online article. Subheadings. Subheadings in the body of a story provide visual cues. Think of them as guideposts that give readers an idea of how a story is segmented out. Each subheading describes what the next section is about. They allow readers to instantly see where certain information is located. Lists. The use of bullet points, or lists, is a straightforward way to present facts that otherwise would appear dense if written in a typical sentence structure. Key points. Bullet points can also be used to create a Key Points section at the top of the story, just beneath a headline. Immediately upon entering the page, a reader can learn the most important information here. It’s one way of front-loading stories, as we’ll discuss in more detail later. Secondary headlines. A secondary headline is a sentence written just below the main headline, usually in a font that sets it apart from the headline and body of the article. It builds upon the primary headline in a way that gives readers an additional nugget of information—another piece to entice them to view more of the page. Including a secondary headline is another method of front-loading articles.

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Pull-quotes. A pull-quote is a short, compelling quote lifted from the article text and used as a graphic feature on the page. Pull-quotes are placed in a large distinctive font style, making them stand out from other text in a story. Many website content management systems have a pull-quote function that formats text differently from that of the main article. A pull-quote should be placed in a spot that is away from where the quote resides in the article text; otherwise, it will seem repetitive. Length

Generally speaking, keep the length of a story and paragraphs short. Shorter stories, no more than 500–600 words, tend to hold the attention of the mobile audience. If background information is needed, think about putting these details in a list rather than eating up multiple paragraphs. This can help trim the length of the story. Paragraphs of no more than a few sentences are typical of traditional newswriting. This approach is even more important on mobile. Lengthy paragraphs act as speed traps, slowing down readers. A paragraph viewed on a desktop computer will appear about double the length when viewed on a mobile device. While the tendency is to think that shorter is better, journalist shouldn’t fall into the trap of shying away from writing longer, more in-depth stories that inform and shed light. The trick with lengthier articles is to make them “snackable” on mobile by mixing in enough Layer-Cake Pattern ingredients. Incorporating these elements becomes even more important with longer stories. The content should justify the length. When students ask me if it’s okay to go over the 600-word limit I’ve set for stories written in my Mobile and Social Media Journalism course, my response: “It depends.” If the content is compelling enough—both the text and page layout elements, a slightly longer story is justifable. Visuals A mix of visuals appropriately placed in an article can speak volumes— they bring life to written words. Visuals include photos, videos,

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infographics, and social media posts. These images and their associated captions tell a story of their own for visitors who frequently scroll down the page before deciding to read the article. Visuals can draw them in deeper. For starters, place one of your most compelling images—typically a photo—at the top of the page, just beneath the headline. This visual should speak to the heart of the story. From there, visuals should split up the text in a somewhat symmetrical fashion. Try to keep the amount of article text between images the same throughout the article. Every fve to six paragraphs is ideal. Just as a person scrolls down a screen, let them see another visual as the prior one disappears from the screen. When deciding where to insert a visual, consider the main article text that would surround it. Place the image where it would logically ft the story. For example, in the spot where you write about a specifc person, show us a photo of him or her. If a portion of the article discusses a high school robotics team, let’s say, preparing for competition, insert a photo of the team members in action. Does a section include research data? Consider embedding an infographic that visualizes some of the results. Infographics can be particularly useful to tell the story of dense information in a digestible and visually appealing format. Center most images on the page so that they fll the screen, instead of right or left justifying them. This will allow users to see visuals in a larger size, which is more appealing on the small screen. Sometimes the dimensions of the images will dictate the treatment. Vertically oriented photos, instead of horizontal ones, centered on a page often end up surrounded by too much empty space on either side. In this case, it’s better to position the image on one side of the screen with the article text wrapped around it. As noted in the previous chapter, get in the habit of shooting photos in a way that best fts the platform on which they will be published. For web stories, horizontal is better. If you’re considering placing photos in a gallery, test the layout on mobile before publishing. Some website photo galleries are not mobile friendly. The advantage of inserting photos individually throughout a story, rather than in a single gallery, is that they will split the article text into bite-sized, “snackable” chunks.    

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Photo 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 & 6.4 This is a series of screenshots of a CNBC story on a mobile device.The story includes mobile-friendly features—the use of Key Points at the top, visuals to break up text, subheadings, and short paragraphs—that make the content easily digestible on a small screen.

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 6.5 Bill Cannon (@NewsCannon) Manager of Content Strategy, USA Today Describe your role at USA Today. I’m part of the content strategy team. We take our years of experience in journalism and combine that with data, and then go back to the newsroom to consult with USA Today journalists. We are really looking at how best to serve our audience. What are audience members looking for? How do they want us to present information? We are a partner with the newsroom from conception to delivery, and then analyze what worked. We look at an entire spectrum of data—search and social referrals, time on page, and scroll depth, just to name a few metrics. What is the data showing you about news consumers’ behavior with regard to reading articles? The audience’s time is currency. We have to be mindful of that when we create content. When we offer a headline that’s enticing enough for them

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to click, we need to honor their needs. My team did a study of about 33,000 articles. We focused on a variety of metrics that gauge readers’ behaviors and needs. It was clear that they have an interest in content but there are hard limits with how long they will spend with our content. If I’m going to ask you for another minute, why? Did I not write tightly? Is the story too long? In some of our longer stories, there’s a lot of content that doesn’t get read. The challenge is how to leave the audience fully informed in less time. It’s a major mind shift in our industry. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do in-depth investigations but we need to present the story in different ways. We still have to write out the main text, the long investigative piece that lays out the case, but that’s not going to be what circulates with the widest audience. What will circulate with widest audience is what we know—we did the investigation, here’s what we found out, and here’s what’s next. How does this impact the layout of article pages? We had a feature added to our content management system that allows reporters to put bullet points at the top of stories. Some reporters were under the assumption that those would make visitors stop reading further. We pulled together an analysis of stories with bullet points at the top. We found, by in large, they increase scroll depth and time spent on the story. The data doesn’t tell us why but we can infer that we are telling them why the story matters, and that will keep them reading—it’s worth their time, the investment. You have great headlines to bring them in, followed by a couple of bullet points that say the key things to know—not a summary of the story, but rather tell them why it’s important to them. Visuals also matter, they help people make their way down the page. A mobile page is precious real estate—break up the text. What can journalists do to make their articles rank higher in search results? I focus a ton of time on SEO. I am leading the SEO team for USA Today for election content. Several things are worth noting. People go to search for an answer: they have a query and want Google to tell them where to go for the answer. The trick with search is, does Google know you have the best answer?

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A page title with keywords is the most important signal. Keywords must be at the beginning. If you don’t do that, you slip. Google is also very smart about looking at the page. If people bounce from the page frequently, it’s an indication they are not finding what they need, and you’ll drop in the search rankings. We also find that subheadings throughout the story matter to people and to Google. Google is trying to please people, so they know that subheadings to segment content—to tell them what a section is about—are helpful. What about changing the URL of a page? The URL ending matters a lot. It does pay off to change them. We want more than just the headline as the URL. We want top keyword phrases in there. Once you publish an article, the URL is locked. There’s no going back. Don’t fall into the trap of getting too specific, particularly during a breaking news story. For example, don’t use number of deaths in the URL. That information can change.

Writing with a mobile audience in mind Stor y structures The two most common story structures are inverted pyramid and narrative, also referred to as anecdotal. The structure a journalist chooses is typically based on the type of news they’re covering. Your portfolio ideally includes stories written in both inverted pyramid and narrative/anecdotal styles. Show your versatility to hiring managers, your ability to write in different styles. The inverted pyramid structure is most commonly used for breaking news and developing stories. Details are placed in this type of article according to their importance. When reporting on news where timeliness is of the essence, journalists have a responsibility to provide the most newsworthy information straight off the top of an article. Don’t bury those details. In the inverted pyramid structure, the most critical information is written in the frst couple of sentences. One beneft of this structure is that readers, particularly those using a mobile device, are able to get the main points of the story right away. Not much skimming and scanning is required. 

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Figure 6.1 Story structure: Inverted pyramid. An inverted pyramid article begins with the most important information.

Narrative/anecdotal stories are written in a descriptive style that focuses on the narratives of individual characters. These types of stories often bring to light how “real” people are impacted by issues. Descriptive writing puts readers in the middle of a narrative/anecdotal story in a way that can make them feel invested in it. They can build a connection with the sources. Real people they can latch on to. Narrative/anecdotal articles often begin with a scene setter, a description of a situation or an environment which involves the main character. The news peg is delayed—there is a slow build up to it. The newsworthy element is contained in the nut graf, located at least a few paragraphs into the story. This type of structure is compelling in terms of storytelling, but requires patience on the part of readers who are looking to get information quickly. However, if written well, narrative/anecdotal articles should keep drawing readers in deeper so that they don’t even think twice about how long it’s taking to read the story. A secondary headline and/or Key Points section can be included in order to give the audience a taste of the news peg early on. This could motivate visitors to read further. Although a narrative is woven throughout the story, you’re not writing a movie. This is non-fction after all. Don’t get carried away in fowery

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language that doesn’t give meaningful and factually accurate information. Journalism professor Vincent Filak (@DoctorOfPaper) hits home this point in his newswriting textbook. “This doesn’t work, because you still need the interest elements and core values of journalism at the center of the narrative writing. Perhaps a good way to understand this is to think about a birthday present: No matter how beautiful the wrapping is or how ornate the ribbons are, if there’s nothing inside, it’s going to be a disappointment. Once people get past the pretty outside elements, it’s what is inside that counts,” wrote Filak.6 The highest quality narrative/anecdotal writing skillfully weaves together personal narratives of sources and quantitative data that sheds more light on the main issue. Despite their descriptive nature, narrative/ anecdotal stories still need to include “meat”—data. By layering in research results, for example, you bring credibility to the story. Finally, button up the journey you’ve taken the audience on. End the story with the main character you introduced in the lede, an approach that brings the narrative full circle. Think about how disappointing it could be for a reader if you were to build a narrative around a source and then move on from that person without hearing about him or her again. Don’t leave readers hanging.  Consider this scenario. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issues a press release stating it has given clearance for doctors to use a new ultrasound system that tests dense breast tissue. People with this type of tissue are at an increased risk of breast cancer. In addition, traditional mammography machines have diffculty detecting cancer in dense breast tissue. Using the inverted pyramid structure, you write a short article that contains details of the announcement. Days later, you would like to localize and humanize this story. What sources do you need to accomplish this? How will the article be structured? A student of mine who worked on this story spoke with the husband of a woman who had passed away from breast cancer. Mammography machines failed to detect her breast cancer early enough. She had dense breast tissue. The student also interviewed a local doctor and tracked down statistics, including death rates among women with dense breast tissue who are diagnosed with breast cancer.

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Figure 6.2 Story structure: Kabob. Narrative/anecdotal stories often follow what’s called the kabob structure. A narrative lede is followed by a nut graf, at which point the story broadens out before returning to and ending with the main character.

The story opens with a narrative about the husband watching home videos of his wife and their children. Readers learn more about her battle with cancer. It isn’t until a few paragraphs in that the student reveals the wife has passed away. At that point, the article transitions to how the newlyapproved ultrasound machine could have helped save her life, if it were available sooner. Quantitative data along with a secondary narrative with an oncologist are woven into the article. The story ends with the husband describing how his wife wanted to record home videos—frst mentioned at the beginning of the story—so that their children would have a lasting memory of her. It goes without saying that the content thread together in this manner created a deeply moving and insightful piece.

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Search engine optimization (SEO) Understanding search engine optimization (SEO) will help you write elements of an article in a way that increases the chances of your journalism getting in front of more people. In other words, grow your audience. SEO is the process of driving digital traffc from online search engines to websites or webpages. There are a number of SEO techniques that journalists can use to draw greater visibility to their content—making it attractive to search engines and thus improving the chances audience members will fnd it. The majority of searchers do not look past the frst page of results. Here are a few tips to get your stories to rank higher in search engines. •

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Keywords. Put yourself in the shoes of someone doing an online search. If looking for information on the topic of your story or blog post, what words would they type into a Google search box? These are keywords. The positioning of keywords is important. Placing them in the headline and the frst few sentences, versus later in a story, makes it more likely people searching for the topic will fnd your content. An article that mentions snow tires in the headline will be considered more relevant to a search for “snow tires” than one where these keywords are only written in the fnal paragraph. Page URLs. Website content management systems generate a unique URL for each article. System-created page URLs are often long and clunky. They aren’t search engine optimized. Fortunately, most content management systems, including WordPress, allow you to edit the end part of URLs. When doing so, include keywords. For example, this was the original URL for a story published on Ithaca Week, a hyperlocal news site that I manage and on which my students’ stories are published: www.ithacaweek-ic.com/02-2020-new-cooking-class-teaches-kids-confdencein-the-kitchen. We shortened it to: www.ithacaweek-ic.com/kids-in-the-kitchen. British news outlet The Guardian frequently loads its URLs with keywords. A Guardian story about former cyclist Lance Armstrong has the headline: “In a new documentary, Lance Armstrong shows plenty of rage but little regret.” Here’s the end part of the URL that was edited to include keywords: /lance-armstrong-documentary-espn-doping-cycling-tour-de-france. Links. Google ranks webpages higher when they have inbound traffc from visitors who arrive to the page by clicking a link they saw on social

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media, a website, or elsewhere. Search engines store information about how many people are linking back to a webpage and how frequently those links are clicked. This underscores the importance of sharing the links to your stories. In addition, where appropriate within your own articles, hyperlink to external sources and internal content on your site that readers will fnd of value. Search engines index external as well as internal links within articles and include them in their rankings. Image fle names. Edit the default fle names of images so that they include keywords. By doing so, the image and the article in which it’s located are more likely to show up in search results. The original fle name of a photo I took at a protest was ‘IMG_0059.JPG.’ Before inserting this photo into an article, I renamed the fle to ‘IthacaCommonsProtest. JPG.’ Take the same approach with video and audio fles. Alt text. Alt text (alternative text) is copy that describes what appears in an image. Writing alt text for each image you upload is about more than just optimization. It’s a matter of accessibility. Screen readers read the alt text so that people who are visually impaired can understand the content of the image. When you upload a photo to a content management system, a blank alt text box will appear. Inserting alt text that includes keywords makes your content more discoverable in search engines. It unlocks the context of images. Without the alt text, you’re essentially “hiding” images from visually impaired people and search engines. The alt text that I wrote for the protest photo mentioned above was: “Protestor uses bullhorn to speak with crowd of people in Ithaca Commons.” Tags. You can tag posts with words that describe their content. Although countless online resources tout optimization benefts of post tags, there’s minimal impact of tags on SEO. “Personally, I’ve been seeing people using this technique for many years. However, it doesn’t do anything to the ranking of your blog post,” explained John Locke, an SEO consultant.7 Search engines don’t scan the tags section. There is one key beneft of tags. They can improve navigation for readers, helping them fnd content that interests them on your site. Including tags is a way to organize content related to the same topic. If a reader were to click on a “Boston Red Sox” tag, for example, they would be directed to a list of stories with the same tag. The box in which you write tags is located where you draft a website post.

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Short and shareable headlines A headline is your promise to readers. A well-written one captures the gist of the article. The story should deliver on the promise stated in the headline. “Headlines are lifelines to our readers. They grab attention, build trust and help time-pressed consumers focus on stories they care about,” Eric Ulken (@eulken), of USA Today, noted in a Poynter training session about writing headlines.8 The mantra “every word counts” has always been familiar to journalists. It takes on even more signifcance when it comes to crafting headlines that will be viewed by mobile users. Succinct headlines are critical. BBC News has a best-practice guideline to help its journalists create compelling content with mobile-frst in mind.9 BBC News recommends headlines of no more than 55 characters. A headline with more characters can appear lengthy on a mobile screen and be truncated in search engine results. Furthermore, think about “shareability.” After users read an article, they may want to share it on social media. The article headline typically becomes the text of the social media post, making it all the more important to write a headline that is catchy yet concise. Give people a reason to read and share the article, but don’t fall into the clickbait trap. Avoid sensationalism. Also consider the position of keywords within the headline. For SEO purposes, placing keywords to the left, within the frst few words, is better than having them at the end. The original headline of an NPR story about the Iowa caucuses was, “How It Happened: 6 Things That Explain the Iowa Caucus Results.” When NPR staffers noticed that the article wasn’t receiving as much traffc as they expected, the headline was edited. As you see in Figure 6.6, NPR placed the keywords “Iowa Caucus Results” at the beginning of the headline. The tweak was intended to better position those words that people looking for information about this topic would type into a search engine. By monitoring website analytics, NPR measured the effectiveness of the new headline. After the edit, traffc to the story skyrocketed. It was NPR’s second-most viewed story of the day. It’s important to point out that the headline change was made at 6:30 a.m. The time of day could have also impacted the amount of traffc to the article.  

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Photo 6.6 After a headline edit that changed the position of keywords, an NPR article received signifcantly more traffc.

Photo 6.7 NPR tips for writing headlines. For more journalism tips from NPR’s team, visit npr.org/training.

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Front-load stories: Secondar y headlines and key points One way of writing articles in a mobile-friendly manner is by front-loading them. Get to the point. Place the most important information at the top of the story. BBC News has a rule that readers should be able to get the main points of a story within the frst four paragraphs. Those who can’t fnd the key information within the frst few paragraphs can get frustrated and leave the page. A secondary headline, located in different style font under the main headline, can help to front-load stories. News outlets are increasingly utilizing this multiple headline approach. A secondary headline is a sentence that builds upon the primary headline without repeating what’s in the lede. It’s often a compelling one-sentence summary that communicates the news peg and importance of the story. The screenshots below show several articles that front-load stories in this manner.   Sometimes the main headline alone is enough to get people to click but doesn’t fully capture what the story is about. For instance, a student in a multimedia journalism course I taught in Italy wrote this headline for her story: “WWOOFing It! Adventures in Travel.” It includes a word play on the acronym WWOOF, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. This headline can’t stand alone, because most people aren’t familiar with WWOOF. A secondary headline was added to give context: WWOOF program offers meals and accommodations in exchange for volunteering on a farm. This narrative/anecdotal story begins by introducing readers to a young Belgian woman who decides to quit college and backpack through several countries. Readers learn about her adventures in the Italian countryside as part of the WWOOF program. This

Photo 6.8 & 6.9 Examples of Chicago Sun-Times articles with secondary headlines.

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Photo 6.10 & 6.11 Each of these articles includes a list off the top that highlights key points.

acronym is defned early in the article. (I typically recommend avoiding the use of unfamiliar acronyms in headlines. However, in this instance, the word play in the main headline when combined with a descriptive secondary headline and feature photo creates a compelling entry to the story). Including a Key Points section between the headline(s) and the main body is another way to front-load articles. In this area, write the main points of the story. Think of these as story highlights. Keep bullet points to a maximum of four in order to avoid a “laundry list” of items on a small screen. Given that narrative/anecdotal articles are not structured in a way that front-loads information, secondary headlines and/or Key Points can be particularly useful in these types of stories. Use them to pull out the news peg. A word of caution: Narrative/anecdotal articles slowly build up to surprises and a conclusion—that’s part of the satisfaction of writing and reading them, so don’t give away too much off the top.   Ledes The opening of a story is called the lede, sometimes spelled lead. There are two types of news ledes: hard and soft. Hard ledes are used in the inverted pyramid story structure. This type of lede summarizes the most newsworthy facts by packing into one or two sentences the 5Ws and 1H: who, what, where, why, when, and how. Hard

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ledes are the best choice for breaking and developing stories. Here are a few examples: Example 1 A jetliner carrying 98 people crashed Friday in a crowded neighborhood near the airport in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi after an apparent engine failure during landing. (Associated Press) Example 2 An Aurora woman led an extensive international drug trafficking organization that distributed high volumes of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl throughout Colorado, U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn said at a news conference Wednesday. (The Denver Post) Example 3 A 32-year-old Long Island man was arrested and charged with murder on Thursday after fatally stabbing his father more than a dozen times while he was on a Zoom video chat with about 20 people, authorities said. (The New York Times)

Not every story lends itself to a hard news lede. Soft ledes are mostly used in anecdotal/narrative stories. They hook the reader. Don’t write in generalities here. Use specifc evocative details. Give the readers a front-row action instead of keeping them at an arm’s length distance. Some of the most effective soft ledes include the anecdote of a person. Readers are introduced to someone and learn about their experience, a way of illustrating what the story is about. A soft lede could also begin by setting the scene—a situation, place, or event before revealing its signifcance. Consider these soft news ledes. The frst example comes from a Pulitzer Prize-winning story. The third one is written by the student who reported about the organic farming story mentioned earlier. Example 1 Cal Fire Battalion Chief Gino DeGraffenreid was about to jump back into his truck after loading a fleeing family into a police car when he thought he heard someone yelling amid the roaring wind and fire in the hills northeast of Santa Rosa. He ran toward the voice and saw them: a couple wearing next to nothing, freezing amid an unprecedented fire belching smoke and raining firebrands.

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“They were soaking wet,” DeGraffenreid said. “They had awoken to a smoke detector, jumped in the pool and for about an hour had been in the pool trying to stay away from heat.” He wrapped them in T-shirts, put them into his truck and caravanned with police down Michele Way to Mark West Springs Road, a white-knuckle trip with fire and intense heat—a burning neighborhood already wiped clean of all that had once been so familiar. “All of the landmarks—the houses, the fences, the goofy Volkswagen bug—all of the visual landmarks were gone,” DeGraffenreid said. (The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California) Example 2 The youngest child to come before the bench in federal immigration courtroom No. 14 was so small she had to be lifted into the chair. Even the judge in her black robes breathed a soft “aww” as her latest case perched on the brown leather. Her feet stuck out from the seat in small gray sneakers, her legs too short to dangle. Her fists were stuffed under her knees. As soon as the caseworker who had sat her there turned to go, she let out a whimper that rose to a thin howl, her crumpled face a bursting dam. The girl, Fernanda Jacqueline Davila, was 2 years old: brief life, long journey. The caseworker, a big-boned man from the shelter that had been contracted to raise her since she was taken from her grandmother at the border in late July, was the only person in the room she had met before that day. “How old are you?” the judge asked, after she had motioned for the caseworker to return to Fernanda’s side and the tears had stopped. “Do you speak Spanish?” (The New York Times) Example 3 Justine Meyer was fed up with sitting in a university lecture hall. The 19-year-old Belgian student felt confined—trapped—inside four walls. The free-spirited teenager wanted to travel the world. So, after one year of college, Meyer cut short her studies as a communication major and plotted her next move. Meyer’s solo backpacking adventures first brought her to Egypt and Greece, and she then took a ferry to Venice. Running low on money, Meyer became intrigued by the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, WWOOF, program, which provides volunteers with meals and lodging in exchange for their help on an organic farm.

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Meyer jumped at the opportunity. Her new classroom is the open fields of La Selva farm in Sappanico, Italy, about a 20-minute drive southwest of the coastal city of Ancona. Alongside Caio Marcantoni, the farm’s owner, Meyers now spends her days cultivating the land. “It has changed my life,” said Meyer. “School is okay, you learn stuff, but you never learn as much as when you are traveling and when you are with people experiencing real life. In just three months, I have learned so much.” (The Urbino Project)

Nut grafs As you see from the examples above, soft ledes include multiple paragraphs, many more than hard ledes. There’s a slow build up to the news peg. Too much of a set-up, however, can leave people wondering what’s the point of the story. Why should I care and take the time to read the rest? The trick to writing a narrative/anecdotal story is to not bury the nut graf too deep. A nut graf, also referred to as nut graph, serves as a bridge between the opening narrative and the rest of the article. It gives context. The nut graf tells readers how what they just read in the soft lede is connected to a broader issue, a new peg. The transition from the lede to the nut graf should feel natural. The nut graf is also the point at which the story begins to give readers “the meat.” There’s layering of essential facts and data. Here are the nut grafs that directly follow each of the soft news ledes above: Example 1 Gale-force winds fueled an unprecedented number of wildfires that started almost simultaneously after night fell Oct. 8 in places across the North Coast region, killing at least 40 people in four counties and forcing entire communities to evacuate, including about 50,000 Sonoma County residents. (The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California) Example 2 This afternoon in New York immigration court, Judge Randa Zagzoug had nearly 30 children to hear from, ages 2 through 17. Fernanda was No. 26. Judge Zagzoug came to the bench in 2012, around the time children started showing up by the thousands at the border on their own, mostly

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from Central America. Now that immigration controls have stiffened in response, more children than ever are in government custody, for far longer than they ever have been—weeks turning to months in shelters that were never meant to become homes. (The New York Times) Example 3 Meyer is one of the nearly 7,000 WWOOF volunteers, known as “WWOOFers,” in Italy. WWOOF Italia began in 1999 with approximately 25 farms across Italy and 1,000 volunteers. The program has since expanded to 760 Italian farms. (The Urbino Project)

Subheadings Subheadings create a hierarchy of the content in your article, communicating to visitors a sense of what they’ll fnd in the story—an outline of the journey you’re about to take them on. Remove those subheadings, and it could be more diffcult, especially for those using a mobile device, to get a handle of what’s on the page. The goal, then, with subheadings is to aid in scannability and lead readers to specifc sections of information. It’s like a scent trail, pulling them deeper and deeper in. During your reporting on a single story, several themes may emerge. These can be used to segment out your article with subheadings. For example, in a New York Times article about the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on tourism, the main headline is followed by three subheadings: Beach Towns Ask: Will There Be Summer?10 “Staying closed isn’t an option” A need for reopening guidance No hugging, no touching

The subheadings of The Times article and the content under each one advance the story in a meaningful way. If you were to take away those subheadings, the story would still fow logically. Subheadings do not work for every story. You must have enough content to warrant the use of subheadings. One approach that can be engaging is the integration of a short impactful quote into a subheading, as was done in The Times piece. This section introduces us to the narrative of the person quoted in the subheading.

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Keep subheadings short—no more than six words. The subheadings should stand out from the main text but not be as dominant as the font of the primary headline. Use the same font style for all subheadings in an article. Photo captions Writing photo captions shouldn’t be an afterthought. Visitors tend to view the photos and associated captions before they decide whether to read the story. Compelling captions can enhance the user experience with your content and draw them in further. Photos and captions should tell a mini story within the main story. Insert photos in an article that capture the key elements of what you’re reporting about. Photos and captions should not only be able stand on their own as a mini story, but also complement the article. Where the article mentions a main character or describes a scene, let readers see a related photo. Show us the who and what. Don’t just tell us. Caption every photo. One or two sentences is usually suffcient—any longer can look bulky on mobile devices. These are not just throwaway statements with trivial information. A caption should answer the 5Ws and 1H. Write captions that give readers the context of photos but avoid stating the obvious. This is a weak photo caption: John Doe, a protestor, stands in front of the White House. A better caption offers specifc details: John Doe joins 45,000 gun safety advocates in protest Saturday outside the White House. Doe’s daughter was killed during the 2018 shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. If there are multiple people that need to be identifed in a photo, tell readers who is who by indicating position. Each news outlet has its own photo caption guidelines for identifcations. This format is often used: (From left) Jane Smith, Mike Collins, and John O’Connell receive the City of Austin’s Good Citizen Award during a ceremony Friday at the Municipal Auditorium. To point out a specifc person, this format is effective: John Doe, far right, joins 45,000 gun safety advocates Saturday in protest outside the White House. Integrating quotes and harder data into captions can be effective, as long as the content is not already used in the main article. In the sample caption about the protest, for instance, including a short quote from John Doe could give people the essence of his narrative even if they hadn’t read the story.

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Every caption must contain a photo credit. The most common format is to put the name of the photographer and outlet in parenthesis at the end of the caption, as is done in this one from the Los Angeles Times: Mahmod Alrihimi’s market used to be the epicenter of town, where one could buy steaks, cold cuts and sandwiches. Now his store’s shelves are mostly bare. His top sellers are beer and sodas, especially at the end of the workday. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

KEEPING TRACK OF LAYOUT AND WRITING BASICS Here’s the grading checklist I use for multimedia stories produced in my Mobile and Social Media Journalism course. My feedback is divided into three parts. Before reading the actual text of students’ stories, I review the page layout. I give feedback about the degree to which the layout is mobile-friendly, followed by a critique of the visuals (photos, video, and any other images). Lastly, I offer feedback about the article text. There are countless items that journalists need to keep in mind when producing a story. Undoubtedly, more could be added to these lists! The reality of most newsrooms today is that there are fewer copy editors, so reporters need to look critically at their own work and make corrections on the fly. They have to be able to work quickly and accurately. These items will help you get started on that path. Layout • • • • • • • •

Did you view the story on a mobile device? Does it look okay on desktop and mobile? Does the article include a compelling visual directly under the headline? Remember to mix in those appetizing Layer-Cake Pattern ingredients! Make it “snackable.” Short paragraphs with visuals that periodically break up text? Would the story layout benefit from the use of a secondary headline and/or Key Points? Would the story layout benefit from the use of subheadings and/or bulleted lists? Would the story layout benefit from the use of a pull-quote? Hyperlinks where appropriate? Do the links work?

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Visuals •

•

Photos ∘ Are they composed properly? ∘ Are photos placed in the appropriate spots, in a way that complements the article? ∘ Do they capture key elements of the story? For example, do you have photos of your main character(s)? ∘ Does every image have a descriptive caption that tells us a mini story within the main story? Include a photo credit in each. Video ∘ Does the video complement the article, not just a re-hash of the main text? ∘ Did you check to make sure the video plays? Audio sound okay? ∘ Is there sufficient b-roll to support the length of the video? ∘ Is there a variety of creative and compelling shots? Do you have wide, medium, and close-up shots? Do you have b-roll of your main character(s)? ∘ Is the video reasonably steady and proper lighting used? ∘ Is everything spelled correctly on text slides? ∘ Overall editing: Sequencing of video clips when possible? Is each shot an appropriate length? Audio levels are consistent throughout the video? Is the project free of flash frames and jump cuts?

Writing/Content/Structure • • • • • •

Did you choose the most appropriate story structure for the type of news? Effective headline? One that captures what the article is about? Is it search engine optimized? Is there a clear story focus/angle? Is the lede appropriate based on the type of story? If you’re writing a narrative/anecdotal lede, did you include a nut graf? Is the information factually correct, attributed, and based on reliable sources? At least three sources, in most cases. Balanced story presentation: Is the information presented fairly? News articles are not opinion pieces, so be certain they are void of your stance/opinion.

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• • • • •

“Real people:” Are those impacted by the issue/topic included in the story? Does the story answer the most reasonable questions? Does it deliver on your promise in the headline? Is the story presented and organized in a manner that holds the readers’ interest and clearly explains what happens? Does each paragraph do new and useful work? Is each paragraph connected to the one before it? Do transitions feel natural? Is your writing clear, concise, and free of spelling and grammar errors?

CHECKLIST ✓

Put on your editor’s hat. View two online articles on a mobile device. Analyze each article for mobile-friendly layout and writing. Consult the “Keeping Track of Layout and Writing Basics” list as you critique the articles. Provide feedback for each section noted in the rubric: Layout, Visuals, and Writing/Content/Structure. What does the author do well? What edits would you make?

✓

Writing and layout drill. Time to write! Below are two different scenarios—one for breaking news and another for a feature story. ¾

Breaking news: Write a search engine optimized headline and hard news lede for this story. You learn all this information during an interview with John Rogers, chief of the San Diego Fire Department. By the way, you work for a news outlet serving the San Diego community. Fire started about 4:08 this morning in the attic of a duplex house on Ridge Road in downtown San Diego. People in both apartments, upper and lower, are being helped by the American Red Cross. They were not injured. Confirmed that working smoke detectors were located in both apartments. Two firefighters became trapped shortly after entering the upper unit. They’re being treated for minor burns. They’re still in the hospital at this time. All firefighters were evacuated from the house after the two became trapped. The home was gutted by the fire. It’s now uninhabitable. Cause

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unknown. The address is 167 Ridge Road. It took three hours to extinguish the fire. ¾

Feature story: Write a search engine optimized headline, secondary headline, multi-paragraph soft news lede, and nut graf for this story. In addition, jot down three subheadings that could be used. Finally, what visuals would you plan to include in the article? This scenario includes quotes from sources. Use them as you see fit. Zyna Williams, 17, is from Clayton, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, and plans on going to the junior prom. Yasaland King, her adoptive mother, recently lost her job. She is a single mother raising three adopted children. Williams has been working a job after school to help support her family and buy a dress for the prom. She makes minimum wage working 10 hours per week at Subway. Operation Prom—a national organization that helps lowincome teens get free dresses and tuxedo rentals donated by retailers, companies and private citizens—was founded in 2005 by Noel D’Allacco. There are chapters across the country to help out teenagers, including those in St. Louis. Williams was selected by Operation Prom to receive a gown for the prom. She chose a chiffon pink dress that has a retail price of $250. The organization will also pay to have her hair and makeup done. Operation Prom requires that recipients get good grades, a GPA of at least a B. Williams has straight As. School supplies are available in addition to regular donations of prom dresses and tuxedos. This prom season, Operation Prom expects to help 10,000 students across the country, including 400 in the St. Louis area. “With today’s economy a lot of parents are not able to afford the whole prom experience. The number of requests for dresses and tuxedos has increased by a third in the past two years,” said Keren Charles, area chapter director of Operation Prom. “Donations were given by stores including MeMe’s Formals, New York Bride, The Princess Shop, and Rebecca’s Bridal Boutique.” “I was planning on using most of the money I made at work to buy a dress. I’m so relieved that I can actually use all of it to

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help my family instead,” said Zyna Williams. “I don’t have many opportunities to get dressed up, so this will be really special.” “I’m so proud of the organization and what it has done for students like my daughter. We thought that the prom wasn’t, you know, within our reach,” said Yasaland King. “I know for a fact that the girls who received the dresses are thrilled and it really means a lot to them.” ✓

Teaching moment. This is your opportunity to teach your class! Working in teams, lead a 20-minute class presentation/discussion about a current topic related to the use of mobile devices and social media in journalism. These teaching moments can be spread out over the course of the semester. This book and content from online sources mentioned in Chapter 1’s checklist, such as Nieman Lab and Poynter, can serve as starting points for ideas. Post a preview of the topic to the class Facebook page (if there is one), tweet about your teaching moment using the class hashtag, and write a blog entry about it. Topics might include how a news outlet uses TikTok to reach a younger demographic, an ethical issue related to the use of social media in journalism, and ideas on how journalists could use a particular mobile or social media tool.

Notes 1 “Americans Favor Mobile Devices over Desktops and Laptops for Getting News,” Pew Research Center, November 19, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/19/americans-favor-mobile-devices-over -desktops-and-laptops-for-getting-news/. 2 Mario García, “Think Small (Screen),” Nieman Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/12/think-small-screen/. 3 “Audience Analytics for Reporters,” Poynter. https://www.poynter.org/ courses/audience-analytics-for-reporters/lessons/using-metrics-to-buildengagement/topic/creating-unique-content/. 4 Jakob Nielsen, “Website Reading: It (Sometimes) Does Happen,” Nielsen Norman Group, June 24, 2013. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/websitereading/. 5 Kara Pernice, “The Layer-Cake Pattern of Scanning Content on the Web,” Nielsen Norman Group, August 4, 2019. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/layer-cake-pattern-scanning/.

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6 Vincent F. Filak, Dynamics of News Reporting & Writing (Newbury Park, CA: SAGE 2018). 7 John Locke, “Do WordPress Tags Help SEO?” Lockedown Design, September 8, 2018. https://www.lockedownseo.com/do-wordpress-tagshelp-seo/. 8 Eric Ulken, “Writing Online Headlines: SEO and Beyond,” Poynter. https:// www.poynter.org/courses/writing-online-headlines-seo-and-beyond/. 9 “Writing for Mobile: Bite-Size Basics,” BBC Academy. http://www.bbc.co. uk/academy/journalism/article/art20141202144618106. 10 Tariro Mzezewa, “Beach Towns Ask: Will There Be Summer?” The New York Times, May 15, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/travel/virussummer-tourism.html.

7 SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT AND AUDIENCE ANALYTICS

In this chapter, you will

• • • • •

Identify the type of content to share while reporting in order to engage with and inform the audience. Discover the role of social media optimization (SMO) and analytics in newsrooms. Understand how to craft posts using SMO best practices and then how to analyze the effectiveness of your social media activity. Learn what analytics data tells us and how to use it to inform our reporting across platforms. Further explore how journalists’ social media activity is a key driver of traffic to news outlets’ websites.

Put your energy into publishing social media content that isn’t a waste of your time—or the audience’s. After all, people are bombarded with DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-7

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information. For reporters, it’s critical to understand how to cut through all this noise on social media and provide valuable content with which your audience will engage. Think about it. What makes you stop to read a social media post? What is it about a post that attracts your attention? There are a number of techniques you can utilize to make sure people don’t simply scroll past your social media posts. It all comes down to what you share while reporting and how you craft your posts.

What do I post while reporting? Journalism is no longer about simply publishing a story for a news outlet’s website or producing a video package for your station’s 5:00 p.m. newscast. Your coverage of a story is an ongoing conversation with the audience via social media platforms. Stories have lives of their own, and news consumers have grown accustomed to fnding out pieces of information throughout the day. That’s why sharing information during your news reporting process is important. Think about your social media feed as a faucet of information. You provide drips of information. All those drips help the audience engage with you, the story, and your news outlet. Providing valuable, engaging, and consistent content will make you the go-to source for news.

SCHEDULING POSTS Through social media dashboards, including TweetDeck and Hootsuite, you have the ability to schedule social media posts. This can also be done directly on professional Facebook pages. The option is not available for personal accounts. Scheduling posts works best with feature and evergreen stories. The New York Times, like other newsrooms, schedules multiple runs of tweets highlighting enterprise stories. One word of caution: If there’s breaking news during the time period a scheduled post is supposed to go live, cancel it. It would look awkward for a scheduled post about a feature story to show up among those related to breaking news.

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Social media optimization Not all social media posts are viewed equally. The practice of social media optimization (SMO) can help posts stand out. SMO has become a commonly used term in newsrooms to describe how posts are crafted and published for maximum audience engagement. Keep the fundamentals of SMO in mind when thinking about what you’ll share during the reporting process. SMO is similar to search engine optimization (SEO) in that the goal is to draw attention to content. A post that is social media optimized is more likely to lead the audience to share, like, and comment—that’s engagement. In addition, these posts can attract attention to news outlets’ websites. Journalists’ and news outlets’ social media activities are a key driver of traffc to outlets’ websites. With people spending more time on mobile devices and social media platforms, their frst point of contact with news is often on social media. People go directly to websites less and less often, as we frst discussed in Chapter 1. Instead, compelling social media posts are leading people to an outlet’s website for more information. Makes sense, right? How many times have you scrolled through your social media feeds, seen an interesting post, and then clicked on a website link to get more information? This is becoming a common way for people to visit websites, rather than directly opening a web browser and typing the URL. The following SMO techniques can make your posts stand out. Visuals. Including a photo, video, or graphic is an easy way to catch social media users’ attention. Unlike posts that include only text, visuals related to your story fuel engagement by bringing a story to life. Social media platforms allow users to upload a single photo and create galleries. Galleries can be effective if you have a series of compelling images that tell different elements of a story. Researchers are continuously analyzing the content of millions of social media posts to understand what resonates best with followers.1 Tweets that include photos are at least 35 percent more likely to be retweeted, and those with videos are 30 percent more likely retweeted. Facebook posts with an embedded photo got the most likes, comments, shares, and link clicks, according to research from the American Press Institute.2

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Simply uploading photos, a video, or a social media graphic isn’t enough. It’s important to give your audience context about the visuals. In the text of your post, provide information about what you’re showing them. Treat the text as you would a photo caption. Now is a good time to revisit the sections of Chapter 5 that discuss how to produce social media graphics and readable social videos—two types of visuals that can really social media optimize your posts. Mentioning and tagging. Handles, or @mentions, are the basic way people are identifed on social media. Get in the habit of @mentioning sources that are part of your stories. Find their social media usernames early in the reporting process, and then include them in your posts. We’re not just talking about individuals. For example, @mentioning companies, schools, or organizations related to stories that you cover can be highly engaging. They’ll be notifed of the @mention, increasing the odds of further engagement with your post. There’s a tendency for people to share or comment on posts in which they’re @mentioned. You see the ripple effect here. Your post has the potential to reach many more people than just your followers. In addition, using @mentions can help to increase your number of followers. Most social media platforms also allow you to tag locations and account handles. Tagging is a separate feature from @mentioning someone in the text portion of a post. Journalists can make their work more discoverable by geo-location tagging posts. Particularly in breaking news situations, tagging the location—sometimes called “checking in”—can be valuable to people searching for information related to a specifc scene/spot. For example, during protests outside Brooklyn’s Barclay Center against the police killing of George Floyd, Instagram users may decide to do a geo-location search of “Barclay Center” to get a glimpse of what’s taking place. Your posts would more likely turn up in search results if they’re tagged with the location. On many platforms, you also have the ability to tag individual accounts in your posts. This type of tagging enables you to link a picture, video, or other type of status update to another user. It’s similar to including a handle in a post, in that a tagged person will be alerted to it.

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Hashtags. Born on Twitter, hashtags are used to group together posts related to a topic or event. Put the # symbol at the beginning of the word or phrase you want to hashtag. The hashtagged text appears as a hyperlink that users can click to see the larger conversation around that hashtag. They’re quite effective for live events and breaking news. People have become accustomed to searching hashtags in order to keep up with an unfolding story. If you’re covering a developing story, the use of hashtags in your posts can expand the reach of your reporting. It’s a chance to let others, beyond your immediate followers, know you’re providing valuable information. Determine if there’s already a hashtag being used for the story you’re covering. If so, include it in your posts. Don’t go overboard. Avoid using too many hashtags in a single post—that may work on Instagram but not on other platforms. Links. Social media is increasingly becoming the frst place users learn about news, and it’s where they’ll continue to follow developments. While your blasts of details on social media help the audience see a story unfold in realtime, links to information provide them with additional context. Think of content already on your news outlet’s website that you can link to in social media posts. You may be covering an ongoing issue that your colleagues and you have reported on before. That’s a perfect opportunity to share previous reports on the topic while you work on gathering the latest developments. Once your stories are published on your outlet’s website, share those links. Be mindful of how you format these posts. Don’t simply paste into a post the headline text and link. That type of post is not social media optimized. Mix it up. Provide more details than conveyed by just a headline. Include a visual, quote, and other SMO elements to help attract attention. If you use the share button directly on the article page, typically the post will be formatted with the headline, an image, and summary text—referred to as a social media card. Sharing links to your web stories increases the number of people who view them. That’s key for SEO. As noted in the previous chapter, the more that a link is distributed online and clicked, the more priority search engines give to it.  

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Photo 7.1 & 7.2 This tweet and Facebook post are examples of social media content optimized for maximum engagement. Compelling visuals, @mentions, and hashtags are included.

Writing for social media A combination of visuals, @mentions, hashtags, and links can create a powerful social media post—one that is rich in content for the audience. But, it’s critical that quality writing does not get lost in the mix. After all, writing is a fundamental journalistic skill—no matter the platform. SMO techniques must be accompanied by solid writing. The kind of writing that is clear, concise, and accurate. You can make it easier for the audience to locate, understand, and engage with information by writing in a specifc style for social media posts. Critical info frst. Sharing the most important information related to a story should be top priority. This approach is particularly critical during breaking news and developing stories. Don’t bury the lede. The who, what, where, why, and when are often the frst pieces of information your audience needs. These frst several tweets are like an inverted pyramid lede to an article. Do not share details on social media until they’re confrmed, despite what information other journalists are sharing. Accuracy and verifcation trump speed—that urge to be frst. For stories that truly are breaking, the use of “BREAKING” or “DEVELOPING” at the beginning of the tweet is a way of alerting followers that they should stop to catch up on something important.

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You have more fexibility in posts about a narrative/anecdotal story. There’s the opportunity for creativity in the type of writing, and the 5Ws don’t need to be packed into posts. One approach that falls flat—writing posts that tease, or promote, a story without giving real information. “More later on our website” and “Watch the full story tonight at 6” are phrases you’ve likely seen in journalists’ posts. Use these sparingly. This wording can come across as not only generic, but also out of touch. Our job as journalists is to give people the details of news in the spots where they’re currently hanging out. Short bursts, multiple posts. Brevity is key. Short bursts of information on social media are more digestible than longer posts. On some platforms, such as Twitter, you don’t have a choice because of the character limits. “Twitter is a powerful tool for writers … it’s like an electronic editor that forces us to fnd a focus and make every word count. It’s a verbose writer’s friend and worst enemy—a constant reminder that it’s often harder to write short than it is to write long,” said journalist Mallary Jean Tenore (@mallarytenore), associate director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.3 The downside to brevity is that it can be diffcult to communicate the full context of what you’re sharing. Don’t leave unanswered questions for the audience. You can provide this context by sharing multiple posts that give followers the information they need. Threading. The best way to do so on Twitter is by threading your posts. A thread is a collection of tweets. The beneft of threading is that users are able to view all your tweets about a story in one spot. To build a thread, keep replying to your previous tweet. Each time you do so, the tweets will be strung together. Let’s say you’re covering a developing story, publish your frst tweet. Then, when you have more details to share, reply to that tweet. Continue this process throughout your reporting on a single story. Each time you add a post to the thread, the new tweet will show up in your followers’ feeds. From that tweet, users are able to view the entire thread. You’re essentially building a story in realtime. People can see how a single tweet fts into the overall context of a story.

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Threads are an effective way to take the public along on your reporting process. In a thread containing three dozen tweets, BBC Africa unpacked its investigation into a horrifying video that went viral on social media. The video shows soldiers shooting two women and two children. “The structure of the thread, where each fnding of the investigation occupied a single tweet, mirrored the structure of the investigation,” said BBC Africa producer Daniel Adamson (@danielsilas). “A series of individual fndings were linked together into a chain of visual evidence that the audience could follow towards a conclusion.”4 The BBC Africa investigation resulted in an award-winning documentary, “Anatomy of A Killing,” that exposes human rights violations in Cameroon. For a much different type of story, Jennifer Brett (@Jennifer__Brett), reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, created a highly engaging Twitter thread that built a narrative around a single character—a man retiring after nearly 35 years of being a mail carrier. Brett kept adding to the thread as she tagged along with the postal worker on his route. Her Twitter thread contains an impressive mix of visuals and touching moments between the man and residents who live along his route. In the thread, Brett also links to several articles written about the mail carrier.

Photo 7.3 & 7.4 Part of a Twitter thread created by a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Pro tips: write “THREAD” in the frst tweet of the thread. If you end up publishing a web article about what you’re covering, link to it from a new tweet that you add to the thread. That’s a nice way to button up your storytelling in the thread.   Start a conversation. Social media writing is more informal than traditional news writing. We’re having a “conversation” with our followers. Asking a question, including a short quote from a source you just interviewed, and writing in active and descriptive language can help foster interactions. In addition, giving followers a behind-the-scenes look at your reporting process is a unique way to engage them. Show them what it takes to get a story—the process of journalism. Coming across as a “real” person builds a relationship with the audience, making them more likely to engage with your work. Show some personality when appropriate. Creating your own distinctive writing voice on social media can be an effective way to connect with followers. The American Press Institute’s analysis of news outlets’ Facebook posts found that posts using a casual voice received more likes on average.    Don’t overhype. Clarity works better than being clever or obscure in posts, wrote Michael Roston (@michaelroston), senior staff editor at The New York Times, in an article for Nieman Lab.5 Consider the elements of writing an article headline and apply those to social media posts. Making a story out to be something it isn’t or overhyping a story is inappropriate. The style and tone of your writing should accurately capture the essence of the news you’re covering. Take the same approach when you share articles. In a post, the text that accompanies the article link should refect what the story is about. Associated Press style. Adhere to correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This conveys a level of professionalism and credibility. Given the need to write tight on social media, it’s acceptable to abbreviate some words in posts. The general rule of thumb is to follow the abbreviation guidelines in The Associated Press Stylebook. Breaking AP style recommendations may come down to your own personal style and that of your newsroom. By the way, AP (@APStylebook) holds regular Twitter chats about its style guidelines. To take part in the conversation, search for #APStyleChat on Twitter.  

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Photo 7.5, 7.6 & 7.7 Giving people a behind-the-scenes look at your work is a great waytobuildaudienceengagementanddemystifywhoweareasjournalists.

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Photo 7.8 & 7.9 Mix it up: Don’t be afraid to use emojis when appropriate and experiment with the formatting of posts.

OPTIMIZE THIS! This drill is similar to the writing tests that many newsrooms give to candidates during the hiring process. It’s one way of evaluating their skill set related to delivering news on social media. Using the SMO and writing techniques outlined above, draft at least three tweets for the scenarios in the previous chapter’s Checklist. When crafting the posts, take into consideration each type of story—one scenario is breaking news and the other is a feature. You can pretend as though you have gathered video and photos for each story. Discuss your approach with classmates. More info on optimizing. On his website, Jeremy Littau, a journalism professor at Lehigh University, describes different forms Twitter optimization can take: breaking news, developing news, standard news, commentary/analysis, factoid, questions, quotes, pictures, and clickbait. To learn more about these types of tweets, visit bit.ly/OptimizingTweets, where you’ll also find a class exercise created by Littau.

Live coverage: Reporting in realtime One way to cover an unfolding story in realtime is to use a combination of live tweeting, live blogging, and live streaming. Reporting in this manner

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keeps the audience engaged and informed during breaking news and other types of ongoing news events. Any kind of live coverage requires planning and coordination. If you’re working with a team of colleagues to report in realtime, everyone needs to be clear on what’s expected of them. And do your homework. Before heading to the story, gather background information. For instance, create a list of Twitter handles of people likely to be involved. In addition, prepare a graphic that can be used in social media posts promoting the live coverage across platforms. Live tweeting. Posting a series of tweets about an event or news as it unfolds is often referred to as live tweeting. Your frst post should be an introductory tweet that gives followers a heads-up. Let them know they’ll see a series of posts from you and tell them why. Include a hashtag related to the news event, so your coverage becomes part of the larger conversation. Tweeting as events unfold creates a narrative to keep followers up to speed. This is the perfect opportunity to use Twitter’s threading function. Answer key questions for the audience. Keep the 5Ws (and that H) in mind. When live tweeting breaking news, it’s imperative that journalists don’t leave the audience hanging. For example, if you were to write that there’s an active shooter on a campus, people expect that you’ll then follow up ASAP with what you know and don’t know. As a student journalist, one of the simplest ways to build your realtime tweeting skills is to pick a news conference that is streamed online and live tweet it. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had my students live tweet several news conferences of their choice. This drill allowed them to get a taste of how journalists were covering the pandemic. I turned to social media to ask journalists what they thought about this assignment and others I had created for socially distant reporting. The general response was that live tweeting is a very important skill, pandemic or not. Live blogging. Live blogging is a series of frequent posts on a single web page dedicated to an ongoing news event. A live blog page serves as a running log of what’s happening. The page contains posts with short bursts of information, ranging from a few lines to no more than 200 words in most cases. The posts are in reverse chronological order, with the latest one showing at the top. Each post has a time stamp. A live blog is set up as a single page on a website. The page has a main headline. Just below that, it typically includes a graphic/image and short blurb that describes what the live blog is about. Think of these elements as the page header under which are written the live blog entries.

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In social media posts, promote and link back to the live blog. When live blogging coverage is complete, write a wrap-up entry on the blog page. This entry could be a summary blurb that links to a fnal story on your news outlet’s website. Live blogging was frst used by technology journalists to cover Apple cofounder Steve Jobs’s keynote addresses at the MacWord conventions. Today, journalists live blog to report on a range of developing stories, including elections, breaking news, trials, and sporting events. Anything developing over the course of time, makes for a good live blog. After George Floyd’s death at the hands of police offcers, San Diego’s public broadcasting station KPBS launched a live blog that served as a central spot for the outlet’s coverage of demonstrations against police brutality and racism. A team of KPBS journalists posted short bursts of text that included photos, videos, tweets, and links to articles. For student journalists, one way to experiment with live blogging is by selecting a campus event and creating a page on their own website to live blog about it. Another option is to launch a live blog to which an entire class contributes. Though this latter approach takes more coordination, it truly simulates what it’s like covering a story as a news team. Each year, Educational Technology Day, held at the college where I teach, attracts educators from all over the northeast. As a learning drill, my students live blog the event for Ithaca Week, a hyperlocal news site we manage (view the live blog at ithacaweek-ic.com/edtechday). They’re assigned shifts throughout the day, during which time they post to the live blog several times. They’re also expected to live tweet from the event. We’ve coordinated the same type of coverage for elections. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had students essentially build their own news “channel” using a combination of live blogging and live tweeting. They maintained live blogs on their personal websites. I asked them to post a minimum of three updates each week. One post had to be original reporting, with most interviews conducted via Zoom. The others consisted of content they aggregated and curated. Live streaming. Streaming video can bring people to the scene in ways other social media posts can’t. Facebook Live, in particular, has taken off in popularity among news outlets and the audience. In-the-moment live videos are captivating. There should be a reason why you’re live streaming though. Don’t simply use technology for technology’s sake. Tell people what they’re looking

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at, and provide a recap periodically, as new people will continue to join the stream. Use your ethical judgment when deciding what to stream. In dangerous or unfolding situations, be mindful that you could broadcast a worst possible scenario. You also have to think about workfow. If you’re the only reporter from your outlet at the scene, you might need to forego streaming live in order to snap photos and record video of what’s happening. Chapter 5 discusses in more detail guidelines for live streaming. 

Photo 7.10 This is the top portion of a live blog from the Chicago Sun-Times. If you were to continue scrolling, you’d see additional blurbs of content with a time stamp.

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LIVE STORYTELLING ACROSS MOBILE AND SOCIAL MEDIA I attempt in my courses to replicate the feeling of working in a newsroom. Such an approach is particularly important in my Mobile and Social Media Journalism course, given that the majority of students are seniors about to hit the job market. At this point, they should be ready to report in a newsroom and I should be giving them the foundations to do “real” reporting. That’s where this reporting assignment comes into play. Objective: Cover it live Cover one news event in realtime across multiple platforms with an entire class. Students create content tailored to each platform and file it ASAP. This is also a great drill to get them in the habit of finding a story when they arrive at the scene. The element of surprise! I can’t stress enough the importance of creating a public platform on which students can publish their work. This makes the process “real” and allows them to add to their portfolio of work. What we choose I select at least one local news event each semester that can be covered by a team of reporters. Sometimes we luck out with big stories—such as elections. Other times, I choose smaller events that still give students the experience of reporting under deadline pressure for multiple platforms. Here’s a breakdown of our robust midterm elections coverage: • • • • • •

•

Graphic created to promote/brand our coverage. Preview stories, including a voter guide, posted to the Ithaca Week website and then shared to social media. On Election Day, our team of 20 reporters visited polling places throughout Tompkins County, New York. Meantime, a team of editors managed our coverage from back in the newsroom. During the day, students published short multimedia stories to a live blog, ithacaweek-ic.com/election-day-2018. The reporters also provided coverage across Ithaca Week’s Facebook (with a focus on FB Lives with poll workers and voters), Twitter, and Instagram. A website story and readable social media video wrapped up our coverage.

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Google Doc to organize coverage A Google doc was our centralized spot to coordinate coverage. Each student selected either a reporting or editing shift. All contact info was located in this document and reporters noted which polling stations they planned to visit. In this document, I included details about the assignment. Our focus was on the people at the polling stations—the human stories of “democracy in action.” What’s expected of students? Each reporter contributed two multimedia entries to the Ithaca Week live blog (about 200 words with visuals). They also live tweeted from their own accounts. Additionally, I had reporters rotate doing FB Lives and Instagram takeovers from the Ithaca Week branded accounts. The editors monitored all of our coverage on the Ithaca Week platforms. They copyedited the live blog, retweeted content that our reporters posted from their own accounts, and used reporters’ content to create new posts from the Ithaca Week accounts. This included social media graphics and readable social videos. Debrief and discuss analytics What worked? What didn’t? Take some time to reflect on the assignment. Discuss the reporting process and conduct an in-class critique of the content produced for each platform. During this debrief, the social media editors should lead a discussion about the analytics for each platform. At this point in the semester, I’ve already introduced students to the basics of website, Twitter, and Facebook analytics. What type of content received the most engagement on social? Students are often surprised at how much engagement FB Live videos receive. From where did the traffic to the live blog come? How many views came from social media referrals, a link that a user clicked, versus a direct visit to the website. Your turn Pick one event being held on campus, and use a combination of live tweeting, live streaming, and live blogging to report about it. To ease

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Photo 7.11 The live blog page for election coverage. into the process of reporting in realtime, choose one or two of these approaches instead of trying to take on all three.

Beyond the “f inal” stor y: Continuing the conversation You’ve worked all day on a story, sharing information on social media and then publishing a multimedia package online. Don’t consider this the fnal draft of the story.

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This may only be the beginning. Social media allows journalists to get instant feedback. The audience is active, interacting with stories in new ways. It’s common for the audience to turn to social media platforms to share their thoughts about stories. These conversations might be reactions to your story, or they could be general comments about the topic at the center of your report. Journalists need to monitor these conversations. The feedback may serve as a source for follow-up coverage. Perhaps it will provide a different angle to your initial story. The fact that a story or issue generates signifcant social media reaction could be reason alone for follow-up coverage. Journalists are often alerted to feedback because they’re @mentioned or someone replies directly to one of their posts. Other times, they have to do a bit more digging to fnd conversations taking place. Using a social media dashboard, such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite, you can create a search stream for your article headline, or related keywords, to see who is sharing the story and monitor the chatter. CrowdTangle Link Checker, a Chrome browser extension, is also a helpful social listening tool. It allows you to track how often a link to a story is shared, who shared it, and what they’re saying about the content. Make sure you’re not just reading the feedback, but also responding when appropriate. Scott Kleinberg (@scottkleinberg), former social media editor at the Chicago Tribune, said not responding is “the digital equivalent of someone ignoring you—someone standing in front of you and not answering you when you talk.”6 Kleinberg adds, “You wouldn’t like that in real life, and you wouldn’t like that in social media.” Journalists must set aside time in their workdays to maintain these conversations. It’s a two-way dialogue that can strengthen the connection with readers and viewers. Journalists who interact with their followers are viewed as more credible and rated more positively than journalists who use Twitter solely to disseminate news and information, according to a study conducted by journalism professors Mi Rosie Jahng (@dr_rjahng) and Jeremy Littau (@JeremyLittau).7 Certainly not all comments are going to be positive. In your reporting career, you’ll encounter a healthy dose of criticism. Sometimes it’s constructive. Other times, it’s of no value.

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How, and if, you respond to criticism on social media will likely depend on the language and tone of the comments. The late Steve Buttry, a social media journalism expert who conducted training in newsrooms across the country, encouraged responding to criticism. “Some of them may think you’re not listening, and you change their view by answering respectfully,” Buttry wrote on his website, The Buttry Diary.8 However, he said, if a respectful response encourages a troll or turns hostile, don’t engage long.

CHECKLIST This is the first of two checklists in this chapter. You’ll have to complete the tasks in this one before you can be effective in using the second checklist, which focuses on analytics. ✓

Social media activity: Sharing as you report. You’re now ready to share information with your audience as you report from the field. You should have a social media game plan for every story before heading out the door. Digital-first story pitches, outlined in Chapter 5, combined with the tips in this chapter will help you brainstorm what to share during your reporting on a particular story. Creating your own checklist gives you an organized approach to using social media while reporting. Remember, posts should be social media optimized. For example, they’ll include @mentions, hashtags, and visuals—items that lead to increased engagement. Repetition and experimentation are key. After repeatedly testing out different approaches, sharing as you report will become second nature. You’ll also learn what works and what doesn’t. Here’s a sample checklist of items to complete for your next story. ¾

At least four tweets. Give your audience meaningful information. Ideas we’ve discussed: Use quotes from sources, ask a question about the story, provide a behind-the-scenes look at your reporting. Don’t simply write “here’s a tease of my story” or “article coming soon.” This is newsroom jargon and doesn’t engage audiences.

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Several posts to your professional Facebook page. Facebook and Twitter require different approaches to the number of

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times you post. The general rule is that Twitter is intended for quick, more frequent bursts of information. Fewer posts are more effective on Facebook.

✓

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Instagram. Create an Instagram Story or a “swipeable” slideshow that contains several of the most compelling photos from the story.

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Visuals. In your tweets and Facebook posts, include not only photos, but also a social media graphic and readable social video. ∘

Photos. When sharing photos, be certain to provide details about what’s shown in them.

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Social media graphic. Using Adobe Spark Post or Canva, produce a social media graphic. Share to Twitter and your professional Facebook page.

∘

Readable social video. Produce a readable text video with the Adobe Spark Video app. Keep this to around 30 seconds. Download the finished video directly to your camera roll, and then share to Twitter and your professional Facebook page.

Multimedia web story. Publish a multimedia story to your class or personal website. Review the Keeping Track of Layout and Writing Basics tips, located in Chapter 6. Each multimedia story should contain: ¾

A 500–600 word article with mobile-friendly layout and writing. Use the Layer-Cake Pattern ingredients discussed in the previous chapter. Those include: short and shareable headlines, short paragraphs, front-loaded information with the use secondary headlines and key points, and bitesized “snackable” page layout with the use of visuals and subheadings.

¾

Several photos taken with a mobile device. Caption all images.

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An embedded video (1–1:30) produced with the iMovie or Adobe Premiere Rush mobile app. This video should complement the written story.

Don’t forget: after publishing the article, share it on social media.

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 7.12 Kelly Ann Scott (@KellyAnnScott) Vice President of Content, Alabama Media Group How do you use analytics in your newsroom? Analytics are used as a roadmap to understand our audience—that’s fundamental. It’s a way to measure audience interest and engagement, and to understand where we need to have conversations with our audience. On social, we are interested in where stories are shared and engagement with those stories. We also look at volume metrics, like the number of views, not from the standpoint of vanity metrics or clickbait, but to determine the extent to which our content is being consumed. I’m also very interested in new audience growth and engagement. For example, if we launch a newsletter I want to know how many among those people signing up have not been in our databases before. In addition, learning more about who they are is critical. Tell us about the different types of audience members. There are three different types of audiences. First, there’s our current audience, and we need to meet their needs. They are the foundation of

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our house. Then, there are the people in the middle who drop in and out. We often interact with them about passion or niche topics. I’m really interested at what type of content and news products, such as podcasts, brings them back to us. I also want to learn how we can engage with them on a more regular basis. The third group consists of new audience members. We want to understand how to find them and what they care about. They’re an interesting group to learn from and with whom to experiment. How can journalists build a meaningful bridge to the audience, and what metrics should they be looking at to measure their success on this front? Reporters need to engage with the audience throughout their reporting process. It’s important to understand that the conversation starts before you begin reporting on a story. Tell them what story you’re covering and ask them what they want to know. The second part of that conversation is updating them on your reporting, telling them who you are talking with and what you’re learning. Identify the story lines that are resonating. It’s an arc that often begins with talking to the audience before you have even zeroed in on a story. You must have a holistic approach to metrics—one that goes beyond just clicks and views. Engagement matters a lot. Analyze the type of reactions, shares, and comments, and be ready to do it all over again the next day. I’m of the belief that modern journalists need to worry about the quality of relationships with the audience. Engagement metrics are the way to measure if you have a quality relationship with audience. It’s something critical that goes beyond just the number of views of social media posts, for example. Social is an extension of who you are, it’s not just a platform. That’s an important philosophical difference. It’s paramount to focus on how to create engagement and deeper meaning with your audience—dialogue journalism.

Is it working? Measuring the success of your mobile and social media activity How do you know if your mobile and social media activity is successful? Is the audience engaging with your content? Analytics help journalists answer

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Photo 7.13 The front of The Democrat & Chronicle newsroom in Rochester, New York is called Mission Control. The monitors show digital metrics that indicate how stories are resonating with readers in realtime. This is a common scene in newsrooms.The analytics are used to determine the direction of digital coverage and what might play well on the front page of the print edition. Photo by Tina MacIntyre-Yee.

these questions. After all, what’s the point of all your journalistic efforts if you’re just talking to thin air?  Analytics have long played a role in newsrooms. News outlets have constantly monitored the number of people who are interacting with their news products and how they’re interacting with the content. The more we know about our audience, the better we can serve them. Analytics allow journalists to understand: • • • •

What the audience cares about If we’re reaching our intended audience How the audience is fnding our content What the audience does once it sees our content

“Having a better understanding of data really helps you be a better storyteller as a journalist more than anything else,” said Michael Roston (@michaelroston), of The New York Times. “It used to be that reporters were

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focused on satisfying editors, but I think a lot of reporters these days should be thinking more about how they’re going to connect with an audience, and if you have a better idea of what does and doesn’t work with that audience, ultimately you’re going to do a better job of telling them stories.”9 Traditionally, TV newsrooms have used Nielsen ratings to measure the success of newscasts. TV newsrooms pay close attention to not only the number of people watching specifc newscasts, but also the demographic of those viewers and how that compares to the competition. Print outlets have traditionally tracked key data such as circulation (the number of copies circulated to the public) and readership (the number of readers). TV news ratings as well as newspaper circulation and readership remain important metrics in newsrooms today. But they’re now just one piece of a much larger puzzle. As people consume news differently, it’s no surprise that journalists are rethinking measurement. Website analytics provide additional insights. News outlets track website metrics, such as the number of people who visit the website, the mostviewed stories, and how long they stay on article pages. With the emergence of social media, measurement has become more complex. Audiences are active on new platforms. This requires journalists to use different ways of finding out if the time they spend sharing information and engaging social media users is actually paying off. We’ll discuss where you can fnd analytics and how to make sense of the numbers. First, let’s talk about the role of social media and web analytics in newsrooms. How newsrooms use social media and web analytics We’ve already established that the path many people take to get their news is quite different from ten or even fve years ago. Social media is increasingly their frst point of contact with news. From there, links in social media posts lead many news consumers to a news outlet’s website. And they’re likely using a mobile device at this time. You can see then that social media and website analytics go hand in hand. This relationship between social media activity and website traffc is closely monitored in newsrooms. Journalists’ activity on social media feeds

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a signifcant amount of traffc to news outlets’ content. In fact, Facebook drives about a third of traffc to news sites.10 Cory Haik (@coryhaik) saw this trend frsthand when she served as executive director of emerging news products at The Washington Post. “People won’t type in WashingtonPost.com anymore,” said Haik.11 Opening a web browser and entering a URL to a news website is becoming a thing of the past. Recognizing that you can no longer expect people to come directly to you, The Post developed a mobile and social media strategy early on, one that included SMO. The efforts paid off, resulting in a doubling of traffc to The Post’s website.12 Remember the approach: Catch users’ attention with compelling social media posts, and they’ll be more inclined to fnd out more on the website. And once they get to your website, the content needs to be easily viewed on a mobile device. By tracking the referrals, or how users get to a website, news outlets are able to determine how much traffc can be attributed to the social media activity of journalists’ and the outlets’ accounts. In addition to website analytics, there are social media analytics that help journalists gain insight into how users are engaging with specifc social media posts. The analytics checklist in this chapter outlines how to view website and social media analytics. Analytics data is used in three main ways: to ensure a positive user experience, make editorial decisions, and evaluate employees. User experience. Website analytics allow newsrooms to determine the types of devices readers are using while visiting their websites. We know people nowadays are increasingly viewing websites using a mobile device. This information is important, because it shows that newsrooms need to test how their content looks on multiple devices, such as desktop computers and mobile devices. Always preview stories—not just the text, but also photos and videos—to see how they look on mobile devices. As an analytics manager for The New York Times, Kathy Zhang (@kathyvsinternet) monitors metrics to help the outlet better serve readers. “Seeing our online readership shift from a predominantly desktop audience to a much larger smartphone audience underscored the need for our product and technology teams to prioritize mobile-frst story forms,” said Zhang.13 She notes that load time of a page is also important. “Looking at page speed allows us to prioritize making our pages load faster so people don’t need to wait to read our stories.”

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Editorial decisions. Analytics also help guide editorial decisions. The majority of newsrooms use analytics to make decisions about which stories to cover, where stories are placed on their websites, and how the stories are presented.14 It’s not uncommon for story selection to be based on how well content is performing. If a story or topic generates interest or buzz—a spike in traffc and engagement—journalists may be more likely to be assigned to it. Meantime, stories that perform well on a website could be an indication that the audience would be interested in follow-up coverage on the topic. The same approach holds true for TV newscasts. A survey of local TV newsrooms found that popular, or trending, topics on social media factor into which stories are covered in newscasts.15 However, news is about giving people what they need to know, not necessarily what they want to know. So, relying too heavily on trending social media content may mean other, more important, stories are lost in the mix. Social media analytics also shed light on what followers are most engaged with in social media feeds. Posts that are most interacted with can help journalists understand what works and what doesn’t on social media platforms. If a post didn’t receive much engagement, you might ask yourself what it is about that post that left the audience uninterested. Employee evaluations. This last point makes many journalists cringe. Imagine having your reporting skills based on how many views your story gets or how many social media followers you have. An increasing number of newsrooms are using analytics to evaluate their newsroom staff members. News managers’ use of website and social media metrics as part of the performance evaluation of their journalists is becoming commonplace.16 At some news outlets, the compensation of journalists is tied to the number of stories they write and/or the amount of clicks their stories generate. This refects the increasing impact of the use of analytics in their news work. Pitfalls of analytics It’s no surprise that the use of web and social media analytics has caused debate within the journalism industry. Relying solely on analytics to shape newsroom decisions has its pitfalls.

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Take, for example, newsrooms that evaluate journalists based on web metrics. In an effort to get the most clicks, journalists may feel pressure to turn out stories that are more entertainment driven or trivial rather than of sound news value. Journalists should question whether those stories are really worth pursuing. Are you chasing the story simply because it will drive traffc to the website? Does the story provide meaningful and relevant information to your community? An emphasis on the number of clicks and page views can also lead to the use of clickbait. Clickbait is a story headline or social media post that is sensational or misleading, and is used in an effort to entice people to click on a link. Clickbait posts can be deceptive by including suspenseful language and leaving out key information. Clickbait undermines your credibility and that of the journalism profession. It leaves the audience frustrated after clicking on a story that didn’t live up to the hype. “I try to be really careful about not posting something that I can’t deliver,” said Irene McKisson (@irenemckisson), of the Arizona Daily Star. “You lose trust that way really fast.”17 Evaluating journalists based on the number of stories they produce or clicks those stories generate can be problematic in other ways as well. Churning out story after story may not leave time for enterprise and investigative reporting—types of stories that can take months or more to research and write. Journalist David Carr explored this topic in his New York Times column, “Risks Abound as Reporters Play in Traffc.”18 Carr discusses how news outlets are playing the analytics game. Newhouse Advance Publications, which operates about a dozen local news websites and newspapers, started requiring reporters at The Oregonian to post new articles at least three times a day. As Carr notes, it was part of a digital-frst initiative to increase page views by nearly 30 percent in one year. Another pitfall of the use of analytics is relying too heavily on quantitative data to determine the success of a journalist’s work. Not everything can be counted. For example, monitoring the tone of comments on stories and social media posts is a different way to learn about which stories are resonating with the public.

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And one of the most important ways to measure success in journalism is by the positive impact it has in society. Did your newsroom’s reporting get a corrupt offcial fred? Lead to new legislation? Put a crook in jail? These are questions that can’t simply be answered by watching the numbers. Analytics tools Now that you have an understanding of how newsrooms use analytics, it’s time to familiarize yourself with the tools of the trade. There are a variety of analytics platforms that gauge audience activity on websites and social media. Many analytics dashboards are free and share common features like those described below. Some newsrooms, such as NPR, have built their own analytics dashboards designed for staffers to learn more about how people are connecting with their work online. Where do you fnd useful data? Facebook Insights Facebook offers detailed analytics for professional pages. Facebook Insights analytics are not available for personal accounts, making it all the more important to create a professional Facebook page on which you share content. (See Chapter 3 for information about setting up a professional page.) The Overview tab gives you the most important data about your page, including new page likes, post reach, and engagement for the time period you choose. From the Overview page, you can dig deeper into the data. For example, select a date range to see if you had more engagement one week versus another, or check to see which posts are receiving the most engagement. Here’s a breakdown of key data on Facebook Insights. •

Likes. The Likes section is straightforward. It shows the page’s fan growth, the number of people who have liked it. Use the date selector to view the number of likes during the last week, month, or other time

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period. As you hover over the graph, you can view the number of likes you had on a particular date. Reach. Total Reach indicates the total number of people who have seen any content associated with the page. Post Reach indicates the number of people who have seen a specifc post. There’s an important distinction to be made between reach and engagement. Engagement indicates how many users stopped to interact with a post. How do you know if they’re actually interacting with your content, instead of just viewing and scrolling on? The Reactions portion of this dashboard helps you determine the number of people who liked, shared, or commented on your posts. Posts. The Posts section also provides data that will help you determine which posts are performing the best. Toggle over to Post Types to fnd out the kind of posts that receive the most engagement. For example, those that include photos or videos versus only text. This portion of Insights sheds light on the type of content that is most appealing to your followers. On this page, you can view how individual posts are performing. For posts that receive more reach and engagement than others, ask yourself: what is it about these posts that makes them more “attractive”? Were they social media optimized better than the others? The Posts section also provides information about when those who like your page are on Facebook. Hover over each day of the week to see when they are most active on Facebook. This data can help you decide the optimal times to post to your Facebook page. Page views. This section of Insights gives you the total number of times your Facebook page was viewed during the time period you select. You’re able to learn which areas of your page people visit the most, such as the main timeline, about section, and photos tab. Additionally, view data here about external referrers, the number of visitors who came to your page from a website other than Facebook and which sites they came from. For instance, someone may click on a link to your Facebook page that was posted elsewhere, such as in a tweet. Video. Facebook Insights includes analytics for both live and prerecorded videos. Among the key metrics for videos are total number of video views, engagement, and retention rate. Look at the retention curve

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to understand where in the video viewers are dropping out. It gives you an idea of how long people stick around to watch the entire video. People. Finally, you’ll fnd a demographic breakdown of the people who like your page. You can dig deeper to determine if you’re reaching your target audience. Toggle over to People Reached and People Engaged for detailed data on those who are viewing and engaging with your content. 

Photo 7.14 Facebook Insights Overview page.

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ANALYTICS TUTORIALS For video tutorials of each of the analytics platforms described in this chapter, visit the book’s website: MobileandSocialMediaJournalism.com.

Twitter Analytics All Twitter users can access the analytics dashboard directly from their profle page or by visiting analytics.twitter.com. The Home section of the Twitter Analytics dashboard provides a summary view. You can quickly view your highlights for each month. The monthly summary reports include a breakdown of top tweets, how much you tweeted, the number of new followers (and the number of people who unfollowed you!), the number of people who saw your tweets, and the number of people who viewed your profle. Click the Tweets tab for a more detailed look at the data. You can select any date range. Here are the key Twitter metrics with which you should be familiar: •

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Impressions. Impressions are the number of times users saw your tweets. At the top of the Tweets section, there is a graph that gives a day-by-day breakdown of impressions. You will see spikes in the graph that indicate days with the most impressions. Beneath the graph, you can view the number of impressions specifc tweets received. Ask yourself why certain tweets received more views than others. The topic and style of tweets as well as time of day could have an impact. Top tweets. Top tweets are ranked by the number of impressions they receive. The Home section of Twitter Analytics lists the top tweet for each month. In the Tweets section, you can view a list of top tweets for the time period you choose. Engagements. The engagement data indicates whether Twitter users interacted with your tweets. The easiest way to locate this information is by visiting the Tweet section of Twitter Analytics. For each tweet you can see the total number of engagements. Click on the tweet you’re interested in, and it will expand to show more detail. Here, engagement is broken down even further, into retweets, replies, follows, likes, and clicks anywhere on the post (including links and hashtags).

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Photo 7.15 Twitter Analytics Overview page.

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Engagement rate. This is one portion you’ll want to pay close attention to—I consider it the most important of all the Twitter metrics. Engagement Rate indicates the percentage of people who interacted with a tweet out of everyone who saw it. Your content caught their attention, prompting them to not just scroll past it. You’re doing something right with tweets that have a higher engagement rate than others.  Website Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the more popular no-cost tools to track website activity. WordPress also has an analytics dashboard for websites built on that platform. If you have a Wix website, however, you must install the Visitor Analytics app in order to access analytics. Below are the common website analytics that newsrooms monitor daily. Analytics dashboards allow you to drill down the following metrics by specifc time periods. First, a note for student journalists. As outlined in Chapter 3, I recommend you build your own professional website using WordPress or Wix. The website can act as a central location for stories you produce while in

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college. From there, you can share to social media. This approach allows you to practice viewing and analyzing your own website analytics. Unique visitors. Unique visitors are the number of visitors who accessed pages on the website within the time frame you’re examining. This doesn’t count people who visit multiple times from the same device. If a page was viewed 100 times by 50 different visitors, the 50 people represent the number of unique visitors. But if the same person visits the website from two different devices, such as a laptop and a mobile device, that would count as two unique visits. Page views. Page views are the number of times a page was accessed. This includes multiple visits by the same person. It’s one of the most commonly used metrics, because it gives an indication of which stories or pages on a news website are viewed the most—and least. Sometimes this information is listed as Top Posts or Top Pages. Session duration. Session duration, also known as “time on site,” is the average amount of time visitors spent on the website. Analytics tools can also calculate the session duration for a particular page. Most visitors to news websites spend one to two minutes before clicking off the site. Pages with short session durations should be reviewed, because it could mean the content, story layout, or site design are not resonating with viewers. Even a slight change to a headline or placement of a more compelling visual at the beginning of a story can make a difference. Bounce rate. Related to session duration is bounce rate, the percentage of visitors who leave a site after visiting just one page. These are single-page visitors. Generally, the lower the bounce rate, the better. A high bounce rate, however, doesn’t necessarily mean visitors were unsatisfed with what they saw. Visitors might leave the site after viewing only one page because they found the information they were looking for. Source. How did a visitor end up on your website? Source data, also called referrals or referrers, provides this information. Direct traffc refers to visitors who arrived by typing in your site’s URL. But, as we’ve discussed, increasingly social media is a key driver of traffc. That’s where this metric really becomes handy. Most website analytics tools monitor which social media platforms are driving traffc to your site. They show how many visitors ended up on your site by clicking a link in a social media post. Sites other than social media that refer visitors to your website are also listed. Source information is a valuable tool in determining if there’s a correlation between your activity on social media and the number of people visiting

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your website. (Test this out for yourself by using the analytics checklist at the end of this chapter.) The source section also shows the number of people who came to your site via an online search. This normally means your website ranked high in the search results for the keywords they typed. Technology. The more advanced website analytics tools provide data on the number of people viewing a site while using a desktop, mobile

Photo 7.16 & 7.17 Each website analytics dashboard will look different. This one shows a host of information about visitors, the devices they’re using, and what they’re clicking. Note that Facebook is the top referral to this site.

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phone, and tablet. Some platforms even give a breakdown of the brands of devices visitors used, such as an iPhone or an Android phone. Monitoring the types of devices people are using while viewing your site is critical. The data helps a newsroom ensure a positive experience for website visitors. Newsrooms can test how their website functions on each type of device and catch potential viewing problems that may cause a visitor to click off the site.   Report, share, experiment, measure, adjust You’ve analyzed the numbers. Now what? This isn’t the end of the story. The process of producing compelling journalism and engaging with audiences on various platforms is a never-ending cycle. For any story in a given day, the cycle might go something like this: Report on a story, share information along the way, experiment with new ways of sharing content on social media, measure whether it worked, and adjust accordingly. The rulebook on social media is not set in stone, so testing out new approaches to posting is critical. “The ‘go big or go home’ mentality works a lot better than ‘what if I screw it up,’” said Erica Smith (@ericasmith), managing editor for digital at the Times Union in Albany, New York.19 Newsroom editorial meetings typically include a discussion about how well the outlet’s website and social media content is performing. Armed with analytics data, news outlets and journalists can adjust their techniques in areas where they believe the numbers aren’t as good as they should be. Use the data to inform, not dictate, editorial decisions. Make checking metrics part of your daily routine. Start with small steps. Set aside time in the morning and evening to look at the numbers. For web articles that are underperforming, ask yourself what could be edited on the page to draw more people and keep their attention. Revising headlines, including more images to break up text, or moving a video higher on the page could do the trick. Posting content to social media at different times of the day and testing out different types of visuals and styles of writing are common ways newsrooms try to determine what sticks most with social media audiences. Some newsrooms perform A/B testing. A/B testing is the sharing of two different social media posts for the same story and measuring the results. In other words, you compare data for the frst post (A) with data for the second one (B) to see which performs better.

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There are real people behind the numbers. Therefore, when triaging your approach based on the analytics, also consider people’s behaviors. Take into account when your audience members are on each platform and their cognitive load during different time periods. Research shows that people tend to crave lighter stories later in the day and on weekends, when they’re unwinding from work and family demands.20 The goals of a news organization will determine which data is most important and how a strategy is fne-tuned. Analyzing data is a way of helping achieve goals. For example, The New York Times’ and The Dallas Morning News’ goal of driving repeat visitors (building loyalty!) to their websites is much different than that of some other outlets which care about as many shares as possible.21

CHECKLIST ✓

Making sense of the data. These terms and all the numbers may seem overwhelming at first. How do you make sense of it all? The following checklist will help you focus on analyzing the most important metrics. It’s easier than you may think. You simply need to know where to look, what numbers to look at, and some key questions to ask. It’s best to use this checklist during the course of a semester in which you’re posting content on your professional website and are also active on social media. I recommend you first complete the items—social media posts and website articles—from the earlier checklist in this chapter. Then, the following analytics checklist will allow you gauge the performance of that content. During each week, for at least six weeks, keep a diary answering the questions below. At the end of this period, write a one-page memo that summarizes what you learned from keeping track of your analytics. Students typically notice that when their social media activity is consistent and social media optimization tactics are used, they receive the most traffic to the stories posted on their websites— and that traffic typically comes from social media, not direct visits. Just as new outlets are learning, social media activity is a key driver to websites and the overall brand. ¾

Facebook Insights ○

Which posts received the most engagement (likes, shares, clicks, and comments)?

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What’s unique about those posts versus others? For example, did they include images and @mentions that could have led to increased engagement?

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How many people “liked” your page? How has this changed over time?

Twitter Analytics ○

Which tweets have the highest engagement rates (retweets, likes, replies, and clicks)?

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What’s unique about those tweets versus others? For example, did they include images and @mentions that could have led to increased engagement?

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How many total followers? How has this changed over time?

Website Analytics ○

Notice any days with a spike in traffic? What may have contributed to the increase in views? Is there any relationship between your social media activity those days and the spike in traffic?

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What are your top visited posts? Anything unique about those posts that made them the most visited?

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Where is your website traffic coming from? How many visitors from each referrer or source? Pay close attention to the number of visitors from social media.

Notes 1 Simon Rogers, “What Fuels a Tweet’s Engagement,” Twitter, March 10, 2014. https://blog.twitter.com/2014/what-fuels-a-tweets-engagement. 2 Katie Yaeger, “Finding a Voice on Social Media: Insights for Local Newsrooms,” American Press Institute, December 16, 2016. http://www. americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/strategy-studies/socialmedia-voice. 3 Mallory Jean Tenore, “What Twitter Teaches Us about Writing Short & Well,” Poynter, August 30, 2012. http://www.poynter.org/2012/what-twitterteaches-us-about-writing-short-well/186371/.

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4 Francesco Zaffarano, “Anatomy of a Twitter Thread: Is Long-Form Tweeting Great for Journalism?” Interhacktives, November 7, 2018. http://www.interhacktives.com/2018/11/07/twitter-thread-journalism/. 5 Michael Roston, “If a Tweet Worked Once, Send It Again—and Other Lessons from The New York Times’ Social Media Desk,” Nieman Lab, January 6, 2014. http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/01/if-a-tweet-workedonce-send-it-again-and-other-lessons-from-the-new-york-times-socialmedia-desk/. 6 Sue Burzynski Bullard, “Best Practices for Social Media and Journalism,” American Copy Editors Association, July 8, 2014. http://www.copydesk.org/ blog/2014/07/08/best-practices-for-social-media-and-journalism/. 7 Natalie Jomini Stroud, “Interaction on Twitter Enhances Journalists’ Credibility,” American Press Institute, December 4, 2015. https://www.ame ricanpressinstitute.org/publications/research-review/twitter-credibility/. 8 Steve Buttry, “10 Ways Twitter is Valuable to Journalists,” The Buttry Diary, August 27, 2012. https://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/10-waystwitter-is-valuable-to-journalists/. 9 Rachel Bartlett, “How Newsrooms Can Use Social Analytics to Guide Editorial Strategy,” Journalism.co.uk, June 19, 2013. https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-newsrooms-can-use-social-analytics-to-guide-editorial-strategy/s2/a553295. 10 Parse.ly, “2018 Traffic Sources by Content Categories and Topics: Referral Trend Benchmarks for Facebook, Google, and Others for 23 Categories,” April/May 2018. https://learn.parsely.com/rs/314-EBB-255/images/authority-report-15.pdf. JP Mangalindan, “Why Facebook Now Sends More Traffic to News Websites than Google,” Mashable, August 19, 2015. http://mashable.com/ 2015/08/19/facebook-traffic-news-sites-google/#WzLzoRe2GOqr. 11 Ravi Somaiya, “How Facebook is Changing the Way Its Users Consume Journalism,” The New York Times, October 26, 2014. http://www.nytimes .com/2014/10/27/business/media/how-facebook-is-changing-the-way-itsusers-consume-journalism.html?_r=0. 12 Kyle Pope, “Revolution at The Washington Post,” Columbia Journalism Review, Fall/Winter 2016. https://www.cjr.org/q_and_a/washington_post _bezos_amazon_revolution.php. 13 Kathy Zhang, “Metrics Are Everywhere in Media. Here’s How They Help,” The New York Times, May 23, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/ technology/personaltech/metrics-media.html.

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14 Michael Jenner, “Newsrooms Using Web Metrics to Evaluate Staff, Guide Editorial Decisions,” Reynolds Journalism Institute, November 14, 2013. https://www.rjionline.org/stories/newsrooms-using-web-metrics-to-evaluate-staff-guide-editorial-decisions. 15 Anthony C. Adornato, “Forces at the Gate: Social Media’s Influence on Editorial and Production Decisions in Television Newsrooms,” Electronic News 10, no. 2 (June 2016): 87–104. doi:0.1177/1931243116647768. 16 Kelsey Whipple and Jeremy Shermak, “Quality, Quantity and Policy: How Newspaper Journalists Use Digital Metrics to Evaluate Their Performance and Their Papers’ Strategies,” International Symposium on Online Journalism Journal, Spring 2018. https://isoj.org/research/quality-quantityand-policy-how-newspaper-journalists-use-digital-metrics-to-evaluatetheir-performance-and-their-papers-strategies/. Michael Jenner and Edson Tandoc Jr., “Newsrooms Using Web Metrics to Evaluate Staff, Guide Editorial Decisions,” Reynolds Journalism Institute, November 14, 2013. https://www.rjionline.org/stories/newsrooms-usingweb-metrics-to-evaluate-staff-guide-editorial-decisions. 17 Yaeger, “Finding a Voice on Social Media”. 18 David Carr, “Risks Abound as Reporters Play in Traffic,” The New York Times, March 23, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/business/ media/risks-abound-as-reporters-play-in-traffic.html. 19 Katie Yaeger, “Implementing a Voice,” American Press Institute, December 16, 2015. https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/ strategy-studies/implementing-a-voice/. 20 “Looking Forward to 2020, Here are 10 Themes for News,” The New York Times, December 12, 2019. https://open.nytimes.com/looking-forward-to2020-here-are-10-themes-for-news-166d84125172. 21 Betsy O’Donovan and Melody Kramer, “How to Build a Metrics-Savvy Newsroom,” American Press Institute, March 13, 2019. https://www.ame ricanpressinstitute.org/publications/how-to-build-a-metrics-savvy-newsroom/single-page/.

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8 SOCIAL MEDIA ETHICS AND POLICIES

In this chapter, you will

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Consider the common ethical dilemmas journalists are confronted with relative to social media. Discover emerging issues, such as the handling of online harassment and the blurry line between journalists’ professional and personal “social media lives.” Explore how newsroom social media policies address these issues. Learn to apply traditional journalism ethics to guide your social media activities. It’s important to remember the iPhone is just a tool. It helps you gather and transmit the information faster. It doesn’t replace at all the oldschool journalism, the ethics, the context, there’s not an app for that. Now, as quickly as information can be spread with these devices, it’s more difficult than ever to retract bad information. So, reporters using these tools should think twice before hitting send.1 — Neal Augenstein, reporter at WTOP-FM in Washington, D.C.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-8

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New dilemmas Social media challenges, and blunders, are the focus of much discussion in newsrooms, in the media, and on the social media platforms themselves. At times, they’re playing out very publicly. In 2020, Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez), a Washington Post reporter, found herself at the center of controversy after tweeting about basketball star Kobe Bryant. News of Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash prompted an overwhelming response on Twitter. The Twittersphere was flled with journalists’ realtime reporting mixed with the public’s expression of grief. In the midst of this breaking news, Sonmez tweeted the link to a yearsold Daily Beast article about a sexual assault allegation against Bryant. The criminal case was dropped after the accuser decided not to testify. Sonmez’s tweet sparked backlash from both the public and Post management. She was bombarded with thousands of harassing tweets and emails, some of which included death threats. Sonmez was criticized for bringing up the allegation at this point in time. 

Photo 8.1 This tweet from Felicia Sonmez, of The Washington Post, sparked a backlash.

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Meantime, tension over her tweet was brewing in the newsroom. Sonmez was placed on administrative leave while management investigated whether she had violated The Post’s social media policy. A managing editor claimed, “her tweets displayed poor judgement that undermined the work of her colleagues.”2 At the request of Post management, Sonmez deleted the tweets. A few days later, she was allowed to return to work and the outlet released this statement: “After conducting an internal review, we have determined that, while we consider Felicia’s tweets ill-timed, she was not in clear and direct violation of our social media policy.”3 In a memo to staff, Marty Baron, executive editor of The Post, further discussed how the outlet’s journalists must not only get the facts right, but also the tone: “We count on staffers to be attuned to how their social media activity will be perceived, bearing in mind that time, place and manner really matter.”4 Following this controversy, The Post began the process of updating its social media policy, frst created in 2011. This case underscores the emerging issues journalists are facing and the internal strife about social media policies in newsrooms, particularly when they’re unclear or overbroad. The fallout from Sonmez’s tweet also raises questions about what The Post and other newsrooms should do to protect journalists when they’re harassed. Journalists are increasingly becoming the target of online vitriol. Rhonda Lee, a meteorologist, experienced this frsthand when she worked at KTBS-TV in Shreveport, Louisiana. On the station’s Facebook page, a viewer made a disparaging comment that referenced Lee as “a black lady” who “needs to wear a wig or grow some more hair.”5 Though Lee tactfully replied to the comment, station management criticized her for responding at all. Lee was fred. The station’s news director said that Lee repeatedly violated newsroom guidelines for responding to comments on social media. Dating back to 2012, this was one of the frst cases to draw widespread debate about how to respond to hateful remarks and how newsroom social media policies should address emerging issues in an equitable manner. The use of social media by journalists raises a host of ethical and professional dilemmas addressed in this chapter: • •

The blurry line between professional and private social media lives Contacting sources via social media

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Interacting with the audience Verifcation of user-generated content Copyright and proper attribution of user-generated content Correction guidelines: handling inaccurate or false information reported on social media News outlets’ “ownership” of their journalists’ social media accounts

Charting an ethical course: Applying journalism ethics to social media “No matter if your tablet is made of stone or glass, it is the words that matter. Are they right? Are they fair? Are they honest? Are they true?”6 — Scott Pelley, CBS News

As journalists and newsroom managers navigate these new ethical dilemmas, what is acceptable social media behavior can sometimes seem ambiguous. That’s where journalism ethics play a critical role in guiding decisions. The foundation of journalism rests on key ethical principles that include truth, verifcation, fair and accurate coverage, and avoiding conficts of interest. Applying these principles to social media informs what is and what is not appropriate conduct for journalists. Ethical decision-making should occur at every step of the journalistic process—newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement. In abiding by ethical principles, journalists best serve the audience and uphold the integrity of the profession. Straying from this course can erode trust with the public and undermine the credibility of the profession. Professional journalism organizations have established ethics guidelines that have long been the basis for newsrooms’ policies. The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics is widely used in newsrooms and journalism classrooms. SPJ has adopted an updated code of ethics to address contemporary issues. Below are some of the revised explanations associated with each of the four key principles that have always been at the heart of the code. Note how these can be applied to mobile and social media journalism. (Read the complete SPJ Code of Ethics at www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.)

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Seek truth and report it ∘ Journalists should take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible. ∘ Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy. ∘ Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing, or summarizing a story. ∘ Gather, update, and correct information through the life of a story. Minimize harm ∘ Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do so. ∘ Consider the long-term implications of the extended reach and permanence of publication. Provide updated and more complete information as appropriate. Act independently ∘ Avoid conficts of interest, real or perceived. ∘ Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two. Prominently label sponsored content. Be accountable and transparent ∘ Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences. Encourage civil dialogue with the public about journalistic practices, coverage, and news content. ∘ Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifcations carefully and clearly.

There’s not a single mention of “social media” because the SPJ guidelines attempt to address current trends and themes in journalism without being technologically specifc. The Online News Association (ONA), on the other hand, has launched an initiative to address issues unique to social media and the nuanced situations journalists face today. ONA’s Build Your Own Ethics Code (ethics.journalists.org) provides journalists and news organizations with the fexibility to create an ethics code that meets their needs. Using this do-it-yourself tool, journalists can review and select statements from a menu addressing more than 40 ethical issues, including usergenerated content, verifcation, clickbait, race, and hate speech. They then are able to customize a code and export it for internal newsroom use as well as publication on their website.

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FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 8.2 Melissa Luck (@MelissaKXLY4) Executive News Director, KXLY-TV Spokane, Washington Tells us about your outlet’s social media policy. Our social media policy includes the same principles that should guide us as journalists in general, including accuracy and fairness. If you wouldn’t say it on TV or write it in a story, don’t share it, particularly if something isn’t vetted. Do you recommend separate accounts for professional and personal use? You should have a public Facebook page as a journalist and a personal account that you keep private but you should never assume that it’s private. You never know who in your “friend” group might see something you posted on Facebook and share it in some way. Even your private accounts should be managed with caution, particularly when it comes to political views. As a journalist, I can’t put a political campaign sign in my front yard because it calls into question my news judgement. The same applies to our social media accounts.

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Our individual identities and beliefs can sometimes conflict with newsroom social media policies about what not to share. How is this playing out in your newsroom? This is a topic that is getting a lot of attention in the industry. Our company believes there are never “two sides” to a human rights issue, such as racism and bigotry, so I am outspoken about those topics. Pointing out things that are unjust is part of our job. There has been so much of a focus on how journalism should be objective, and over time it has gotten us away from pointing out when things are wrong. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be cautious about what you share. Opinions about a story we cover should, in most cases, not be shared— that muddies the water. But, if you’re a Black reporter and you say on social media, “the George Floyd situation is really hard to cover because this could be a member of my family,” that humanizes you, it’s who you are as a person. There was a time when that might be considered a no-no. I don’t think it serves anyone by not allowing journalists to share who they are as humans. How would you recommend responding to personal attacks from social media users? I tell our journalists to not get into a fight but I also want them to stand up for themselves because if you just let people attack you, you normalize it. We stand to lose journalists when they see how they are treated online. We need to show them they have the support and recourse of the station. Getting into a specific argument though can be useless. With personal attacks, I’m okay if it gets to a certain point where they block the person. On the other hand, when people comment about our story content and claim something is inaccurate, it’s important that we show them our work and how we arrived at the truth. How do you approach verification of user-generated content? Anything we put on social media needs to meet the same standards of what we put on TV or our website. We do an annual legal seminar about how to get permission and what’s considered fair use. I’m a big fan of reverse image searching. I don’t think people realize how easy it is for people to dupe you. My favorite word is context—if we only see a piece of video, we need to know what happened before and after. We need to verify and figure out who the original source is.

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We are a bit slower than other news agencies in terms of taking content and publishing it because we want to make sure we properly vet it. My mantra for TV and digital is that if you could not sit on a witness stand in a courtroom and justify your sources of information, we should not put it out there.

Newsroom social media policies News outlets have implemented social media policies that defne and manage journalists’ use of social media, indicating what is and is not permitted on these platforms. Most of these policies encourage the use of social media for journalistic purposes and provide recommendations for how to act appropriately. Newsroom social media policies are typically guided by the ethical principles outlined in the ethics codes of professional journalism organizations such as SPJ and ONA. In many newsrooms, journalists are asked to review and sign the policy upon being hired. Newsroom policies convey to staff and the public that standards and accountability are important to a news organization. They provide a bestpractices guide that can be consulted when issues arise, which promotes consistent standards within a news outlet. As new platforms and practices emerge, so do new ethical dilemmas. As a result, social media policies must evolve as well. They need to be periodically reviewed and revised to address new challenges that arise. Not every situation is going to ft neatly into a social media policy, no matter how well thought out the policy is. As with any ethical dilemma, social media related or otherwise, there’s often no clear-cut answer. That’s why it’s important for newsroom staff to regularly discuss policies and ethical dilemmas. “When you confront an ethical issue, you should bring multiple tools to the decision-making process. The ethics code is key, but so is the wisdom you’ve gained through your own experiences, the insights others can provide and a clear framework for working through ethical questions. The framework has to be fexible,” ONA advises journalists on its Build Your Own Ethics Code website.7

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ONA has created this framework to walk journalists through a process that is, ideally, conducted as a dialogue with others in their newsrooms. These questions are intended to be used in conjunction with newsroom policies. • • • • • • •

What is the issue? What’s creating the ethical concern? Who are the stakeholders we need to consider? In other words, who will likely be affected by the decision we make? What clauses from our code of ethics—or other guiding documents— can inform deliberation on the issue? What consequences (for stakeholders and beyond) can we predict might occur from different decisions we might make? Have we encountered cases like this in the past? What did we learn? What else, if anything, do we need to consider? Once we’ve made our decision, how will we justify it, particularly to those who disagree with us?

The rest of this chapter discusses best practices and standards for the seven key areas in which journalists are facing new ethical challenges. You can’t post that! Professional and personal activity Journalistic ethics and values are being put to the test as reporters are active on social spaces for professional and personal purposes. Balancing personal and professional lives on social media can be the thorniest of issues for journalists. Journalists are people. They have emotions and opinions. But sharing those thoughts in public forums can call into question a journalist’s ability to be fair and balanced in her or his reporting. It also has the potential to damage a news outlet’s reputation as a trustworthy source of news. Assume everything you post, even on a “private” account, is public. Journalists must consider the implications of: • • • •

Sharing of personal opinion and political affliation Advocating on behalf of a particular issue or agenda Joining social network groups associated with a particular issue or agenda Sharing the most intimate details of their personal lives

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Sharing unverifed information Sharing internal newsroom communications intended for staff members only

When contemplating whether to share personal thoughts on social media, your decision should be held to the same standards that have always been at the heart of journalism ethics. Conduct yourself online as you would in any circumstance as a journalist. For example, journalists have traditionally avoided placing political bumper stickers on their cars or political signs in their front yards. Journalists should take the same approach on social media platforms. Keep in mind that your actions can be misinterpreted, even if you have the best of intentions. Journalists frequently “like” or “follow” the pages of political parties or activist groups as a way to track story ideas from those sources. If you become the fan of one political candidate or party, you should do the same for the other. Become a “fan” of opposing sides, not just those that align with your views. Karen Magnuson (@kmagnuson), former editor and vice president of news at the Democratic & Chronicle in Rochester, New York, said the biggest issue related to journalists’ social media use is those who feel strongly about issues, such as one presidential candidate or another. “Some have a diffcult time refraining from what comes naturally as a human—sharing your thoughts. We’ve reminded people consistently that you’re a representative of the news outlet and you cannot share your opinion publicly,” said Magnuson. “Sometimes even the most veteran journalists get sucked into something they care deeply about.” It’s important to understand the guidelines in your employer’s social media policy so you know their expectations. The New York Times policy, for example, indicates that in social media posts, its journalists must not express partisan opinions, promote political views, endorse candidates, make offensive comments, or do anything else that undercuts The Times’s journalistic reputation.8 In other newsrooms, policies are being revised in ways that give journalists more leeway when it comes to expressing their identities online. At CNN, the prohibition of sharing personal opinions on news stories no longer applies to issues where CNN has articulated a clear editorial position,

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such as institutional racism, LGBTQ rights, and climate change, as long as journalists do not editorialize about politicians or companies. Changes are also underway at The Washington Post, where a committee was tasked with addressing how the outlet’s policy could be overhauled. Based on interviews with 50 staff members, the group found that a revised policy should clarify what constitutes inappropriate political bias on social media while also embracing newsroom diversity by offering guidance on how Post journalists can share personal experience on social media.9 Of interest, as journalists navigate what to share on social media, are multiple studies that indicate the public still wants journalists and news outlets to report in an objective manner. A majority prefer news, regardless of the platform where they receive it, that has no particular point of view, according to the Digital News Report conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.10 

Photo 8.3 When Journalists become the news: Comments on social media cost two Cleveland journalists their jobs in 2016. They were fred after tweeting about waiting in line for tickets to a Hillary Clinton campaign event featuring Jay Z.

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ADD CONTEXT TO YOUR RETWEETS When retweeting a post, add a comment to make sure your retweet isn’t interpreted as an endorsement of someone’s opinion or stance. In its social media guidelines, the Associated Press highlights the type of retweets that should be avoided: • •

RT @jonescampaign: Smith’s policies would destroy our schools. RT @SenatorJudyNY: At last, a bailout plan that works.

If you want to retweet these posts, introductory text is needed to help clarify that you’re simply reporting someone’s view, just like you would quote a source. The AP recommends this approach: • •

Jones campaign now denouncing Smith on education. RT @jonescampaign: Smith’s policies would destroy our schools. New York senator praises bailout plan. RT @SenatorJudyNY: At last, a bailout plan that works.

Contacting sources on social media Just as you would in person, be upfront and honest when contacting sources on social media. Contact sources through one of your professional accounts that states in the profle you’re a reporter. You should also immediately tell the source that you’re a journalist and explain why you’re reaching out. Make your intentions clear. What’s the story you’re working on? How will the information you gather be used? Avoid communication with minors through social networking sites, unless you have permission from one of their parents or guardians. When news breaks, information from sources on social media can enhance reporting. However, sources in these situations should be approached with respect for what they might be going through. Journalists should always consider the physical and emotional welfare of eyewitnesses when communicating with them during a news event. Sources may be involved in traumatic situations in which they’re in danger or have suffered personal loss. Reaching out to victims or their families on social media has been compared to the old-school practice of a journalist knocking on a door in an effort to interview someone. But it’s really not. The experience of talking with someone face to face is quite different

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from a tweet that expresses sympathy and in the same “breath” requests an interview. Conducting interviews online is not a substitute for face-to-face or phone conversations with sources, no matter the type of story. Talking directly with sources not only builds rapport, but also is the best way to verify their identity and claims. After establishing contact with a source on social media, take the conversation offine. If you’re contacting sources on Twitter, for example, ask them to direct message you a phone number or email address if they’d like to talk about what they’re going through. You could also give them your contact information. The Associated Press recommends starting a message with “If it is safe to do so…” or “If you’re in a safe place...,” instead of asking something along the lines of “Do you have any photos to use?” or “Can I talk to you?”11 One ask is plenty. If they don’t reply, move on.   Connecting with sources on social media also raises the question of whether it’s appropriate to become “friends” with them on Facebook. This issue often comes up with public offcials—the police department spokesperson or chief of staff for the mayor, for instance. Stuart Leavenworth (@sleavenworth), an editor with the Los Angeles Times, recalls facing this dilemma in the early days of social media—and it’s one that hasn’t gone away: To friend or not to friend. Leavenworth was a reporter

Photo 8.4 & 8.5 Journalists must use caution and compassion when contacting people during traumatic situations. Here are two different approaches. One frequently used by NPR News is to share a general callout for sources. Alternatively, tweeting directly at a potential source experiencing trauma can appear invasive and insensitive.

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for The Sacramento Bee when California’s secretary of state sent him a Facebook friend request.12 He questioned whether the public could interpret such a relationship as a confict of interest. Leavenworth ignored the request. “As a journalist in this town, I really wanted to keep a little bit of distance from public offcials and other sources I deal with on a regular basis,” said Leavenworth. “But I also just felt strange about them having so much access to my personal information, since I like to have fun on Facebook.”13 This is an ethical grey area, and many social media policies are ambiguous in terms of the proper approach. For example, Gannett, which owns news outlets in communities across the country, advises its hundreds of news employees to “exercise discretion when friending or liking other individuals or groups to avoid any actual or perceived conficts.”14 The Associated Press policy states, “It is acceptable to extend and accept Facebook friend requests from sources, politicians and newsmakers if necessary for reporting purposes, and to follow them on Twitter.”15 Public offcials and the places they work typically have public Facebook pages that allow journalists to track newsworthy activity. This would be the preferred approach rather than becoming “friends” on personal accounts. Consider also that Facebook can be perceived as a more personal, private platform than others such as Twitter. Even if a newsroom policy allows you to become “friends” with a source, you may not feel comfortable sharing that more personal side of your life with sources with whom you want to maintain a strictly “professional” relationship. If you decline a source’s friend request, explain your reasoning to the source. Whatever you choose to do, be consistent with your friending activity. The Roanoke Times recommends either not accepting as “friends” any sources and people you cover, or welcoming them all.16 Interacting with the audience The interactive nature of social media fosters informal engagement between journalists and the public. Social media is just that—social. As we’ve discussed from the beginning of this book, these two-way conversations can strengthen journalists’ connections and trust with those they serve. It also opens the door to criticism. Not responding can be viewed as ignoring the commenter. On the other hand, engaging with someone who is out of line could easily escalate—and for all to see online.

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Pick your battles. Stand up for your work, but don’t be defensive when it comes to legitimate criticism about a story or your reporting. This type of dialogue can be healthy and build respect. After all, journalists are ultimately accountable to the public. Avoid getting into an extended back-andforth with someone. Your response will often be determined by the type and tone of the audience member’s comment. It’s best to consult with a manager when a comment is out of line or you aren’t sure how to respond, as each newsroom policy varies. Some outlets have a policy in which the reply to disparaging remarks comes from management and not the journalist who is the target. At the Associated Press, for instance, journalists are advised to send abusive, bigoted, obscene, and/or racist comments to the AP Nerve Center, which coordinates the outlet’s worldwide coverage. Members of AP’s social media team are based out of the Nerve Center. Keep in mind that any response to an audience member, even through email or direct messaging, should be considered public. Given the hateful speech directed at journalists, with women and minorities targeted more than others, newsrooms are beefng up policies to better address their employees’ safety. This includes security for journalists who are targeted. The potential of online abuse is a reason why some journalists decide not to share certain details of their lives. “A lot of times those are folks who have kids. They don’t want the public to have access to that kind of information,” said Magnuson.

IMMEDIATE STEPS TO TAKE DURING ONLINE HARASSMENT The Committee to Protect Journalists offers the following recommendations for journalists who are attacked online.17 •

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Stop looking at the harassment and ask a trusted friend, colleague, or other journalist to review content for you. Have them check your mentions and do social media searches for your name. They should be on the lookout for your personal information, such as home address, that may have been shared by harassers. Mute and/or block the user. Change notifications to limit the messages and notifications you see.

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Photo 8.6 Journalists who are the subject of online abuse should take a screenshot of the content and immediately alert a supervisor. If you’re a student journalist, depending on the assignment, alert your professor or campus media advisor. • • •

Tell your boss—or if you’re a freelancer, your editor—so they can support you. Do not respond to trolls. It is what they want. Save and document the content, either by taking screenshots of messages and emails, or saving voicemails. You may need records if you decide to report the abuse to the platform or police.

Verif ication of user-generated content Misinformation—fake photos, altered video, rumors, posts from unreliable sources, and the like—can spread like wildfre on social media. Journalists have taken the bait, reporting inaccurate information gathered from social media. A major challenge facing journalists is balancing the pressure to publish quickly, particularly during breaking news, while upholding journalistic standards. Speed versus accuracy. Often, these are two competing values.

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Vetting information and sources takes time. In the sea of “noise,” traditional journalistic ethics and values, such as verifcation and accuracy, are more important now than ever. A photo of a shark swimming along a street fooded during a hurricane. An image of a young man identifed as the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Grainy photos of Paul McCartney—yes, Sir Paul of Beatles fame—visiting a trucking company in a suburb of central New York. What’s the real deal? These images were shared over and over again on social media. As a journalist, what would you do if you came across this type of content? How would you verify the information? With all user-generated content—whether it contains a video, photo, or written claims, you should proceed with skepticism. A journalist’s job is to report the truth. That can’t be accomplished unless you take the appropriate actions to verify not only the content, but also the source. Most newsroom social media policies contain guidance on how to vet information found on social media before publishing it.18 This is where traditional reporting skills—a combination of offine and online sleuthing and fact-checking—are critical. The following steps can help you determine the credibility of content and sources. 

Photo 8.7 Too good to be true? What steps would you take to verify this grainy photo posted to social media? The image supposedly shows Paul McCartney visiting a trucking company in the Syracuse, New York area.

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Be skeptical. If it looks/sounds too good to be true, assume it is. Contact the source of the post to ask questions, preferably on the phone or in person, in order to clarify the source’s identity and claims. If the information was retweeted or reposted via another person, track down the original source—the person who initially posted the information. A review of the original source’s social media/online history can reveal whether the person typically posts about the topic under scrutiny, the tone/type of previous posts, when the account was created, and the location the source normally tweets about, among other items. Cross-check information. Conduct online searches related to the story and people involved in order to corroborate or poke holes in the claims. In the case of McCartney, if he tweeted from London fve hours before he supposedly visited the trucking company, the story probably doesn’t add up. If you were to check his offcial website and see that he had an event the night before in Europe, that would also raise a red fag. Check geo-location of post. If the source has the geo-location feature enabled for the social media site on which you found the post in question, you can view the location of the post to see if it matches the location the source is talking about or supposedly shared a photo from. Seek social corroboration by asking social media users in the respective location if they can verify the information. Are they seeing or experiencing the same thing? You can use advance search methods and the Twitter lists feature (Chapter 4) to help in this process. Seek offcial corroboration of the social media information by contacting traditional sources, such as a police agency or company. For example, it should seem obvious that calling the trucking company that McCartney supposedly visited would be essential. (Yes, the photo with McCartney was real. His wife’s family owns the trucking company.) Use Google Reverse Image Search to verify visuals. When you upload a photo to images.Google.com, the search engine will scan for similar images. In the case of the shark swimming in the fooded street, this could help you uncover the fact that the shark was actually from a National Geographic photo. It had been edited into another photo, thus creating a fake image. A reverse image search can also help you fnd out if a photo has been altered or if it has appeared online before. Some images circulating on social media are genuine but are used out of

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context—a “real” image that was taken at a different time or location than what the user claims. When attempting to verifying a video, take several screen shots of it and run a reverse image search. Inspect an image’s metadata, which contains when and where the photo was taken and on what type of device, among other details. To fnd this data, which is stored in a standard format call Exif (for Exchangeable image fle format), right click on a photo and select “properties” or “fnd info” (depending on the type of operating system you use). This action can be completed in photo software, such as Apple’s Photo app for Mac. There are also several mobile apps and browser extensions that can inspect photo metadata. Checking the metadata can help you determine if a photo was taken at a time or location other than the source claims. Use Google Earth to debunk rumors and fake images. Google Earth contains landmarks, such as buildings and bus stops, that can help confrm the location of a photo or video. You can zoom down to street level after entering a specifc location. On its website, First Draft News shows how it used Google Earth to verify a photo.19 In January 2016, shortly after an explosion at Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul, Turkey, eyewitness images surfaced on social media. One photograph appeared to show a building on fre in Sultanahmet Square. Exploring the area on Google Earth raised doubts. The landscape on the Google Earth image didn’t match the landscape in the photo, and none of the features in the photograph could be found in the Google Earth search of that area. A Twitter keyword search of “fre” and “Istanbul” revealed similar photos from a blast in another location about 10 miles from the square. The photo of the building was real, but not associated with the Sultanahmet Square explosion.

CURATING AND FACT-CHECKING CONTENT Freelance journalist Justin Auciello (@auciello) operates Jersey Shore Hurricane News, a social media-powered news outlet that he launched in 2011, when a hurricane devastated the Jersey Shore. Jersey Shore Hurricane News began as a Facebook page dedicated to information about the storm’s aftermath. It now reports about all types of news along

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Photo 8.8 Justin Auciello. the Jersey Shore. Auciello explains his editorial process of verifying usergenerated content: On a day-to-day basis, there’s about one breaking news story in this area. I couple content from official sources and social media users to piece together a narrative and verify information. Because I’m cynical at first and doubt everything, like any good journalist should be, I fact-check in a few ways. I get information from official sources to corroborate what I’m being told and see if anyone else on social media is sharing something similar. Giving people credit also fosters a trusting relationship, making them more likely to send content that is reliable. I give credit to contributors in order to reinforce that they’re part of the team. It’s a social contract. People love it and are more willing to engage in the future.

Seeking permission, copyright, and fair use Only after verifying user-generated content should you consider sharing the material on social media, broadcasting, or publishing it. If you want to post the content to social media, the best approach is to share a user’s original post. Through reposting, you give credit to the source by “linking” directly to them, and this method provides transparency about how

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the information was obtained. Give background context, when needed, to clarify the news value of what you’re sharing. Before broadcasting on air or publishing online or in print, ask for permission to do so. It’s not appropriate—ethically or legally—to snatch usergenerated content and use it as you wish. As the Social Media Guidelines for AP Employees state, “To include photos, videos or other multimedia content from social networks in our news report, we must determine who controls the copyright to the material and get permission from that person or organization to use it.”20 All photos and videos are copyrighted, whether indicated on the visual or not. The copyright belongs to the creator of the content, and in most cases anyone who wants to broadcast or publish it must obtain permission from the copyright holder. Just because someone shared an image doesn’t mean he or she is the copyright holder. In seeking permission, it’s important to establish that the person actually took the photo or video. Be direct: “Did you take the photo?” In addition, be clear about what you plan on doing with the content. Journalists also have a responsibility to properly credit sources. Once permission is granted, ask how the person would like to be named. In sensitive situations, where someone’s safety is at risk, the source of the content may not wish to be identifed by his or her full name. Attribution helps people determine the credibility of sources and ultimately your reporting. Make clear in your report that the information was gathered from a social networking site. Media law is often part of journalism ethics discussions. However, there’s an important distinction to be made between law and ethics. Just because a journalist’s action in a certain situation may be legal doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ethically acceptable. For example, even if a journalist has the legal right to publish certain information, it would be unethical to do so if the content were not verifed. “It was legal” is not a suffcient ethical justifcation.

CAN I EMBED A SOCIAL MEDIA POST WITHOUT PERMISSION? Embedding a social media post in an online news story is common practice nowadays. Often, the embedded post contains a photo or video that is newsworthy.

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“That does not, generally, infringe any copyright because no copy of the embedded content has been made—the inline link is simply a piece of code that represents the content as it exists on the originating site,” explains journalism professor and attorney Jonathan Peters (@jonathanwpeters). “Moreover, most third-party platforms, like Twitter, include in their terms of service a provision that says the user permits others to embed his or her content.”21 However, Peters said posting a screenshot of content should be avoided unless you have permission. “That’s basically the electronic equivalent of making a copy of the work, putting it squarely in the crosshairs of copyright law.”

While media law provides guidance in terms of legal boundaries, it can be ambiguous. Journalists often rely on protections they believe are afforded to them under the fair use doctrine. Fair use, part of U.S. copyright law, allows for the excerpting of content for the purposes of commentary and critique without permission. How much can be used is open for interpretation. The fact that something is newsworthy doesn’t automatically mean it falls under fair use, making it all the more important to secure permission. “True, news reporting, is one of the categories protected by the fair use doctrine, but because news is a commercial use, and because photographs and video are typically used in full, there is a strong likelihood that republishing them for news purposes does not qualify as fair use,” according to journalism professor and attorney Daxton Stewart (@MediaLawProf).22 Breaking the law can land newsrooms in legal hot water—and be costly. An editor at Agence France-Presse, an international news agency, turned to Twitter to fnd photos of an earthquake in Haiti.23 The editor asked the uploader for permission to use the photos. There was a big problem though. A professional photographer captured the photos, not the Twitter user. The photographer sued for $1.2 million and won. Other outlets, including The Washington Post, CBS, ABC, and CNN, also settled claims with the photographer. Smaller outlets have also come under fre for using photos and videos without securing permission.24 The Portland Press Herald, for instance, had to pay a woman $400 after the outlet published a photograph from her account on Flickr, a photo management and sharing site. She hadn’t given the outlet permission.

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One option when in need of a visual element for a story is to search for Creative Commons (CC) content. Material licensed under CC can be used as long as you properly credit the source. CC licenses offer content creators a way to maintain copyright while allowing their work to be used, for

Photo 8.9 Once a journalist locates content they would like to publish, it’s important to ask for permission and who should be credited, as happened in this exchange between journalists and a Twitter user.The reporter for London’s Evening Standard attached an image that explains what giving consent means.

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free, under certain conditions. Some social media sites, including YouTube, allow users to choose whether they would like their content to be marked with a CC license. There are six different types of CC licenses. For example, the “CC BY-ND” license allows anyone to use the work, as long as it is credited and not altered. Each piece of Creative Commons content has instructions on how it should be attributed and which CC code applies to it. You can search for Creative Commons content at search.creativecommons.org or by using Google’s advanced search option. Finally, Getty Images (gettyimages.com) also offers royalty-free photos. You must use the embed code for each Getty image instead of screenshotting or downloading them. When placing the embed code in an article or blog post, a caption with the source information automatically appears beneath the photo. 

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: LIVE STREAMING AND GRAPHIC VIDEO Streaming video via Facebook Live or a similar tool can be captivating for an audience. Followers get a front-row seat to events unfolding at a news scene. The downfall is that journalists don’t know what may happen next, particularly in a crisis situation. Live-streaming is unfiltered and could lead to broadcasting sensitive footage. Ethical judgment is critical. Could something tragic happen during the live stream? Are you prepared to broadcast the worst possible outcome? Will the live-streaming put witnesses or law enforcement in harm? How will you justify your decision? During tragic situations, it’s also become a habit for witnesses to grab their mobile devices, record, and share raw unedited footage that contains graphic content. During the deadly shooting rampage at a Florida high school in 2018, some of those inside posted a chilling video of what was unfolding. A few years earlier, when Philando Castile was shot by a Minneapolis police officer, his girlfriend used Facebook Live to broadcast from the front seat of her car. The live stream showed Castile dying beside her. Millions of people have watched the archived video. Even if these videos are deemed newsworthy, journalists must determine if and how they’ll share this type of content. In the case of Castile,

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Photo 8.10 An opening slide with a warning should be included in any video that contains sensitive materials. many outlets that shared the footage on social media included a warning slide at the beginning of the video. Others chose to use only portions of the video (removing the most graphic elements) or blurred out graphic elements such as his bloody t-shirt.

Correction guidelines Acknowledging mistakes and correcting them quickly is one tenet of ethical journalism. News outlets have policies for addressing errors. However, they’re being tested by the speed at which information travels on social media. Once a social media post with misinformation is published, dozens or even hundreds of users could share it. Correction guidelines are evolving as social media presents new and unfamiliar challenges. Here’s a responsible approach to correcting errors in social media posts: •

•

Acknowledge the error and push out the correction in the same place where it was originally shared. This approach will get the correction in front of the audience that may have seen the original post. Don’t just delete the post containing the incorrect information and leave it at that. As the ONA ethics code notes, “That method does not acknowledge the error and can leave misinformation uncorrected,

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•

allowing it to spread.”25 Some outlets, including NPR, advise staff never to delete the original post unless there’s a legal or safety issue. Deleting a tweet can convey a lack of transparency to the public. Create a new post that indicates you made an error, and explain exactly what’s being corrected. The AP guidelines use this example from Twitter: Correction: U.S. Embassy in Nigeria says bombings could happen this week at luxury hotels in Abuja (previously we incorrectly said Lagos).

•

Consider attaching a screenshot image of the post with the incorrect tweet and/or include a link to it. This provides context and a frame of reference for followers—they can see how the information was corrected. 

Photo 8.11 In this tweet, NPR clearly states that the information is a correction and it includes an image of the previous incorrect tweet.

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•

•

•

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In addition to the new post, add a comment with the correct information to the original post. For example, on Twitter, include the correction in a reply to your original tweet. This reply will always be attached to the original tweet, including previous retweets of it. Facebook, unlike Twitter, allows you to edit posts. If doing so for an error, be clear that you’re updating the post with a correction. At the top of the post, write “Correction” and add the corrected information. Make sure you indicate what was inaccurate about the original version of the post. Request that they share the correction. Track down people who shared the incorrect information, especially those with the most followers. Let them know about the error and ask that they share the correction. If a follower alerted you to the error, thank the person, and direct him or her to the corrected post. Ownership of social media accounts

Andy Bitter posted to Twitter daily when he was a sports reporter at The Roanoke Times in Virginia. Bitter’s tweets kept his thousands of social media followers up-to-date about the sports news he covered and gave them an inside look at his reporting. When Bitter left The Times in 2018 to work for another outlet, he took with him the Twitter account (@AndyBitterVT). That move landed him in trouble. The Times, through its parent company BH Media, sued Bitter over what the news outlet called a breach of its social media policy. The Times claimed the policy states that the outlet retains ownership of reporters’ social media accounts, and therefore Bitter should have turned over the account before leaving for his new job.26 The case settled out of court. Bitter was allowed to keep the Twitter account. An increasing number of newsrooms are claiming ownership of the social media accounts used by journalists as part of their job responsibilities. A study of local television stations’ social media guidelines sheds light on this emerging practice.27 Two-thirds of local television news managers in the United States indicated that it’s the policy of their outlets to “own” the “professional social media accounts” of their reporters, according to the research. In some cases, journalists are allowed to create the accounts on their own but required to submit their passwords to newsroom management.

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Other times, the outlet creates the accounts on behalf of the journalist and provides them with login credentials. In either instance, we encounter the question of whether an employee is allowed to keep the account and its associated followers when employment with an outlet ends. Some policies state that the journalist will no longer have access to the account—similar to what happens with a company email address. The E.W. Scripps Company makes this clear in its social media policy: “Your professional account is the company’s property and the name and contents remain company property if you leave Scripps. Scripps reserves the right to edit, monitor, promote or cancel a professional account.”28 Other outlets offer fexibility surrounding the issue. Gray Television, owner of stations in nearly 100 local U.S. television markets, allows its station managers to determine on a case-by-case basis whether employees can take social media accounts with them. Managers can transfer ownership of accounts to a journalist, on the condition that their new employer does not compete against a Gray Television station. This approach is directed at preventing a competitor from reaping the benefts of an employee who has amassed a social media following. Meantime, journalists who work for outlets owned by TEGNA, another U.S. media company, can keep the account(s) when they leave as long as they remove all branding related to TEGNA and its newsrooms.29 What is defned as “professional” under these policies? Well, it can be ambiguous. Some policies include the wording “your professional account,” but do not defne “professional account.” One might argue that even if a journalist created a “personal” account prior to working at the outlet, the outlet could retain ownership of that account if the journalist uses it for professional purposes. In other words, any account on which you’re sharing information as part of your position with the outlet or representing yourself as a staff member of the outlet could be deemed professional. This may in fact be a reason for creating separate social media accounts for personal and professional purposes. Rachel Barnhart learned this lesson when she was a reporter for WHAM-TV in Rochester, New York. Barnhart spent years building a robust social media following. She attracted tens of thousands of Facebook and Twitter followers combined.30 When Sinclair Broadcasting purchased WHAM-TV, Barnhart was faced with a choice: use new company-issued

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accounts, or continue to use the accounts she had created and risk losing them if her employment with the station ended. It’s the policy of Sinclair to own the professional social media accounts of its on-air personalities. She decided to use new social media accounts for work purposes only. She explained her decision in a note to followers. At this juncture, I am retaining ownership of my existing Facebook and Twitter pages. Therefore, the company has started new social media accounts in my name for me to use during work hours when I am covering stories. The company has administrative control over these accounts.31

She added that her station remains supportive of her social media activity as “we are all trying to navigate the new frontier of social media and journalism.”32

CHECKLIST ✓

Mobile and social media strategy analysis. As we near the end of the book, you should be wrapping up the mobile and social media strategy analysis that was first introduced in Chapter 2’s checklist. Use what you learned in this chapter to analyze the social media policies of the outlet you’re monitoring. How does the policy address each of the seven categories above? If the policy isn’t available online, interview someone from the newsroom’s social media team to discuss the guidelines. In your presentation to the class, include what you learned about the policy.

✓

What’s the real deal? How would go you about verifying the information in this scenario? You see retweets about a vice presidential candidate’s plane making an emergency landing in Colorado. Many of these retweets include a photo of firefighters entering a small airplane on what appears to be the tarmac of an airport. Discuss with your class what steps you would take before sharing this information.

✓

What would you do? The New Haven Independent was covering the murder of Annie Le, a Yale University graduate student. The story became a national media sensation. The Independent learned

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the name of the murder suspect, Raymond Clark, through police reports and other sources. The police report led the Independent reporter covering the story to Clark’s former girlfriend, Jessica Del Rocco. The reporter sent a Facebook friend request to Del Rocco. She accepted it. With access to the woman’s Facebook wall, the reporter was able to read Del Rocco’s reaction to the murder. The reporter then sent Del Rocco a message identifying herself as a journalist and asking for an interview. Del Rocco declined to be interviewed but kept the reporter as a “friend.” Discuss the following as a class: ¾

What ethical issues are raised in this case?

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Was it appropriate for the reporter to send Del Rocco a friend request?

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Would it be ethical to publish Del Rocco’s posts in a story?

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The outlet decided to use the comments from her Facebook page without asking for permission from Del Rocco. They didn’t publish Del Rocco’s name in the story. At that point, she “defriended” the reporter. Do you agree with the Independent’s decision? Why or why not?

¾

This scenario has been adapted from “The Facebook Conundrum: The New Haven Independent and the Annie Le Murder,” a case study published by The Case Consortium at Columbia University. To read the full case study and explore other ethical issues raised, visit casestudies.ccnmtl.columbia.edu.

✓

Tweet backlash. This chapter began with a discussion about a Washington Post reporter who was criticized by newsroom management and social media users because of a tweet she posted about basketball star Kobe Bryant. Revisit this case. Conduct an online search to learn more details about the circumstances and backlash. Discuss the key issues as a class, including the outlet’s handling of the situation as well as the wording and timing of her tweet.

✓

Reminders. Time for a social media check-up. By now you should be carving out time every day to manage your social media accounts. I hope it’s becoming second nature. In order to maintain consistent social media activity, aim for the following each week:

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About 10 tweets and a combination of 10 retweets, replies, and likes. This can include several tweets about class discussions and/or readings that you found interesting. Tell followers why and include your class hashtag.

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A few posts on your professional Facebook page, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

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Follow a handful of people on each platform. On Twitter, make it a goal to follow at least five new people every week, at least as you begin to build your professional brand.

And don’t forget: ¾

Come up with a mobile and social media plan for each story you cover. Use the first checklist, Social Media Activity: Sharing as You Report, in the last chapter as a guide. Explain your plan in every story pitch.

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Continue to blog (first mentioned in Chapter 3’s checklist), and share those posts on social media. Make it a goal to blog twice during the weeks in which you aren’t producing a story for your website.

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Use the analytics checklist, Making Sense of the Data, in the last chapter to analyze the effectiveness of your website and social media activity on a weekly basis.

Notes 1 Samantha Goldberg, “The Age of iPhone Reporting: Q & A with Neal Augenstein,” American Journalism Review, December 23, 2013. http://ajr.org /2013/12/23/age-iphone-reporting. 2 Paul Farhi, “Washington Post Reporter Who Tweeted about Kobe Bryant Rape Allegations Placed on Administrative Leave,” The Washington Post, January 27, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/washington-post-suspends-reporter-who-tweeted-about-kobe-bryant-rapeallegations-following-his-death/2020/01/27/babe9c04-413b-11ea-b5fceefa848cde99_story.html. 3 Victoria Albert, “Washington Post Reinstates Reporter Placed on Leave over Kobe Bryant Rape Allegation Tweet,” CBS News, January 29, 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/felicia-sonmez-washington-post-reinstates-reporter-after-kobe-bryant-rape-allegation-tweet-today-2020-01-28/.

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4 Oliver Darcy, “Washington Post’s Top Editor Sends Memo to Staff after Backlash over Handing of Reporter’s Kobe Bryant Tweets,” CNN Business, January 30, 2020. https:.//www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/media/washingtonpost-marty-baron-felicia-sonmez/index.html. 5 Julie Moos, “TV Station Says It Fired Meteorologist for Replying to Viewer on Facebook,” Poynter, December 12, 2012. http://www.poynter.org/2012/ tv-station-says-it-fired-meteorologist-for-replying-to-viewer-on-facebook/ 197877. 6 “Journalism Personal Statement by Scott Pelley,” United Worldwide Web, May 27, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guIvUPjeNzI. 7 “Building and Using Your Customized Ethics Code,” Online News Association Build Your Own Ethics Code. http://ethics.journalists.org/ instructions. 8 “The Times Issues Social Media Guidelines for the Newsroom,” The New York Times, October 13, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/readercenter/social-media-guidelines.html. 9 “Recommendations for Social Media Use on the National Desk,” Washington Post internal memo, April 20, 2020. https://int.nyt.com/data/ documenthelper/7010 -recommendations-for-social-med/a5c91e59333 f4fa0c8bf/optimized/full.pdf#page=1. 10 “Digital News Report 2020,” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2020/overview-key-findings2020/. 11 “Social Newsgathering in Sensitive Circumstances,” Associated Press. https://web.archive.org/web/20150913235517/http://www.ap.org/Images/ Social-Newsgathering_tcm28-12860.pdf. 12 Steven Mendoza, “To Friend or Not to Friend?” American Journalism Review, October/November 2008, http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=4628. 13 Ibid. 14 Jim Romenesko, “Gannett Releases Its Social Media Policy,” jimromenesko .com, September 10, 2013. http://jimromenesko.com/2013/09/10/readgannetts-social-media-policy-memo. 15 “Social Media Guidelines for AP Employees,” Associated Press, May 2013. http://www.ap.org/Images/Social-Media-Guidelines_tcm28-9832.pdf. 16 “10 Best Practices for Social Media: Helpful Guidelines for News Organizations,” American Society of News Editors, May 2011. http://asne .org/Files/pdf/10_Best_Practices_for_Social_Media.pdf. 17 “Psychological Safety: Online Harassment and How to Protect Your Mental Health,” Committee to Protect Journalists, September 4, 2019. https://cpj .org/2019/09/psychological-safety-online-harassment-emotional-healthjournalists.

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18 Anthony C. Adornato and Suzanne Lysak, “You Can’t Post That!: Social Media Policies in U.S. Television Newsrooms,” Electronic News 11, no. 2 (May 2017): 80–99, doi: 10.1177/1931243117710279. 19 Jenni Sargent, “How to Verify Images Like a Pro with Google Earth,” First Draft News, January 19, 2016. https://firstdraftnews.com/resource/how-toverify-images-like-a-pro-with-google-earth. 20 “Social Media Guidelines for AP Employees,” Associated Press, May 2013. http://www.ap.org/Images/Social-Media-Guidelines_tcm28-9832.pdf. 21 Jonathan Peters, “Can I Use That? A Legal Primer for Journalists,” Columbia Journalism Review, October 1, 2015. http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/journalist_legal_questions.php. 22 Daxton Stewart, ed., Social Media and the Law: A Guidebook for Communication Students and Professionals (New York: Routledge, 2017), 235. 23 Alastair Reid, “5 Points to Remember about Copyright and Breaking News,” First Draft News, April 21, 2016. https://firstdraftnews.com/5-points-toremember-about-copyright-and-breaking-news. 24 Steve Myers, “Portland Press Herald to Pay Woman for Using Photograph without Permission,” Poynter, August 14, 2012. http://www.poynter.org/ 2012/portland-press-herald-to-pay-woman-for-using-photograph-flickr/ 184871. 25 “Corrections,” Online News Association Build Your Own Ethics Code. http://ethics.journalists.org/topics/corrections. 26 Anthony C. Adornato and Andrew S. Horsfall, “Failed Strategy: Using Trade Secret Laws to Assert Ownership of Employees’ Social Media Accounts in the Journalism Industry,” New York University Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law 9, no. 1 (2020): 62–90. 27 Adornato and Lysak, “You Can’t Post That!: Social Media Policies in U.S. Television Newsrooms.” 28 Jim Romenesko, “E.W. Scripps Co. Issues Social Media Policy, Poynter, June 30, 2011. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2011/e-w-scrippsannounces-social-media-policy-to-staff/. 29 Social Media Policy, TEGNA, May 2017. https://drive.google.com/file/d/ 1AQMaADAGnKmxHEI_pRN4Vhpc4U8Xr4F8/view. 30 Diane Marszalek, “Who Owns, Controls Social Media Activity?” TVNewsCheck, January 29, 2013. http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/ 65102/who-owns-controls-social-media-activity. 31 “Sinclair Broadcasting ‘Owns’ Social Media Accounts of Its On-air Talent,” Airchecker, January 24, 2013. http://www.airchecker.ca/2013/01/24/sinclairbroadcasting-owns-social-media-accounts-of-its-on-air-talent/. 32 Ibid.

9 THE SPREAD OF FAKE NEWS

In this chapter, you will

• •

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Learn what fake news is and how to identify it. Discover the motivations behind those who create fake news and the reasons why people share false information, even when they know it’s inaccurate. Consider how social media and search engine companies have contributed to the problem of fake news. Explore the responsibilities of technology companies, journalists, educators, and the public in fighting the spread of misinformation.

Edgar Welch read online that a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. was holding children captive as sex slaves, part of a child-abuse ring led by U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Welch drove from his home in North DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-9

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Carolina to the pizzeria. Armed with an assault rife, he opened fre inside the pizzeria. No one was injured. In the weeks prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, fake news articles making these bogus claims about the pizzeria and Clinton were widely shared on social media. After surrendering to police, Welch told authorities that he thought the information was real. The pizzeria owner believes he was targeted because he has prominent Democratic friends and had communicated with Clinton’s campaign chairperson. Even though the claims made in the fake news articles were debunked by news outlets and law enforcement, it wasn’t enough to change some people’s minds. In fact, it only stoked the outrage of those who believed the conspiracy theory, motivating them to share the fake news even more. This case, known as Pizzagate, underscores the dire consequences of fake news. The real actions Welch took based on false information could have turned deadly. Imagine then how the weaponization of information can impact society in other ways. Citizens’ decisions are infuenced by the information they consume through various platforms, including news outlets and social media. Over time, the information to which people are exposed shapes their beliefs and actions. With an increasing number of people getting sucked into the food of fake news on social media, there’s the risk of making decisions on the basis of falsities. Real journalism is now competing with fake news. The production of fake news has become a business of its own. This was none the more evident during the 2016 U.S. presidential election between Clinton and Donald Trump. An entire industry of fake news sites popped up. Fake news creators made money from digital advertising on the sites, fueled by traffc coming from article links shared on social media. Some social media users were duped into sharing this information because they thought it was real. Others knew the content was inaccurate and spread the bogus information anyway because it affrmed how they felt about a candidate. Among the actors in this fake news arena—Russia. Facebook admitted that 150 million Americans may have viewed on Facebook and Instagram propaganda created by Russian operatives in the two years leading up to

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the 2016 election.1 Much of it supported Trump. Details also emerged about the extent of Russia’s infuence on Twitter. An army of robotic accounts was used to propagate inaccurate pro-Trump and anti-Clinton messages during the election.2 Since then, Twitter has purged millions of accounts, many of which were automated bots.3 Social media companies and Google have rolled out plans to crack down on fake news—some argue too little, too late. What role and responsibility technology companies should assume when it comes to the spread of disinformation and misinformation will be discussed later in this chapter. Though falsehoods have long been present, particularly in the political arena, we’re witnessing disinformation be manufactured and spread in quantities like never before. The conversation about it has reached a feverish pitch. After Trump was elected, disinformation took on a life of its own with his administration’s use of terms such as “fake news” and “alternative facts.” Fake news has become part of a broader discussion about media literacy and the extent to which society values factually accurate information.  

Photo 9.1 First Draft, a nonproft focused on fghting misinformation, has categorized the types of problematic content that sit within our information ecosystem.

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Photo 9.2 This is a classic example of misleading content that embellishes what really happened in order to rile social media users (as you can see by the comments) and drive clicks as well as shares. The headline is written in a sensational manner and out of context. If one were to click the link and actually read the story, they’d eventually learn that the young men, who are Marines, thanked the veteran for his service and paid for his meal.

What is fake news? Fake news is the deliberate fabrication of information with the intent to deceive. The intention of the creator is to mislead. Consider the following defnitions: False stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke. (Cambridge Dictionary) A story that is presented as being a genuine item of news but is in fact not true and is intended to deceive people. (Macmillan Dictionary)

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Made-up stuff, masterfully manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports that are easily spread online to large audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word. (PolitiFact)

Fake news differs from the unintentional errors that journalists might make during the course of their reporting. Though those mistakes are problematic and warrant corrections, they are not fake news. The term fake news has been tossed around so much by Trump and the alt-right that it’s now part of the daily lexicon. He has popularized the term by using it to describe negative news coverage of him, regardless of the truthfulness of the reporting. That’s far from the actual defnition of fake news. Journalists should scrutinize those in power. This type of reporting runs counter to fake news. For those inside the Trump bubble, however, fake news has come to mean anything reported about him or his administration that he doesn’t like. Trump and his supporters have used their version of the term to wage war on journalism. The repetitive rhetoric of calling journalists “fake news”— along with “the enemy of the people”—has gained momentum within the populist movement. In part, this discourse has been effective because it plays into the public’s mistrust of news media, which has ebbed and fowed over decades. Such a method of attacking journalists is problematic on many fronts. In the most basic sense, it undermines the journalism industry and also asserts that the only trustworthy content is that which aligns with your ideology. The use of this term energizes some politicians’ bases. Given that fake news often means whatever “your side” thinks it does, there have been calls to instead use the terms misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation and disinformation describe different types of “information pollution choking public discourse.”4 Misinformation is false information that is spread regardless of the intent to deceive. Disinformation, on the other hand, is the intentional spreading of inaccurate information. The main difference between the two concepts is that misinformation is shared accidentally while disinformation is done so deliberately. Fake news is content that intentionally • • • •

is false in its entirety or in part, leaves out facts in an effort to distort the truth, misinterprets and misuses data, and takes information out of context.

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Fake news stories often fall under the guise of real news reporting—the websites’ design and writing style of “articles” mimic those of news outlets. The bogus stories can look like legitimate journalistic content, at least at frst glance. That’s one reason why it’s becoming more diffcult for people to discern fact from fction. Through an analysis of nearly 900 fake news articles, one study found the majority of them included traditional news values of timeliness, proximity, and prominence; were about government and politics; and were written in an inverted pyramid format.5 However, there was one difference that stood out from journalistic content. The majority of fake news articles analyzed included the opinions of their author(s), according to the study. This fnding is not surprising, considering that fake news content is intended to be highly biased and promote a particular viewpoint. What’s the motivation behind those who produce fake news? Fake news is created to be widely shared in an attempt to • • •

make money, typically through online advertising, promote or discredit a person, company, movement, or cause, and gain politically, particularly during an election.

Among those spewing false content are hyperpartisan political websites and their associated social media accounts. The two most well-known operations of this kind are Breitbart and Infowars, which have a robust staff that “commonly wrap kernels of truth in false context in order to rile up their readers.”6 There are also the little guys, smaller players. From teenagers in Macedonia to a guy sitting in his living room in Kansas, fake news can be exported by just about anyone anywhere. The more sinister forms of fake news are coordinated campaigns that aim to sow confusion, muddy discussions, and shape a narrative during volatile events. This type of disinformation can provoke further unrest. The masterminds behind these efforts are sometimes unknown. In 2020, for instance, an account with just three followers generated half a million tweets within nine hours of being created. Using the hashtag #dcblackout, the account shared disinformation about the extent of unrest in Washington, D.C. related to protests against police violence. The tweets spread untrue claims that authorities had blocked demonstrators from

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communicating on their mobile devices in an effort to crack down on their activity. As tweets with the #dcblackout hashtag gained momentum, several Twitter accounts shared a photo of the Washington Monument supposedly being burned by demonstrators. It quickly went viral. The image, containing a fre stretching halfway up the 550-foot-tall monument, was a screenshot from the fctional TV show “Designated Survivor.” The degree of mayhem portrayed in the tweets went far beyond reality. It was a coordinated attempt to disrupt the conversation about the real issues. The intense polarization of the moment provided fertile ground for the disinformation campaign. Twitter said hundreds of “spammy” accounts using #dcblackout were suspended. Fake content is becoming even more deceptive over time and thus harder to detect. Enter deepfakes—manipulated visuals. Deepfake refers to video content in which the face and/or voice of a person has been manipulated through the use of artifcial intelligence in a way that makes the content look authentic.7 For example, a video of a politician saying something he or she didn’t. The potential ramifcations of this type of content manipulation are worrisome. What could go wrong? It’s not hard to imagine. “If you can change visual images, you can change history,” said digital forensics expert Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.8 

Post-truth world Among the most pressing concerns in this information ecosystem is a perceived lack of appreciation for content that is truthful. Oxford Dictionaries named “post-truth” the 2016 word of the year. In making the announcement, the president of Oxford Dictionaries said that he “wouldn’t be surprised if post-truth becomes one of the defning words of our times.”10 Post-truth is defned as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less infuential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” The word was chosen based on the highlycharged discourse in 2016 surrounding both the U.S. presidential election and the Brexit referendum vote. It didn’t end there, of course. Even when one can view the truth in front of their eyes, it’s not enough. Seeing isn’t believing.

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Photo 9.3 Many fake news sites, such as the one pictured here, masquerade as journalism. They mimic the look of news outlets’ websites. In their efforts to trick people, the producers of fake content also take into consideration how journalists structure news articles and how people consume information. “Beyond the headline and the frst couple of paragraphs people totally stop reading, so as long as the frst two or three paragraphs sound like legitimate news then you can do whatever you want at the end of the story,” said one creator of fake news sites.9

One of the most striking examples of this took place the day following Trump’s inauguration ceremony. Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary, called a news conference to dispute the estimates being accurately reported by journalists about the number of people who had attended the inauguration. Trump and his team falsely claimed it was the largest inauguration crowd ever. It wasn’t. I covered the inauguration with a team of students for PBS NewsHour. When called on to defend Spicer’s false statement, White House counsel Kellyanne Conway said they had “alternative facts” that backed up the infated attendance number. “Alternative facts” replaced actual facts. As if that wasn’t troubling enough, some believed these demonstrable falsehoods and shared them on social media. Disinformation from inside the

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White House continued throughout Trump’s presidency and after his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. Trump intentionally attempted to delegitimize the validity of the 2020 election results in part by sowing doubt in people’s minds about the reliability of the voting process. The irrelevancy of truth for a segment of the population should certainly concern you. As a journalist or student studying journalism, you might ask yourself: how will our work as tellers of truthful and accurate information be valued in this “post-truth world”? To live in a post-truth world doesn’t mean that truth no longer matters or that no one cares about it, according Lee McIntyre (@LeeCMcIntyre), author of the book Post-Truth.11 “It means that we live in an era where truth is at risk, where we’re in danger of losing sight of what truth means. In my book, I defne post-truth as the political subordination of reality,” said McIntyre during an interview with National Public Radio member station WBUR. “So I think of posttruth as a tactic that’s used by authoritarians and their wannabes to control the fow of information so that they can then control the populace.”12

Why people share fake news People are more susceptible to circulate fake news—no matter how outrageous it is—when it supports their own biases and viewpoints. The concept of confrmation bias helps to explain why. Confrmation bias is the tendency to accept as accurate and credible those sources and messages that agree with your viewpoints and to discredit those that contradict your viewpoints. Research shows that people are prone to share information, even if they know that it’s inaccurate, when the content affrms how they feel. Related to confrmation bias is the echo chamber effect. It certainly doesn’t help that social media users, by their own choice and thanks to algorithms, tend to be exposed to information they want to see. This creates an echo chamber in which their own opinions reverberate back to them. In this chamber, similar disinformation is repeatedly circulated. The more often someone is exposed to the same information, the more likely they are to believe it, regardless of its truthfulness. This concept is known as the illusory truth effect. As the defnition of post-truth implies, emotion is a key component. False content often evokes a strong emotional response, appealing to the

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heart instead of logic. In those instances, the odds that one will share disinformation greatly increases. There’s a psychological component behind the work of disinformation creators. They leverage our cognitive predispositions in a way that packs an emotional punch. By design, their content plays on people’s emotions. It’s no wonder that the most effective disinformation makes us fearful, angry, surprised, or euphoric.13 The social gratifcation of sharing disinformation is another concept that sheds light on the issue at hand.14 Some get a thrill from passing fake news off as real. Racking up likes, comments, and reshares triggers a sense of emotional satisfaction that can become addictive. In turn, there’s an urge to continue sharing this type of content among like-minded followers.15 The consistent sharing of posts and articles that contain inaccuracies continues to fuel the disinformation problem by flling users’ streams with information pollution. False information is amplifed. The trickle-down effect creates a vicious cycle in which it’s circulated over and over again. Given the complexities of why people share fake news, efforts to curb the “infodemic” should make people aware of how they process information. Certainly, media literacy education, as we’ll discuss in more detail shortly, is a step in the right direction. But those efforts should go beyond simply spotting fact from fction.

Identifying fake news Though the stubborn lasting power of fake news makes it diffcult to stamp out, taking small steps can help to combat the problem. The tips here are intended to be used in conjunction with the advice outlined in the previous chapter’s Verifcation of User-Generated Content section. Check your emotions. Start with a healthy dose of emotional skepticism, according to Claire Wardle (@cward1e), co-founder and director of First Draft, a nonproft dedicated to tackling misinformation. What’s your frst reaction? If something you see triggers a strong emotional response, step back from your device. Take the time to check the veracity of the claims and the source. “We should develop more emotional skepticism because when we see something as we’re standing in line for coffee and … we reshare it without thinking, that’s by design. They want us to not be critical,” said Ward.16

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Be aware of your biases. As noted, we’re less likely to be critical of information that aligns with our viewpoints. Are you hoping that something is true or false? Refrain from sharing right away. Do your homework before deciding whether to share a social media post or article. There are far too many people who don’t bother to click on the link in a post in order to evaluate the content’s accuracy. Several studies, including one conducted by Columbia University and the French National Institute, found that a majority of people share links without ever having read the content beyond the headline.17 Consider the source/author. Once on a website, it’s time to interrogate. Given that fake news is increasingly presented in a similar style to real news from journalistic outlets, go beyond the look of a website or structure of an article. Start by checking to see if the site has an About section that speaks to its mission. Many legitimate news sites also have pages that describe their journalistic standards. On the About section, some bogus publications use fake mailing addresses. Do a Google search of the address. Additionally, a WHOIS search of a website will give you the information used to register that domain when it was set up. This search can be conducted at lookup.icann.org. Though many website creators request to hide personal information used in the registration process, a WHOIS search should at the very least provide the date a site was created. This date could indicate if a site is legitimate or not, particularly if the About section claims it’s older than it actually is. Conducting an online search of the outlet’s name can also reveal information about its trustworthiness. There are an increasing number of public lists that contain the names of fake news outlets. FactCheck.org maintains a robust one. Do some digging about the article author as well. Tracking down their biographical information can be revealing. Does the byline include the name of a real person? Do they have a background in the journalism industry? What do they typically write about? Where have they previously been employed? Intent: what’s driving them to produce this content? Evaluate the sourcing. Pay close attention to the people who are quoted in the story and any quantitative data used. Are the sources credible to be

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talking on this topic? Particularly for expert sources, do an online search to see if those quoted have the proper qualifcations and background. Furthermore, a journalistic piece should include sources that provide different perspectives, as long as they’re not purporting falsehoods, and not just one viewpoint. Arguments or assertions should stem from fact-based and logical analysis. In real journalism, claims should be supported by multiple sources, one way to spot the depth of research by the author. Lack of sources and attribution can signify that the story is suspect. Be certain that data is not taken out of context or misinterpreted. Additionally, click on each link to see where it takes you. Like a citation in a research paper, links should lead readers to credible sources and data about the topic of the report. Consider the tone. The News Literacy Project recommends that you ask yourself these questions about the tone of the headline and article text: Is the message too perfect? Is it overtly partisan? Does it claim to contain a secret or tell you something that “the media” doesn’t want you to know? Is it loaded with dramatic language and exclamation points?18 Check the URL. Be on the lookout for strange website addresses— another red fag. Fake versions of actual news websites often end with .com .co or lo. For instance, a fake news website with the domain abcnews.com.co was created to mirror that of ABC News. At one point, the site used a logo that looked nearly identical to the news outlet’s. What’s being reported elsewhere? Do an online search to see if journalistic outlets are reporting the same thing. If so, try to determine where the story frst appeared—is the original source credible? If you can’t fnd any other corroborating stories, it may be fake news. Has it been debunked by independent fact-checkers such as FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, or Snopes? Social media history. As discussed in detail in the previous chapter, scrutinize the social media of the source. Does their content appear to be that of a journalist? Is it partisan in nature? Do they typically “report” about the topic in question? Coordinated fake news campaigns frequently involve automated accounts. How can you spot them? Bot accounts typically follow very few users, have few followers, and share a signifcant number of posts in a short period of time.

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MANIPULATED VIDEO The Washington Post found three main ways videos are being used as a weapon to mislead people.19 Each category has two parts. Missing Context. The context of the video is lacking key details or misstated. Misrepresentation is when authentic unaltered video is presented with inaccurate information. This is commonly done by claiming the video was taken at a different location or time than it actually was. Isolation is another way of skewing context. A portion of video from a longer clip is shared. In doing so, a false narrative is created that doesn’t accurately reflect what happened. Deceptive Editing. The video has been edited and/or rearranged. Omission is one deceptive editing technique by which portions are edited out of a video and the remaining video is presented as the complete narrative. Splicing is the editing together of clips in a way that makes it sound or look as though someone said or did something they didn’t. For example, words from a speech or interview are rearranged. Malicious Transformation. Part or all of the video has been manipulated. Doctoring occurs when frames of actual footage are altered through techniques such as dubbing audio, changing the speed, and cropping. Fabrication is the use of artificial intelligence to create videos that look convincingly real. Deepfakes fall into this category.

Shared responsibilities to combat fake news No one entity can solve the misinformation problem on its own. Combatting fake content requires a multifaceted approach that includes technology companies, journalists, educators, and the public attacking it from all sides. Technology companies Technology companies have been criticized for not taking steps soon enough to curb information pollution. During and following the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections, the pressure on Facebook, Twitter,

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and Google intensifed. In the three months leading up to the 2016 election, one analysis found that top-performing fake election news stories on Facebook generated more engagement than top-performing stories from major news outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NBC News.20 Fake content was not only shared on Facebook and other social media platforms, but also appeared high in Google search results. In the weeks after Trump’s win in 2016, stories by fake news sites prominently showed up for those doing a Google search about the election. Google’s top search result for “fnal election results” and similar phrases was of a fake news website with inaccurate numbers.21 During the 2020 election, Trump himself was a main source of disinformation—his Twitter feed flled with lies about the American voting system and the election results. Twitter began fagging his inaccurate tweets as “disputed.” The rampant diffusion of disinformation surrounding both elections brought to the forefront the role technology companies play in allowing fake content to spread like wildfre and the responsibility they should assume in solving the problem. Among the questions this raises is the extent to which these companies should act as gatekeepers, fltering information that makes it into our feeds. Technology companies have been criticized for failing to prioritize factually accurate content, including reporting from legitimate news outlets. Social media companies have responded with strategies that focus heavily on content moderation. New features allow users to fag questionable content. In addition, Facebook has partnered with third-party fact-checking organizations to identify and review false content. The problem goes beyond content moderation though. The solution to such a complex ubiquitous issue is not that simplistic. Fake news is designed to take advantage of how the system works algorithmically and fnancially.22 “Like a virus, fake news thrives by understanding its host, using the system against itself. And, like a virus, rendering it inert may require altering the nature of the host itself—even the risk of killing it,” said Tarleton Gillespie (@TarletonG), principal researcher at Microsoft.23

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The algorithms of search engines and social media platforms tend to favor articles that are shared and clicked the most. Meantime, creators of fake news websites and articles utilize SEO tactics to trick the search engines to deem their content “more relevant.” The technology companies claim they’re constantly tweaking algorithms in an effort to weed out parasitic content. Then, there’s the fnancial aspect: fake news is proftable. Facebook and Google are the biggest sellers of online ads. Fake news creators have made money by tapping into both technology companies’ advertising systems. Through Google’s AdSense, distributors of fake news have been able to host ads on their websites. They receive a portion of the money paid for those ads. The more visitors to a site, the more likely ads there will be clicked. Those clicks add up to dollars. You can see then why fake news creators want their content to be spread widely. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Macedonia became ground zero in the production of fake news. More than 100 fake news sites were traced to Veles, a former factory town in Macedonia.24 Many of those creating content for the sites were young males trying to make money. Their Google-ad supported websites did the trick. In just four months, one webmaster made $16,000 from his two sites.25 Cutting off the fnancial incentives of creating and sharing fake news is key to dismantling the structurally fawed system. Google and Facebook have responded by attempting to kick fake news purveyors off their advertising networks.26 It’s an uphill battle as tactics to outsmart the imperfect system and evade detection are never-ending. A study published in 2019 showed that around that time Google still placed ads on 70 percent of the sites that create fake content.27 The ads on the social media sites themselves are also part of the problem. Technology companies have rolled out efforts to tamp down ones that are misleading. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an uptick in the number of social media ads using falsities in order to sell products (The World Health Organization named the over-abundance of information about the pandemic an “Infodemic.”). Facebook banned these types of ads. It also barred any new political ads, in the weeks leading up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Twitter prohibits most political ads. A halt on political ads could help to squash the spread of the disinformation contained in them.

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Journalists The rise of fake news has forced journalists to do some self-refection, to contemplate their roles and responsibilities in this ever-evolving information ecosystem. Healthy democratic societies rely on a free press to report truthful information. Journalists serve as what is known as the Fourth Estate, a check on the most powerful. Free press is critical to ensuring that elected offcials, among others in powerful positions, are held accountable. However, attempts to undermine this role are pervasive. As noted in the beginning of this chapter, the term fake news has been used to cast doubt on honest and ethical journalism. Research by the Pew Research Center shows that Americans are looking to journalists to combat the fake news problem.28 A majority believes journalists have the most responsibility in reducing the amount of made-up information, according to the study. The research also found that the public singles out two groups as the primary source of fake news: politicians (57 percent) and activist groups (53 percent). In what may be a glimmer of hope, journalists ranked lower on that list. Educating the public about the fundamental role of journalism is one step the industry should take to fght fake news. Such efforts must include how journalists do their work. Journalists ought to do a better job of explaining the process of reporting—the routines and norms associated with fact-checking, verifying, and the like. That’s where social media comes into play. It’s a platform where we have an opportunity to lift the veil on our reporting processes, which, by no fault of their own, is not generally understood by the public. We can connect directly with our audiences and transparently show them the effort it takes to research and report factually accurate information. Collaborations between journalists and educators are also worthwhile. For example, the Society of Professional Journalists launched #Press4Education, an initiative through which journalists visit classrooms to teach about the role of journalism and the importance of being media literate. Full disclosure, I was a member of the committee that developed this initiative. Primary and secondary education teachers can request to have a journalist in their region conduct lessons on a range of topics, including ethics, fake news, and reporting basics. Students are able to interact with the people behind “real news” and learn about what their day-to-day responsibilities entail. These interactions over time can help

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the next generation be better informed citizens and rebuild public trust in journalism. Yes, journalists have been duped by fake news. It occasionally fnds its way into news outlets’ reporting. These types of mistakes by journalists, though unintentional, only amplify the rhetoric that real journalists produce fake news. It also exposes gaps in the readiness of newsrooms to respond to escalating threats of disinformation. Some fake content is created in an attempt to discredit journalists and undermine the profession by tricking them into reporting it as fact. The goal of many disinformation campaigns is to reduce confdence in all news.29 That’s where newsroom training and policies come into play. Guidelines for fact-checking and verifying online claims and content produced by others, particularly user-generated content, is articulated in many newsrooms’ social media policies. Some larger outlets have “forensics” teams whose sole responsibility is to vet this kind of content. When mistakes are made, be accountable. Admit the error and issue a correction. Giving journalists an opportunity to refresh their skills is also a step in the right direction. For instance, TEGNA, a U.S. media company, partnered with First Draft to train journalists in its local newsrooms to identify and verify false information online. Newsrooms are also expanding fact-checking efforts to inform audiences about the most-circulated disinformation. The Associated Press produces a weekly roundup called “NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week.” It debunks some of the most popular but untrue stories and visuals of the week. Accompanying each claim in the roundup is an explanation, based on credible sources, of why it’s not true. The @APFactCheck Twitter account provides similar updates as well as live fact-checking around big events. Aside from setting the record straight about specifc falsehoods, this initiative reports about the general problem of fake news.

TRANSPARENCY: JOURNALIST SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT Caitlin Dewey (@caitlindewey), a reporter for The Buffalo News in New York, used Twitter as a tool to educate the public about how she covered an anti-social-distancing protest. In a Twitter thread, Dewey explains that the organizer’s claims are a form of disinformation.30 She then details her reporting process—how she debunks the

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Photo 9.4 & 9.5 In this Twitter thread, a journalist explains her rationale behind how she reported about false claims made by those who organized a protest against social distancing. falsehoods in an effort to avoid giving protestors a platform to spew disinformation. Dewey’s approach is an example of how journalists can help fight misinformation and give the public a peek inside the reporting process. Dewey’s intentions in her reporting of the story are clear: she seeks to tell the truth. We learn the steps she takes to accomplish this.

Educators Children are practically born with mobile devices in their hands nowadays. They’re consuming content online beginning at quite a young age. Therefore, educating them about the positives and negatives of our online ecosystem should begin as early as elementary school. The classroom can play an important role in combatting the problem of misinformation and fostering media literacy. Educators, including librarians, are on the

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frontlines, helping youth navigate the online landscape. Media literacy as a solution has gained momentum. There’s no shortage of data that supports why media literacy efforts in the classroom are needed. Two large-scale studies by researchers at Stanford University found widespread confusion among middle school, high school, and college students about how to assess online information.31 “Many people assume that because young people are fuent in social media they are equally perceptive about what they fnd there,” said Sam Wineburg (@samwineburg), co-author of both studies. “Our work shows the opposite to be true.”32 The researchers found most students struggled to assess website information, check article sources, and validate social media claims. The majority of middle school students mistook an ad, identifed with the words “sponsored content,” for a news story. More than half of high school students believed a grainy video claiming to show ballot stuffng in the 2016 Democratic primaries (the video was recorded in Russia) constituted “strong evidence” of voter fraud in the United States. One assessment required middle schoolers to explain why they might not trust an article on fnancial planning that was written by a bank executive and sponsored by a bank. Many students did not cite authorship or article sponsorship as key reasons for not believing the article. The results are clearly troubling. Given the complexity of the problem, media literacy efforts must go beyond checklists about how to spot fake news. And they are. Teachers and librarians are increasingly taking up the fght in ways that don’t just scratch the surface.33 More holistic media literacy education includes topics discussed in this chapter, such as how we cognitively process information, who’s behind the information, the importance of relying on credible information, the role of journalism in a democratic society, and how technology companies’ platforms have enabled the problem. It’s a matter of civic health. “To be democracy ready, all students must be media literate,” asserted a report issued by a coalition of education and civic organizations in New York state.34 The report recommended that all schools in the state be staffed with library media specialists, given that their licensing requires extensive media literacy training; all districts be required to provide access to media literacy professional development for teachers; and all ninth graders be required to take a one-semester media literacy course in order to graduate. To this latter point, students would beneft from not

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only taking a course dedicated to the topic, but also having media literacy infused throughout the curriculum. “Our students are speeding along the information superhighway without a license. Before letting them loose, let’s at least make sure they’ve passed the drivers’ test,” said Wineburg.35 Public With so many people getting “news” from social media, everyone is at risk for spreading and consuming misinformation, no matter their background. Accordingly, citizens must assume their civic responsibility. Critical consumers of information who can spot false information and demand credible content are needed for a healthy society. “In a democracy, we are all responsible. We are all sovereign. It’s not any one person’s job to run it. It’s all of ours. And so that means we all just have to commit to some things that are hard. And the truth is hard,” said Christopher Beem, of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, during an interview about the meaning of post-truth world.36 Each of us must hold ourselves and each other accountable in the fght against information pollution. Would you throw bleach into a stream? Would you want someone else to do so? If you see litter, would you simply walk past it? Would you call out someone who litters in front of you? Reliable information is to civic health what clean water and proper sanitation are to public health, according to Wineburg.37 Take steps to curb the information pollution—that includes speaking up when someone intentionally or not shares false information. If you later realize something you shared is inaccurate, let your followers know. In an encouraging sign, a Pew Research study shows that a signifcant portion of the population recognizes the gravity of the problem. Many American adults believe made-up information is causing serious harm to the nation and needs to be stopped, according to the survey.38 Interestingly enough, age may not matter all that much. People beyond youth need the knowledge and tools to combat misinformation. Many adults also have diffculty assessing information that they encounter online. Researchers at Princeton University and New York University found that Facebook users 65 and older, compared to adults under 29, posted seven

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times as many articles from fake news websites during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.39 Media literacy efforts are now targeting older adults. Senior centers and libraries have increased fake news workshops for this demographic. The journalism industry is also getting involved. The journalism nonproft Poynter Institute has partnered with AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) to launch a program to equip people 50 and older with the skills to navigate misinformation. Data about the relationship between media literacy and people’s ability to distinguish between low- and high-quality news is encouraging. Subtle nudges, little reminders that draw attention to the problem and solutions, can go a long way in conditioning people to be skeptical about information they come across. Multiple research studies show media literacy “interventions”—such as tips to spot fake news and pop-up warnings—help to fght the spread of misinformation.40 These reminders reduce people’s impulse to share before checking the accuracy of the content. “Nudging people to think about accuracy is a simple way to improve choices about what to share on social media,” according to a group of researchers who studied the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.41 The amount of effort it takes to fnd out if something is accurate can be a barrier that prevents people from acting. The term cognitive miser helps to explain this mindset. Cognitive miser describes the tendency of the human brain to solve problems in the most simple and straight-forward way.42 In doing so, just as a miser tries to save money, the brain attempts to conserve energy. In developing media literacy strategies for the public, this concept should be considered. The food of content is overwhelming. We can only absorb so much in a given period of time. Taking steps to assess information demands cognitive energy. It’s simply not practical for the public to rigorously scrutinize every piece of content.43 Instead, people rely on cognitive shortcuts, those that require less energy, to judge the quality of information.44 Keeping the cognitive miser approach to information-processing in mind, media literacy strategies might be more effective if they include ways for the public to exert minimal effort in determining the accuracy of content.

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MEDIA LITERACY EDUCATION: EMPOWERING STUDENTS

Photo 9.6 & 9.7 Cyndy Scheibe and Chris Sperry. Cyndy Scheibe, a Professor of Psychology, is the founder and executive director of Project Look Sharp. Chris Sperry is Project Look Sharp’s director of curriculum and staff development. Project Look Sharp (projectlooksharp.org) is one of the leading media literacy organizations serving K-16 educators and a pioneer of curriculum-driven media literacy education. What’s at the heart of media literacy? Chris: We see media literacy as a developmental process. We want everyone to become media literate, including adults. Our focus is on providing information and skills to students so they can learn how to arrive at the truth. Media literacy is not just about asking if there’s bias in a message—there’s always bias. It’s about learning how to identify biases in mediated messages and understanding the role of our own biases as consumers of information. Students must not only be able to decode messages while keeping their own biases in mind, but also thoughtfully reflect on their own thinking. A willingness to change your views when confronted with credible new information is paramount. Cyndy: Project Look Sharp also supports the creation of media messages as a core part of media literacy education. We’ve worked with kindergarten teachers who have a class Twitter account from which the entire class shares “news.” The students decide what to report and what’s not newsworthy. In this process, they learn how to make decisions, and the impact

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of those decisions, as media creators. We’re all information sharers in ways that were never possible, so this is a critical component. In my book, The Teacher’s Guide to Media Literacy, one of the activities I suggest teachers assign to their students is related to being a journalist. Students are to write two articles about an event they cover. One article must make the event look positive, the other should be negative. They can’t lie, though, in their reporting. They must include only truthfulness—it’s an exercise in spin. They learn about the process of journalism: how stories are made and how they can be intentionally or unintentionally spun one way or another depending on headlines, images, adjectives, who is interviewed, and more. It gives them an appreciation for the journalist process. How concerned should we be about the concept of post-truth—a segment of the population that doesn’t appreciate true facts? Chris: Facts and truthfulness matter. They’re important. However, the meaning-making of all of us isn’t predominantly about seeing facts that contradict or shift our opinion. That’s a wonderful enlightenment goal but we have to recognize the psychology of humans—that’s not how we operate. We need to speak truth, but also constantly bring up limitations of thinking and the role that emotions and identity play. The older we get, the more we get set in our ways; therefore, if we don’t integrate habits and motivations of critical thinking about mediated messages—including books, pictures, paintings—starting in kindergarten, then those initiatives will only get to some people. An integrated approach throughout the curriculum will have long-term cultural implications about our orientation toward information, truth, and ideas. Cyndy: The psychology of inquiry is so important to teach children at an early age. One of the defining elements of critical thinking, which is the basis of media literacy, is that facts matter. Logical reasoning has to matter in order to think critically and we have to be willing to change our mind in light of new evidence. If we teach this from an early age, we have a better chance of ensuring our youngest are lifelong informed citizens who appreciate truth and do not get easily swept up in the information pollution. What role do journalists play in this media ecosystem filled with disinformation? Cyndy: For a while now, I have been concerned that journalists’ attempts to be objective could actually be a disservice to the public. It has only

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been recently that we’ve seen journalists use language that is not obfuscating in some way—calling out lies of Donald Trump following his loss in the election. Disinformation has been going on for years though and journalists have been eating it up and reporting it. If someone says something that you know isn’t true, for you not to say so implies it is true. This goes beyond the idea that journalists should just report lies without calling them that. Journalists also need to be more aware of their own biases that come out in different ways in their reporting: the idea of who is in the newsroom and how that influences what stories are covered and who reporters have access to interview. If you’re in a predominantly white newsroom, even if you consciously work to not be biased in your coverage, there will be bias. Chris: Understanding privilege, understanding dominant culture is so important. Your views and biases become visible when they’re the norm. Both journalists and educators are struggling with some of the same issues: truth seeking and evidence, to embrace looking at diverse perspectives and showing not everything is equal.

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Resources. Follow First Draft on Twitter and Instagram for the latest about fighting misinformation. The Instagram account contains Stories with quick tips you can put to use right away. Also, visit the First Draft website, firstdraftnews.org, where you can find quizzes, trainings, and the latest research on the topic.

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Discussion. As a class, discuss the following questions. Additionally, consider writing a blog post and Twitter thread that addresses them. ¾

How would you define fake news? Do you agree with the definitions included in this chapter?

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What responsibility should technology companies assume in fighting the spread of misinformation? To what extent are they to blame for the proliferation of it?

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How do we combat fake news? Discuss the role of technology companies, journalists, educators, and the public.

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Victim or villain? The argument has been made that the current state of journalism contributes to the problem of fake news.45 Journalists’ own mistakes, even when unintentional, can lead to mistrust. In addition, sensationalism and the integration of opinion into reporting further discredits the industry. On cable news channels, the line between news and opinion is not well defined. Adding to this problem are journalists on social media who share their personal opinions about stories that they cover. This can all add up to confusion for the public. These actions can leave indelible marks—fanning the flames of mistrust and making people question why they should trust journalists to tell “real” news. Are journalists part of the problem or victims of it? Both? Discuss as a class.

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Manipulated media, real consequences. Consider these hypothetical scenarios, part of the Reuters News Agency’s course on manipulated media.46 What might be the outcome? ¾

A CEO gives an earnings update in a video posted to his company’s website. A deepfake created from this video has him reporting very different earnings and outlook figures.

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A fire kills several residents of an apartment building. The fire department is accused of being slow to respond. Video is circulated that shows a street block in flames, with only one police car present. The video has been manipulated. Images of the fire trucks and rescue vehicles have been removed from the video.

Notes 1 Todd Haselton, “Here Are Some of the Ads Russia Was Posting to Facebook,” CNBC, November 1, 2017. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/ here-are-some-of-the-ads-russia-was-posting-to-facebook.html. 2 Bence Kollanyi, Philip N. Howard, and Samuel C. Woolley, “Bots and Automation over Twitter During the Third U.S. Presidential Debate,” Oxford Internet Institute, October 31, 2016. https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/botsand-automation-over-twitter-during-the-third-u-s-presidential-debate. 3 Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Twitter Is Sweeping Out Fake Accounts Like Never Before, Putting User Growth at Risk,” The Washington Post, July 6, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/07/ 06/twitter-is-sweeping-out-fake-accounts-like-never-before-putting-usergrowth-risk.

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4 Claire Wardle, “Journalism and the New Information Ecosystem: Responsibilities and Challenges,” Fake News: Understanding Media and Misinformation in the Digital Age (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2020), 71. 5 “What Is (Fake) News? Analyzing News Value (and More) in Fake Stories,” Media and Communication 9, no. 2 (forthcoming). 6 Melissa Zimdars, “Introduction,” Fake News: Understanding Media and Misinformation in the Digital Age (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2020), 2. 7 “Deepfake,” Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/e/tech-science/ deepfake. 8 Jason Bellini, “Deepfake Videos Are Getting Real and That’s a Problem,” The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Ex83dhTn0IU. 9 “The Rise and Rise of Fake News,” BBC News, November 6, 2016. https:// www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-37846860. 10 “‘Post-truth’ Declared Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries,” BBC News, November 16, 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37995600. 11 Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2018). 12 Hilary McQuilkin and Meghna Chakrabarti, “Are We Living in a Post-Truth World?” WBUR, February 27, 2020. https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/ 02/27/part-iv-post-truth. 13 Julio Reis, Fabrício Benevenuto, Pedro Vaz de Melo, Raquel Prates, Haewoon Kwak, and Jisun An, “Breaking the News: First Impressions Matter on Online News,” Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, Oxford, 2015. https://homepages.dcc.ufmg .br/~fabricio/download/icwsm-news-reis.pdf. 14 Nicholas David Bowman and Elizabeth Cohen, “Mental Shortcuts, Emotion, and Social Rewards: The Challenges of Detecting and Resisting Fake News,” Fake News: Understanding Media and Misinformation in the Digital Age (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2020). 15 Ibid. 16 Nicole Brown, “Emotional Skepticism Needed to Stop Spread of Deepfakes on Social Media, Expert Says,” CBS News, November 12, 2019. https:// www.cbsnews.com/news/deepfakes-on-social-media-users-have-responsibility-not-to-spread-fake-content-expert-says. 17 Maksym Gabielkov, Arthi Ramachandran, Augustin Chaintreau, and Arnaud Legout, “Social Clicks: What and Who Gets Read on Twitter?” ACM SIGMETRICS / IFIP Performance 2016, Jun 2016, Antibes Juan-les-Pins, France. hal-01281190. 18 “Don’t Get Fooled: 7 Simple Steps,” The News Literacy Project. https:// newslit.org/7-steps/.

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19 “Seeing Isn’t Believing: The Fact Checker’s Guide to Manipulated Video,” The Washington Post, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/ 2019/politics/fact-checker/manipulated-video-guide. 20 Craig Silverman, “This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News on Facebook,” BuzzFeed, November 16, 2016. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/viral-fakeelection-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook. 21 Philip Bump, “Google’s Top News Link for ‘Final Election Results’ Goes to a Fake News Site with False Numbers,” The Washington Post, November 14, 2106. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/14/ googles-top-news-link-for-final-election-results-goes-to-a-fake-news-sitewith-false-numbers. 22 Tarleton Gillespie, “Platforms Throw Content Moderation at Every Problem,” Fake News: Understanding Media and Misinformation in the Digital Age (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2020). 23 Ibid, 332. 24 Samanth Subramanian, “The Macedonian Teens Who Mastered Fake News,” Wired, February 15, 2017. https://www.wired.com/2017/02/velesmacedonia-fake-news. 25 Ibid. 26 Kaveh Waddell, “Facebook and Google Won’t Let Fake News Sites Use Their Ad Networks,” The Atlantic, November 15, 2016. https://www.theatlantic .com/technology/archive/2016/11/facebook-and-google-wont-let-fakenews-sites-use-their-ads-platforms/507737. 27 “The Quarter Billion Dollar Question: How Is Disinformation Gaming Ad Tech?” Global Disinformation Index, September 2019. https://disinformationindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/GDI_Ad-tech_Report_Screen _AW16.pdf. 28 Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Galen Stocking, Mason Walker, and Sophia Fedeli, “Many Americans Say Made-Up News Is a Critical Problem That Needs to be Fixed,” Pew Research Center, June 5, 2019. https://www.journalism.org/2019/06/05/many-americans-say-made-up-news-is-a-criticalproblem-that-needs-to-be-fixed. 29 Gordon Pennycook and David Rand, “The Right Way to Fight Fake News,” The New York Times, May 24, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/ opinion/fake-news-social-media.html. 30 Caitlin Dewey, Twitter post, April 19, 2020. https://twitter.com/caitlindewey/ status/1251990452938641408. 31 Sarah McGrew, Joel Breakstone, Teresa Ortega, Mark Smith, and Sam Wineburg, “Can Students Evaluate Online Sources? Learning from

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Assessments of Civic Online Reasoning,” Theory & Research in Social Education 46, no. 2 (2018), 165–193: https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2017. 1416320. Joel Breakstone, Mark Smith, Sam Wineburg, Amie Rapaport, Jill Carle, Marshall Garland, and Anna Saavedra, “Students’ Civic Online Reasoning: A National Portrait,” Stanford History Education Group & Gibson Consulting, 2018. https://purl.stanford.edu/gf151tb4868. Brooke Donald, “Stanford Researchers Find Students Have Trouble Judging the Credibility of Information Online,” Stanford University, November 22, 2016. https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-researchers-find-studentshave-trouble-judging-credibility-information-online. Sophia Alvarez Boyd, “5 Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News,” National Public Radio, February 16, 2017. https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/02/ 16/514364210/5-ways-teachers-are-fighting-fake-news. “Developing Digital Citizens: Media Literacy Education for All Students,” DemocracyReady NY, 2020. http://www.democracyreadyny.org/Develo ping-Digital-Citizens.pdf. Sam Wineburg, “Our Democracy Is at Risk,” Stanford Higher Education Group. https://cor.stanford.edu/whats-at-stake. Hilary McQuilkin and Meghna Chakrabarti, “Are We Living in A Post-Truth World?” Sam Wineburg, “Our Democracy Is at Risk.” Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Galen Stocking, Mason Walker, and Sophia Fedeli, “Many Americans Say Made-Up News Is a Critical Problem That Needs to Be Fixed.” Andrew Guess, Jonathan Nagler, and Joshua Tucker, “Less Than You Think: Prevalence and Prediction of Fake News Dissemination on Facebook,” Science Advances 5, no. 1 (2019): https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/ 5/1/eaau4586. Andrew M. Guess, Michael Lerner, Benjamin Lyons, Jacob M. Montgomery, Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler, and Neelanjan Sircar, “A Digital Media Literacy Intervention Increases Discernment Between Mainstream and False News in The United States and India,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 17, no. 27 (2020), 15536–15545: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/27/15536. Gordon Pennycook, Jonathon McPhetres, Yunhao Zhang, Jackson G. Lu, and David G. Rand, “Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Experimental Evidence for a Scalable Accuracy-Nudge Intervention,” Psychological Science 31, no. 7 (2020), 770–780: https://journals.sagepub. com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797620939054.

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41 Gordon Pennycook, Jonathon McPhetres, Yunhao Zhang, Jackson G. Lu, and David G. Rand, “Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Experimental Evidence for a Scalable Accuracy-Nudge Intervention.” 42 Susan T. Fiske and Shelley E. Taylor, Social Cognition: From Brain to Culture, 2nd ed. (Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2013). 43 Nicholas David Bowman and Elizabeth Cohen, “Mental Shortcuts, Emotion, and Social Rewards: The Challenges of Detecting and Resisting Fake News.” 44 Ibid. 45 Johan Farkas and Jannick Schou, Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy: Mapping the Politics of Falsehoods (New York: Routledge, 2019), 45–63. 46 “Identifying and Tackling Manipulated Media,” Reuters News Agency. https://www.reuters.com/manipulatedmedia.

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In this chapter, you will

• • • •

Discover why mobile and social media savviness is important to the success of current and future journalists’ careers. Unpack the data about the skills newsroom hiring managers are prioritizing. Explore the increasing number of newsroom positions dedicated solely to mobile and social media. Discuss the use of social media as a tool in the job hunt and how the topic is now a key part of the interview process.

Shortly after Eddie Dowd (@EddieDowdTV) graduated from journalism school, he landed an interview for a video journalist position at a Nebraska television station. The station’s assistant news director sent him a breaking DOI: 10.4324/9781003186779-10

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news scenario and asked Dowd to write stories for television and web as well as craft posts for Facebook and Twitter. “They wanted to see if I understood that each platform offers different ways to give news to people, but also comes with different audiences,” said Dowd. Fortunately, Dowd had learned how to take a story and distribute it across mobile and social media platforms. He landed the job. “News directors were impressed that I not only understood this changing feld, but that I also put that into practice.”

Qualif ications needed in today’s newsrooms Journalists just entering the feld, such as Dowd, and those who are more seasoned must be able to assume a range of job responsibilities in order to thrive in today’s newsrooms. This book has made that point abundantly clear, and all you have to do is look at job openings in newsrooms. Mobile and social media skills are must-have qualifcations listed in a broad range of journalism job postings. Journalism professor Deb Wenger (@dhwenger) has led several studies analyzing nearly 2,000 journalism job listings in the United States.1 The results show a notable shift in requirements for journalism positions from years prior. The number of postings that mention “mobile” and “social” has increased dramatically. Regardless of the type of newsroom, more jobs than ever before require journalists to produce content across multiple platforms and to understand how to monitor and increase audience engagement for their work, the study found. The overwhelming majority of the positions referenced social networking skills and the use of mobile devices to gather, produce, and deliver news. Social media was listed nearly as often as strong writing skills. As the audience becomes more mobile and social, the number of job descriptions with these mentions continues to increase.

SUPERPOWERS: SKILLS NEWSROOMS NEED NOW Digital skills. Traditional reporting competence. Entrepreneurial mindset. Journalists who have a combination of all three of these qualities are

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a journalism employer’s dream hire, according to a report by the TowKnight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism.2 When it comes to digital skills, newsroom managers surveyed for the study said the following were among the top hiring priorities: • • • • • •

Social media distribution Visual storytelling, particularly for social Social/engagement reporting User experience Audience development/user data and metrics Computer coding and development

Wenger’s studies note that experimentation with mobile content and exploring issues such as video orientation (vertical versus horizontal), social graphic design, and story formats are important for journalism students. For instance, photography and videography skills are not new. But adapting photo and video techniques for an audience that increasingly consumes news on mobile devices and social media is critical to capturing their attention. Being a solid journalist is about more than just technology. Clear writing, fact-checking, and critical thinking—those kinds of foundational journalistic skills still matter a lot. In job descriptions for all sorts of positions in newsrooms large and small, you can see the demand for journalists who have digital and core journalism skills—what I like to call “new school” and “old school” skills. Having a combination of both will give you the best chance of being hired and succeeding in the industry. When the Cox Media Group was hiring an entry-level reporter to work out of its digital-frst newsroom in Dayton, Ohio, the job description noted the need for “an All-Media Journalist whose enterprise and watchdog stories will reach customers through our wired and mobile digital sites, apps, newspaper, TV and radio stations.” “Excellent reporting and writing skills” and “a demonstrated social media presence” were listed as priorities. An understanding of the economics of the business (addressed in Chapter 2) was also mentioned in the job listing. The person in this position would be expected to build the outlet’s audience

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through the use of social media and ultimately “increase our digital revenues.” Likewise, the job description for a Government Watchdog Reporter at The Jackson Sun in Tennessee highlighted the importance of serving the audience across multiple platforms with “top-notch watchdog journalism.” Here’s a sampling of the job duties in the ad: • • •

• •

Researches, writes, and reports compelling journalism that continuously grows a fan base by informing and engaging readers. Promotes personal brand, the brands of colleagues, and the institutional brand, especially through the use of social media. Connects with the community through storytelling and outreach (social media, on-camera, forums, community leadership, etc.). Should have a strong understanding of building and interacting with social media followers. Collaborates with content team to provide all appropriate elements for stories (i.e., photos, videos and graphics). Works with content strategist and audience analyst to evaluate what’s working and what’s not, and develops ongoing plans to better satisfy audience needs.

Mobile and social media jobs and internships While mobile and social skills are now embedded in the job descriptions of reporters and other newsroom staff, there’s an entire sector of journalism positions that have exploded in number: those dedicated to mobile and social media. Facebook Live producer at The Washington Post. Social media producer at CNBC. Engagement reporter at The Texas Tribune.

NEW ROLES, NEW OPPORTUNITIES Who’s behind the scenes, shaping a newsroom’s mobile and social media strategy? Newsrooms have created new roles, such as these, to lead digital-first efforts:

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Social media producer Social media anchor/reporter Facebook Live producer Newsletter producer Audience engagement editor Mobile editor

These positions refect how newsrooms are adapting to the mobile audience. With the right mix of skills and willingness to experiment, you may fnd yourself in one of these positions in the not too distant future. They’re a good ft for those who are innovative and not afraid to test out new ways of doing journalism. What do people in these positions do? While nearly everyone in a newsroom is expected to contribute to new media platforms, spearheading the newsroom strategy is the responsibility of staff in these roles. And, that’s where the excitement comes in. In these positions, you can lead the charge in shaping the future of journalism. It’s about more than just tweeting. Duties include: • •

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Developing a strategy and using analytics to monitor its effectiveness. Advising staff members about the latest trends and training them on how to use mobile devices and social media for newsgathering, distribution, and engaging the audience. Planning and executing crowdsourced projects. Curating user-generated content and identifying misleading information. Managing the outlet’s social media accounts, including posting content, responding to comments, and engaging and growing an audience. Ensuring users have a positive experience on all platforms on which the outlet is publishing content.  

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Photo 10.1 & 10.2 From major news outlets to newsrooms in smaller markets, there are an increasing number of positions focused on social media.

Within a year after graduating from journalism school, Dylan Lyons began managing social media for the CBS Evening News. He taught even the most veteran journalists how to use social media to reach different audiences. “A huge part of my job was working to expand the CBS Evening News brand to reach as many different people as possible,” said Lyons. “The only way to do this successfully was to post consistently and accurately across social media platforms. CBS News has a reputation of fair and accurate reporting to uphold, and I was careful to mirror those values on our social media platforms.” Lyons shared stories, videos, photos, and breaking news updates throughout the day on the CBS Evening News’s social media accounts. He

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also monitored social media analytics to determine how much the CBS Evening News presence and engagement on social was growing. In editorial meetings, Lyons updated producers on the latest analytics and trends. His job responsibilities were really a mixed bag. Some days he produced social videos and created infographics. Lyons was also responsible for gathering elements from social media and securing permission to use the content. During the evening broadcast, he was in the control room where he live tweeted each story as it aired. “If journalism students want to get hired, it will be necessary for them to jump on the social bandwagon in journalistic ways starting in college,” said Lyons. That learning can happen during internships. When interning, pay close attention to how journalists and other staff members integrate mobile and social into their workday as well as to the responsibilities of those on the digital team. Some outlets are looking for interns to focus on mobile and social platforms. As a journalism student, Kristen Mirand (@kristen_mirand) interned at ABC News in Los Angeles and WSYR-TV in Syracuse, New York. At ABC News, Mirand regularly used an iPhone with mojo gear to shoot live reports that aired on the network’s 24/7 streaming channel. During her internship at WSYR-TV, she helped manage social media for the station’s daily lifestyle show. “While the show was airing I would live tweet and post to Instagram. I frequently snapped photos from inside the studio and then shared in realtime on social media what guests and the hosts were discussing,” said Mirand, who is now a multimedia reporter at a station in Virginia. “Being accurate and engaging were a top priority.”  Using social media skillfully as an intern is one way to grab the attention of people in the newsroom. Andrew Gibson (@AndrewGibson27), whose frst gig out of journalism school was at The Orlando Sentinel, recommends interacting with newsroom staff not only in person, but also on social. “Just following them isn’t enough. It’s crucial to prove you understand why it’s called social media. Talk to reporters about their stories, share links relevant to their beats and maybe even drop a few cheesy journalist jokes,” said Gibson.3 The interactions and connections you make during internships are invaluable. They’re one reason why internship experience leads to better hiring opportunities for journalism graduates.

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Photo 10.3 As a journalism student interning with ABC News in Los Angeles, Kristen Mirand (right) used an iPhone and mobile journalism gear to help cover the Oscars for the network. Courtesy: Kristen Mirand.

In fact, before being hired by The Sentinel, Gibson was an interactive/ online intern at the outlet. It’s a similar story for Lyons. He already had a foot in the door at CBS News, having interned at the network’s London bureau and with its investigative unit in New York City.

Finding job and internship leads Start now to plan your career path. In college, explore the job listings and descriptions in the journalism feld. Decide what your post-college career goals are, and use the job descriptions as guides to the skills and qualifcations you’ll need. Part of that plan should be at least one internship in a newsroom. The earlier you set foot in a newsroom, the better. Internships give you a taste of newsroom culture and the different journalism positions, as well as connections to industry professionals. Internship experiences can help

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you decide the type of newsroom where you’d ideally like to work and in which positions you can see yourself.

JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP AND TRAINEE PROGRAMS Most major news outlets have fellowship or trainee programs to recruit and mentor a diverse group of the very best journalists. Open to recent graduates, these programs are typically highly competitive. They can lead to permanent employment with the news outlet. The Hearst Journalism Fellowship, for example, consists of two 12-month rotations at Hearst news outlets. The fellowship focuses on digital innovation, multiplatform storytelling, and creating experiences that let audiences get involved with reporting. As you can see from the job description below, outlets such as Politico have created fellowship and internship opportunities that focus solely on social media.

Photo 10.4 An example of a job posting for a journalism fellowship.

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Here are some of the key places to look for job and internship opportunities: •

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News outlets’ and media companies’ websites. As a starting point, check out the jobs section of news outlets’ websites. Additionally, make a list of media companies (Scripps, Hearst, etc.) that own news outlets, and then check the career/employment section of their websites. Each media company’s site has a listing of open positions for its newsrooms in different markets. You can sign up for job alerts. Job websites. There are websites dedicated specifcally to media jobs. These include JournalismJobs.com and Mediabistro.com. It’s also worth visiting job websites, such as Indeed.com, that aggregate job postings from all different industries. The advanced search functionality will help to pinpoint what you’re looking for. Professional organizations. The websites of professional journalism organizations have job boards. These groups include the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Online News Association (ONA), National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and the Association of LGBTQ Journalists. Access to some of these job boards is restricted to members only. Social media. Consider creating a Twitter list for job and internship leads. Some media companies have separate Twitter accounts dedicated to job openings in their newsrooms. @POLITICOCareers posts not only job and internship opportunities, but also journalism career advice. There are also Twitter accounts, including @MEOjobs, that share openings from across the media industry. LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a treasure trove for job hunters. Search for the Company Pages of news outlets where you’d love to work and the companies that own them. Company Pages have a section for job and internship openings. Click “Follow Company” to get regular updates, including job postings, in your LinkedIn news feed. When on a company’s LinkedIn page, you can see if you’re connected to current or former employees there. Another useful feature of LinkedIn is the Alumni feature, which allows you to search for alumni of your school and narrow down the results by location, type of industry, and company where they work. To access the alumni search tool, go to your school’s LinkedIn page and click Alumni. You could, for instance, use this feature to fnd and make a connection with an alumnus who is

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Photo 10.5 LinkedIn’s Alumni section allows you to search for graduates of your school who work at news outlets and in cities where you’re looking for employment or internships.

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employed at a news outlet where you’d like to work. Finally, don’t forget about LinkedIn’s robust Jobs section where you can search for employment opportunities.  Faculty. Your journalism instructors are an important, yet sometimes overlooked, resource in job and internship hunts. Many faculty members were fulltime journalists and still maintain strong ties with the industry. Touch base with your faculty advisor and other professors as you map out your career plans. As mentors, they can provide guidance on everything from your resume to contacts in newsrooms where you’d like to intern or work. Career centers. Become familiar with the staff and services at your school’s career center. Career center counselors provide guidance in your internship and job hunt and facilitate networking with alumni and prospective employers. Campus career centers maintain a database of internship and job opportunities, often provided to them by alumni

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•

interested in hiring someone from their alma mater. Once you graduate and progress through your career, don’t forget about your school’s career center. These offces also assist alumni with career development and job opportunities. Networking. Do not underestimate the power of networking. As you grow your network of contacts, those people should become an important part of your professional development. Maintain relationships with those whom you’ve met at internships and through other networking opportunities. As you look for career opportunities, reach out to them. But don’t simply rely on them when you’re in need of a job. Check in with them periodically to build and maintain a relationship. For example, ask them to review your portfolio once a year. Most journalists will be more than willing to lend a hand. They’ve been in your spot before and are happy to provide mentorship. Remember, despite all the technology at our fngertips, there’s no replacement for one-on-one conversations. Schedule a phone chat or meet in person periodically.

FROM THE NEWSROOM

Photo 10.6 Vicki Bradley (@VickiMarie31). News Director, WTXL-TV Tallahassee, Florida

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When it comes to social media skills, what are you looking for in new hires? You have to realize the importance of social media and what we do. You have to understand the power you have with it and responsibilities that come with it. At my station, the expectation is that you’re on social media all day. We have MSJs, multiskilled journalists. Part of their job is shooting video, writing stories, and posting on social media. When I look at the profiles of undergraduates who want to work here, I check to see if they’re on Twitter and are actually tweeting consistently. Are they engaging people? What kind of content are they sharing? I have had job candidates in undergraduate programs who are doing better on social than people in the industry. They’re creative, they’re catching my attention. Then, I have some who do nothing. What’s the best mix of professional and personal on social media? I look to see if you’re using the tools as a journalist would. Are there inappropriate posts? Are there things that show you aren’t going to be a good newsroom citizen? People make assumptions—that’s the reality we live in. Be mindful of pictures on social. No matter the platform, understand the weight of who you are as a journalist. You represent a news outlet. Who you are, is who our station is. I need to bring people on who can represent our journalistic standards. Don’t go on a rant about an issue. Keep your opinions to yourself. I can’t hire someone who could be a liability. I also want to see the personal side of you, within reason. For me personally, I try to figure out the best way to show personality, what I’m passionate about. I do a lot of sharing about the accomplishments of my team. It’s personal professional posts. I love it when people share simple things about their life: open the door a little bit to share hobbies with people, but don’t go too far. There are some things that need to be kept private. Don’t feel like you need to fit into a mold. I don’t need anchorwoman and anchorman, that’s not the industry we’re in anymore. The nontraditional is being embraced—authentic hair and clothing, for example. Also, be a person that is about more than just getting attention on social or being on TV.

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Advice for recent or soon-to-be graduates? Continue reporting on your own. Take initiative. Create a blog or website on which you can write about news events. If you want to stand out to employers, cover stories that are not being reported and then share your reporting on social. Have a realistic expectation of what your first job is going to be like. I always tell people that your first six months to a year are going to be difficult. Most people will struggle a bit. I struggled when I first got started. I thought about quitting a few times, and here I am years later as a news director. You must have flexibility, passion, and dedication.

Breaking into the business: Leverage your digital know-how Social media has changed the way employers recruit and “interview” job candidates. It’s no longer good enough to simply have a solid resume. How you present yourself online—your brand—is now part of the mix, as discussed in detail in Chapter 3. Politico, for instance, vets hundreds of possible hires per week and regularly discards applicants because of inappropriate or partisan tweets, according to Sudeep Reddy (@Reddy), a managing editor at the outlet.4 Even if I’m not following you on social media, assume I am. You probably don’t work for my organization yet, so you’re not covered by our social media guidelines. But I’ll be trying to assess from your feed whether you could accommodate them. So, try not to go too far out of bounds. Also, if you signed up for a Twitter account a few days before applying because our job description asked for social media skills, I can probably tell. Newbie Twitter feeds are almost unmistakable.5 — Matt Thompson (@mthomps), contributing editor of The Atlantic

Your activity on social media can make or break your chances of getting the interview. If the person reviewing intern or job candidates fnds unprofessional posts, you might not get very far in the hiring process. Your digital footprint

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has to be free of questionable activity. In addition, you need to demonstrate that you understand how to use mobile and social media in journalistic ways. Having a professional presence online will also make you more discoverable to employers who regularly search online in their recruiting efforts—as was the case with Eddie Dowd. Dowd received an email from a TV news manager who came across his online portfolio while she was conducting a search for entry-level multimedia journalists. She found Dowd’s resume reel on YouTube and was able to locate his contact information on his website. That landed him an interview even though he hadn’t ever actually applied for the job. Online portfolio and brand Now is an ideal time to review the key steps for building your brand (outlined in Chapter 3): • •

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Conduct a social media audit to ensure you have positive search results. Create a website that serves as a portfolio for your journalism work and includes your bio, resume, and contact information. Choose a website domain that is as close to your name as possible. Use social media skillfully and consistently to show you have the digital chops and journalistic abilities. Don’t only promote your work. Share content you care about and engage with people on these platforms. Make sure your profle photos and bios are up to date. Include keywords that describe you professionally, such as those related to a beat you’re interested in. Resume

Keep your resume to one page. Don’t oversell, get to the point, and make sure the layout is easy to follow. Your resume should be an accurate refection of your education, experiences, and skills up to this point in your career. Proofread. It’s unlikely you’ll be taken seriously if your resume has spelling and grammatical errors. Remember, this is journalism after all. Get feedback from mentors and have your school’s career service offce review your resume.

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Make the electronic version of your resume accessible online. The best way to do this is by embedding your resume on your website, rather than attaching a PDF or Word fle to the webpage. Displaying it within a webpage is more visually appealing. To embed a document on most websites, you frst must upload the fle to a site that hosts documents. I recommend Slideshare.net. Once uploaded, copy the embed code to your website. The other option is to copy and paste the text from a word document directly into a page on your website. Keep in mind, sometimes this doesn’t look the most appealing. What should you include in a resume? •

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•

•

Heading with name, address, phone number, email address, link to your website, and social media handles. To avoid clutter, it’s not recommended you include all social media profles. For resumes posted publicly, remove your home address. Relevant experience, including paid positions, internships, and student media roles. Don’t forget to include the dates of each position and several bullet points about your responsibilities. If you contributed to a journalism project, such as a multimedia website, as part of a course, list that as well. Explain in a bullet point which class it was part of. Education section with school name, title of major and minor degrees, years of attendance, and any honors received. Skills section should include knowledge you have of multimedia hardware (photo, audio, and video equipment) and software (editing programs such as Adobe Premiere). This is also where you want to highlight your savvy with mobile and social media. There’s no need to list every social networking platform. Instead, list broader skills such as social media optimization and social media analytics. Knowledge of foreign languages should also go in this section. Other sections to include, if applicable to you: honors and awards, community service, and memberships in professional organizations, such as your school’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Keywords from a job description are important to include in a resume, because human resources software might do a scan of the document. This often takes place before an actual human looks at any of the applicants’ resumes. Those applicants that don’t use keywords related to the desired or required skills are less likely to make it to the next round.

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•

Do not include “references available upon request.” Of course, you’ll need to pass along the names and contact information of references. Instead, list three references on a second page that includes the same heading you used for your resume. First, ask those people if it’s alright to list them. As a courtesy, keep them updated when you actually land an interview. That way they know to expect a call or email from a newsroom. Cover letter

Your cover letter is an opportunity to write a narrative about your interest in the position and your background, and how these align with the position you’re applying for. The cover letter should not repeat what’s in your resume, but rather expand on it. Keep the cover letter to one page. The cover letter also gives hiring managers a sense of your writing abilities and style. • • •

• •

•

Do not start the letter with “To Whom It May Concern.” Find out the name of the hiring manager, and address the letter to him or her. In the opening paragraph, explain where you are now and why you are applying for the position. If you have a connection with the outlet—for example, if you interned there or an alumnus who works there told you about the position—put that early in the letter. Tailor the letter. Hiring managers should get a sense of your passion for the industry and what excites you about the outlet and the position. Highlight your digital skills. Tell about how you used mobile devices and social media during the reporting process for one or two stories you’ve covered. Just as you would with a story you’re writing, edit and proofread. Applying and interviewing

Pay close attention to how a job posting indicates applicants should apply. In most cases, you’ll need to apply through an online system to which you upload your cover letter, resume, and a link to your portfolio. Some outlets might prefer you email the information to a specifc person, which is often the case for internships at smaller outlets.

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Before applying, give a heads up to any contacts you have in the newsroom. They may share additional information about the position or be willing to drop a note about you to the hiring manager. These connectors can help you get your foot in the door. A few weeks have gone by since you submitted your materials and you haven’t heard anything from the outlet. Should you contact the hiring manager? If the job description says, “no calls or emails,” there’s the answer: Do not reach out. Otherwise, it’s appropriate to follow up after a few weeks via email if you haven’t heard about your status as an applicant. Do your homework. Become familiar with the outlet’s news products and audience. Follow the outlet’s social media platforms and several of its reporters, so you have a sense of how they use digital tools for reporting. During the interview, you’ll want to express your familiarity with the news outlet. The very best interviews feel like conversations. Here’s some of what you can expect during the interview process: • •

•

• •

Writing test to determine your news judgment, writing skills, and ability to tailor your writing for different platforms. Current events/general knowledge quiz about the latest happening in the country and around the world. Some outlets also include questions about the region where they’re located. Audit of your social media accounts. Whether they tell you or not, expect this to already have happened by the time you’re invited to interview for a position. Evidence that you’re familiar with the outlet’s reporting and audience. Passion for the industry and willingness to learn.

Finally, come prepared with your own questions and talking points. You should be curious about the culture of the newsroom, what will be expected of the person in the role, and the type of mentorship opportunities available to help you grow as a journalist, among other items. Engage in discussion about the outlet’s mobile and social media strategy and how this role fts into that plan. A conversation about industry trends shows you have a broad understanding of both the business of journalism and the day-to-day skills needed to thrive. After all, you are the future leaders of this industry.

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BE A JOURNALIST: ASK QUESTIONS Allison McGinley (@McGinleyAllison), news director at WKMG-TV in Orlando, offers several tips for journalists on the job hunt.6 Asking questions during the interview is key, writes McGinley in a blog post for the Radio Television Digital News Association. Here’s an excerpt from her post: You’re interviewing to be a journalist, so be one during your interview process. Vet the newsroom just as they are vetting you to join their team. Find a company that embraces your value system and sets you up for success. Every question you ask the news director should also be asked of the staff. If the news director tells you they have a culture built on open door policies, constructive criticism, positive reinforcement, and promotion from within, be sure to see if that sentiment is echoed by the staff. If management tells you their philosophy for how a difficult situation is handled (for example—an MMJ in a risky, night time situation), ask the MMJs and assignment desk how those are handled. Probe management and staff alike. You’re looking for consistent answers that dovetail with the environment you’re looking to enter and are in alignment with your value system.

BREAKING INTO THE BUSINESS: JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIPS By Kyle Stewart The NBC News Tim Russert Fellowship is best described as a political journalism bootcamp on the national stage. From creating research packets and segment outlines for Meet the Press to writing articles and editing podcasts for the political unit to shooting video and field producing for correspondents, I developed and sharpened so many vital journalism skills. My year as the Russert Fellow was formative in my early journalism career, and I was lucky to go into it with a solid foundation of knowledge and experience gained during college. Mobile and social media journalism skills are no longer just required for social media managers—they are expected of everyone. As a journalist at a broadcast television network, I usually work with a camera and audio crew. But occasionally, there are situations where my iPhone has to substitute as the camera. On more than one occasion, videos I’ve shot with my phone have aired on NBC Nightly News and the Today Show. That means it’s important I always shoot video with proper framing.

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Photo 10.7 Shortly after graduating from college, Kyle Stewart (@KyleAlex Stewart), was selected for a prestigious fellowship at NBC News. Once the fellowship ended, he was offered a permanent position with the network. As Stewart describes, he uses social media and his mobile device for newsgathering, distribution of content, and social listening. Photo courtesy of Kyle Stewart. Most of the time I capture video and photos to post on social media about the story or event I’m covering. If I’m at a campaign rally with a huge crowd, for example, it’s best to include a photo in a tweet to illustrate the size. Knowing that the NBC News Twitter account could retweet my posts means I have to be absolutely sure my tweets meet every reporting and ethical standard. I also use social media to consume user-generated content to better inform my coverage. When reporting on protests in D.C., for instance, I created a list of Twitter and Instagram accounts to follow that primarily shared planning information about protest activity. Searching social media posts for tagged locations and keywords as well as the Snapchat map feature all helped me to know what to expect on the ground. For several months during my fellowship I worked with the NBC News Capitol Hill team. While the House and Senate may move slow at times, covering Congress is quite the opposite. The news cycle moves fast and there’s a lot to keep track of with 100 Senators and 435 Representatives.

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During this time, I used social media to stay updated on what other news outlets were reporting by creating Twitter lists of Capitol Hill reporters and setting notification alerts. When my year as the Russert Fellow concluded in August 2019, I moved into a new role at the NBC News D.C. bureau. I’ll be ready to adapt as the news industry evolves, thanks to the principles and skills I developed during my fellowship.

CHECKLIST ✓

Review job descriptions. Find three job descriptions for journalism positions at outlets where you’d eventually like to work. Analyze the qualifications, paying close attention to mobile and social media skills.

✓

LinkedIn Alumni search. Go to the Alumni section of your school’s LinkedIn page. Search to see if there are any alumni who are currently employed, or were previously, at two outlets where you would like to work.

✓

Polish and present your profile. Perform an audit of your online brand, including your website and social media platforms. Have two of your classmates do the same and provide feedback. Now is a good time to update skills on your resume to include those related to mobile and social media. In a brief presentation to your class, reflect on your experience using mobile and social media in your reporting and to build your online brand. What worked? What didn’t? In your discussion, include what you learned from monitoring your website and social media analytics. Finally, discuss how you plan to use mobile and social media in the future.

✓

Infographic resume. Consider creating an infographic resume to tell your story in a highly visual manner. It’s not only a unique way to highlight your qualifications; it also demonstrates you understand data visualization and how to create infographics. Be selective about what you include on an infographic resume. It should highlight key points of your resume, not be overloaded with everything. Consider including a photo, a headline that describes who you are, and a timeline that shows when you acquired your experience, education, and skills.

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Infogram, Piktochart, and Canva are web-based platforms where you can build infographics. Post the infographic on your website. ✓

Beyond the book. This may be the end of the book, but let’s keep the conversation going. Stay connected via the book’s Facebook page (fb.com/MobileandSocialMediaJournalism) and Twitter account (@MobileJourn). Don’t forget to check out the companion website (MobileandSocialMediaJournalism.com), where I provide additional resources, including video tutorials and industry related news.

Photo 10.8 Kelly Kyle created this infographic resume to highlight her background and skills in a visually appealing way.

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Notes 1 Deb Wenger, Lynn Owens, and Jason Cain, “Help Wanted: Realigning Journalism Education to Meet the Needs of Top U.S. News Companies,” Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 73, no. 1 (2018), 18–36: https:// doi.org/10.1177/1077695817745464. Deb Wenger and Lynn Owens, “Help Wanted: Expanding Social Media, Mobile and Analytics Skills in Journalism Education” (paper presented at annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 5, 2016). 2 Mark Stencel and Kim Perry, “Superpowers: The Digital Skills Media Leaders Say Newsrooms Need Going Forward,” Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, April 2016. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5lQbGE9zXC5VmJNaTRfVTV6eWc. 3 Andrew Gibson, “How to Stand Out on Social Media During Your Internship,” Online News Association, August 8, 2013. http://journalists.org/2013/08/08/ how-to-stand-out-on-social-media-during-your-internship. 4 Erik Wemple, “Politico Editor: We Discard ‘Dozens’ of Potential Hires Over Toxic Twitter Feeds,” The Washington Post, September 8, 2017. https://www. washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/09/08/politico-editorwe-discard-dozens-of-potential-hires-over-toxic-twitter-feeds. 5 Matt Thompson, “10 Ways to Make Your Journalism Job Application Better than Everyone Else’s,” Poynter, September 27, 2012. http://www.poynter.org/ 2012/10-ways-to-make-your-journalism-job-application-better-than-everyone-elses/189491. 6 Allison McGinley, “Find The Right Fit for Your First (Or Next) Newsroom,” Radio Television Digital News Association, April 24, 2019. https://www.rtdna .org/article/find_the_right_fit_for_your_first_or_next_next_newsroom.

INDEX

Please note that page references to Photos will be in bold A/B testing 259 ABC-owned stations, US 3; KGO-TV affiliate, San Francisco 30–31 accountability 88, 268 Acevedo, Enrique 26 acronyms and headlines 212–213 active audience 1–39; key driver of traffic to news websites 17; passive to active transformation 6, 11; power 12–15; see also audience engagement; audiences Adamson, Daniel 232 Adobe Photoshop 180 Adobe Photoshop Express 181 Adobe Premiere Rush 162, 164, 244 Adobe Spark Post 181, 184 Adobe Spark Video 163, 164, 170, 244 Advance Media New York 41, 42 Advance Publications 41, 42, 55 Advanced People Search 129 advertising: decline in newspaper revenue 47; digital revenue 45, 47;

news revenue streams 57; “spot” advertising 58 Affordable Care Act 137 Agence France-Presse 285 Agent Orange, effect on children of Vietnam War veterans 132–133 airplane mode 164, 178 AJ+ , social videos 170 Al Jazeera Media Network 170 Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) 116–117 algorithms, use of 47–48, 74, 175, 311 alternative text (alt text) 209 Alvarez, Sarah 75 Amazon Alexa 51 Amazon Echo 74 American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) 317 American Journalism Project 51 American Press Institute 54, 196, 233 analytics see webanalytics anchors, news 56 AP see Associated Press (AP)

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Apple: Apple News Plus 47; iOS editing apps 157; iPhone see iPhone Arizona State University, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication 102 Armstrong, Lance 208 articles: links to 209, 232, 237; and news consumers’ behavior 202–203; prioritization of pages 197; ranking to facilitate searching 203–204; underperforming 259 aspect ratio 183 Associated Press (AP) 28, 196, 233, 275, 278; correction guidelines 289; Social Media Guidelines for AP Employees 284 Athar, Sohaib 13 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 232 Auciello, Justin 107, 282–283 audience engagement 3, 31–34; and analytics 225–263; authentic 66–68; checklist 260–261; crowdsourcing 131, 139–140; digital-first mindset 151; example (Vox) 139–140; importance 67; interactivity 3–4, 7, 66, 277–278; live coverage 235–238; mobilefirst workflow 189; posting while reporting 226–246; versus reach 253; responsibilities of journalists 14–15; showing people your work 234; social media optimization (SMO) 227–229; two-way conversations 6–7 audiences: active 1–39; changing role 7–21; harnessing power of 131–138; journalists building bridges to 246; mobile 196–197, 204–219; positive experience 63–66, 68; target 17; types 245–246; see also audience engagement

audio 177–179; matching with video 169 audit, social media 85, 113, 340 Augenstein, Neal 149, 177, 188, 264 authentic engagement 66–68 Baluja, Tamara 74–75, 153, 170, 172 Baquet, Dean 50 Barnhart, Rachel 291 Baron, Marty 266 BBC News, Ireland 31 beat-related information 106–108 Beem, Christopher 316 Bell, Emily 17 Bell, Fergus 15 Bezos, Jeff 59 biases 63, 307 Biden, Joe 305 bin Laden, Osama, Pakistan raid killing 13 bios 99–101 Bitter, Andy 290 blogs 106, 108–110; live blogging 235, 236–237 Bluetooth keyboard 159 blurbs 95 Boston Marathon bombing, 2013 9–10, 11, 27, 121 Boston Police Department 27, 121 bounce rate 257 Bradley, Vicki 337 brand-building, social media 82–115; active online spaces 94–97; audits 85, 113; beat-related information 106–108; becoming a go-to information source 105–112; blogs 108–110; brand loyalty, building 53–54; building one’s presence 113–114; checklist 113–114; consistency 101–102; curation 106–107; and journalism 83–92; knowing what not to share 103; knowing what to share

IND E X

104; online portfolio and brand 340; recommendations 90–91; searches 85–88; separate personal and professional accounts 91–94; social media 110–112; taking ownership of brand 84; thinking before posting 102–105; trust and integrity 92 breaking into journalism 339–343; applying and interviewing 342– 343; cover letter 342; fellowships 344–346; resume 340–342 breaking news 3, 7, 12, 15, 24, 26, 84, 119; choice of strategies 152; critical information first 230; dashboards 128; versus feature stories 28, 187, 221–222, 235; graphics 184; hashtags 229; inverted pyramid structure 204; live streaming 174–175; new dilemmas 265; and news distribution 28; planning 187; scenes 126; scheduling posts 226; speed versus accuracy 279; tags 228; on Twitter 70, 123, 236; updates 102, 163; URLs 204; verification 283; workflow decisions 189; writing and layout drills 221; see also news Breitbart 302 Brett, Jennifer 232 Bromwell, Philip 153 browsers, clearing 84 Bryant, Kobe 265, 293 bullet points/numbered lists 109, 111, 198, 203, 213, 341 bundling 55 burst mode, shooting in 183 Burum, Ivo 179 business card, digital 84 business models: digital-only 58–61; evolving see evolving business models; buzzwords, avoiding 100

Call Recorder 179 Camera+ 181 cameras: front-facing 167–168; iPhone as 154, 155–156, 183; see also photography; shooting; video storytelling Cannon, Bill 202–204 Canva 181, 184, 244 captions, photo 218–219 Cárdenas, Jaime 52–54 career centers 336–337 careers for journalists see employment of journalists Carr, David 251 Castellucci, Mike 149 CBC News 74, 88, 90, 172, 175; Vancouver 92, 153 CBS Evening News 331, 332 CBS News 331, 333 CC see Creative Commons (CC) chargers, portable 158 checking in 228 checklists: analytics tools 72; audience engagement 260–261; brands 113–114; employment of journalists 346–347; ethical issues 292–294; fake news 320–321; mobile journalism 190–192; mobile-first mindset 76–77; mobile-friendly web stories, writing 221–223; mojo (mobile journalist) 159–160; remote working 159–160; social media and active audience 35–37 Cincinnati Zoo 123, 125, 128 citizen reporting 8 clickbait 63, 251 Clinton, Hillary 297 close-up shots 165, 168 CNN 273–274; iReport 12; podcasts 74; Reliable Sources 107 cognitive miser 317 Committee to Protect Journalists 278

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communication, one-way, prior to social media 5–6 Community Journalists Program, US 3 Company pages 130 conflict of interests 270 consistency 101–102; blogs 108–109; usernames 97–98 contact pages, websites 95–96 content: fact-checking 106–107; false 302, 305–306; feeding to the newsroom 190; legitimate, fake news disguised as 302; multiplatform hubs of 49, 50; news value 14; producers of 12–15; quality 62–63, 68; and sources 24, 117–130; user-generated see user-generated content; see also fake news content management system (CMS) 94 Conway, Kellyanne 304 copyright 283–287 Corasaniti, Nick 120 Corbett, Philip 103 coronavirus see COVID-19 pandemic corroboration of information 281 Couric, Katie 4 cover letter 342 cover photos 98–99 COVID-19 pandemic: fake news 311, 317; impact on tourism 217; live blogging and tweeting 236, 237, 238; Milan balcony singers, in lockdown 123, 125 Cox Media Group 328–329 Creative Commons (CC) 109, 286, 287 critical information, sharing first 230–231 cross-checking of information 281, 282–283 crowdsourcing 130–145; advice for student journalists 141; and brand

building 88–92; collaboration through 131; commencement of process 140–141; finding one’s own voice 91; newsgathering 24–25; potential benefits of 131; reporting challenges 141; showing personal and professional sides of journalists 91; steps 134; types 134; and user-generated content 130–131; vetting and visualizing the data 141–144; via Twitter 132; website creation 92 CrowdTangle Link Checker 242 curation 282–283; beat-related information 106–107; defining 106 The Dallas Morning News 55 dashboards 128, 129, 226, 242; analytics 252, 253, 255 data, making sense of 260, 294 The Daytona Beach News-Journal 56 deceptive editing 309 deepfakes 303 demographics 69–70, 72 Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. 133 Dewey, Caitlin 313–314 digital advertising revenue 45 digital-first mindset 23, 48–50, 150–156; Digital-First Story Pitches 150–151, 152, 187; story planning 150–151, 152; types of story 152–156 digital-only business model 58–61 digital-only news outlets 45, 55–56, 58 disinformation 301, 304–305, 310, 319–320; police violence, protests against 302–303; sharing 306 distribution of news 28–31, 151 doctoring 309 domain names 95

IND E X

Donald J. Trump Foundation 26, 34, 132 Dowd, Eddie 326–327, 340 Dropbox 160, 161, 187 Eason, Amy 74 editing: deceptive 309; multitrack stories 168–170; and recording 178–179 editorial decisions 250 editorial meetings 50 editorial strategies, newsrooms: authentic engagement 66–68; mobile and social media 61–77; platforms, diversity of approaches for 68–72; positive audience experience 63–66, 68; quality content 62–63; value provided 62 Educational Technology Day 237 educators 314–316; collaboration with journalists 312–313 Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Social Media 29, 149 80/20 rule, social media 104 El Tímpano, Oakland 75 Elliott, Justin 125 embedding of social media posts 284–285 emotions, checking 306 employment of journalists 326–348; breaking into journalism 339–343; career centers 336–337; changing patterns 45–46; checklist 346–347; digital skills 327–328; digital-only opportunities 58–59; faculty members 336; fellowship and trainee programs 334; finding job and internship leads 333–337; job openings, looking for 22; job websites 335; jobs and internships 329–333; LinkedIn 335–336; media companies’ websites 335; networking 337; new opportunities

329–330; new versus old school skills 328; news outlets’ websites 335; professional organizations 335; qualifications currently required 327–329; required skills 22, 54, 280, 327–328, 338; social media 335; storytelling across multiple platforms, requirement for 22 e-newsletters 36, 74–75 engagement of audiences see audience engagement ethics, social media 264–296; applying journalism ethics to social media 267–268; checklist 292–294; new dilemmas 265– 267; newsroom social media policies 271–292; NPR ethics handbook 122 evolving business models 54–61; digital-only 58–61; newspaper 54–56; radio 57–58; television 56–57 E.W. Scripps Company 291 eye-tracking technology 197–198 fabrication 309 Facebook: advertising revenue 57; algorithms, use of 175; demographics 69; editing of posts 290; fake news 310; “friends” on 276, 277; funding of local journalism 47; news events, information sharing 9; news outlets 46; and official accounts 122; origins 12; privacy settings 93, 99; professional page 244, 252; profiles on 97; separate personal and professional accounts 93–94; social videos on 51; versus Twitter 70 Facebook Groups 122–123; VoxCare 137–138

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Facebook Insights 71, 252–254; checklists 260–261; Likes section 252–253; Overview tab 252, 254; Page Views 253; People 254; Post Reach 253; Posts section 253; Reach 253; Total Reach 253; Video 253–254 Facebook Live 174, 175, 190, 237 Facebook Pages 122 fact-checking 14, 282–283, 313 Fahrenthold, David 25, 26, 34, 132 fair use 283–287 fake news 297–325; “alternative facts” 304; attempts to delegitimize validity of 2020 election results 305; checklist 320–321; competing with real journalism 298, 308; dealing with 299, 309–317; defining 300–303; disguised as legitimate content 302; and educators 314–316; and fact-checking 14; identifying 306–308; and journalists 312–313; journalists duped by 313; media literacy education 318–320; post-truth 303–305, 319; profits 311; public 316–317; reasons for sharing 305–306; shared responsibilities to combat 309– 317; and technology companies 309–311; and unintentional errors 301; workshops 317; see also disinformation; misinformation Farid, Hany 303 feature stories 102, 226; versus breaking news 28, 187, 221–222, 235 fellowships 334, 344–346 Ferrite Recording Studio 177, 178, 180 Fiandaca, Cheryl 27 Filak, Vincent 206 file management 160–161 file names, images 209 file size 184

Filmic Pro apps 163, 164 filmmaking cases 158 filters, minimizing use of 184 Find Alumni searches 129 First Draft (nonprofit) 299, 313 First Look Media 59 Flash Briefings 74 Floyd, George: killing by police (2020): live blogging 237; protests against 228 front-loading of articles 212–213 Galloway, Anne 51 Gannett Company 29–30, 52–53, 55, 277 García, Mario 197 gatekeepers, social media 10–11 Gelman, Mica 165 Gene, Vandon 87–88 geocodes 124–125 geo-location 281 Getty Images 109, 287 Gibson, Andrew 331, 332, 333 Gillespie, Tarleton 310 Google: algorithms, use of 47–48; fake news 310; funding of local journalism 47; keywords 127–128; own name, searching 85–86; searches 83, 85–86 Google Analytics 256 Google doc 240 Google Drive 160, 161, 184, 187 Google Earth 282 Google Forms 136 Google Home 51, 74 Google Maps 124 Google Reverse Image Search 281 graphic video, and live streaming 287–288 graphics: and live streaming 287–288; social media 184, 244; see also infographics Gumbel, Bryant 4

IND E X

Haik, Cory 72, 80n40, 172, 193n6, 249 Haiti earthquake 285 handles (usernames) 97–98, 228, 242 harassment, online 278–279 hard ledes 213–214, 216 harm, minimizing 268 hashtags 36, 105, 111, 112, 229; specific 134–135 headlines: secondary 198, 212–213; short and shareable 109, 210; tone 308 headphones 159, 178 Hearst Journalism Fellowship 334 Hensarling, Jeb 125 Hickman, Blair 139–141 high dynamic range (HDR) mode, cameras 183 Hokusai Audio Editor 177 homepage 95 Hootsuite 128, 226, 242 horizontal photographs 183 horizontal video orientation 165, 167, 174, 328 Howe, Jeff 130 The Huffington Post 45, 58 Hurricane Irene, 2011 107 hyperlinking 95, 96, 109–110, 111, 186, 209 hyperlocal approach 2–3 iMovie app 162, 163, 164, 189, 191, 244 inactive accounts, deleting 87–88 independence of journalists 268 infographics 142, 143; resume 346–347 Infowars 302 Instagram 73, 97, 125, 135; hashtags 229; and visuals 185–186 Instagram Stories 3, 31, 73f, 244; mobile journalism 152, 163, 172

interactivity 3–4, 7, 66, 277–278 Internet: disruption of journalism 45; impact on journalism and audiences 5; news channels 44; and origins of social media 4 internships 329–333 interviews 142, 164, 189; conducting online 237, 276; good quality 343; job 84, 342–343; phone 179; playing back 168; recording 149, 168, 177, 189; with staff 274; video 188 inverted pyramid structure 204, 205, 230 iOgrapher Filmmaking Kit 157, 158 iPad 29, 158, 167; high dynamic range, for cameras 183; iPad Mini 157 iPhone 3, 22, 149, 196, 259, 264, 332, 333, 344; audiences, changing role 10, 12, 14; as a camera 154, 155–156, 183; digital-first mindset 154, 155; high dynamic range, for cameras 183; launching in 2007 5; mobile-first workflow 189; news distribution 29, 30, 31; potential of 148; remote working 157; shooting TV stories on 31; and still images 181, 182, 183; video storytelling 164, 167, 177 iReport (CNN) 12 Ithaca Week, hyperlocal news site 208, 237, 240 Jackson, Hallie 31–32, 33, 70 Jahng, Mi Rosie 242 Jersey Shore Hurricane News, Facebook page 107, 108f, 282–283 Jobs, Steve 237 Joby GripTight GorillaPod 159 journalism: audio 58; as a conversation 6–7; ethics, applying to social media 267–268; impact

355

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IND E X

of social media on 8, 20–21; local, funding of 47; quality 59; and social media branding 83–92; standards 14, 84; and technology 4–7; Trump waging war on 301 journalists: accountability and transparency 268; becoming trusted sources 84; collaboration with educators 312–313; conflict of interests 270; employment of see employment of journalists; fake news, combating 312–313; independence of 268; journalistic integrity, maintaining 63; mojos (mobile journalist) 149, 159–160; required skills 22, 54, 280, 327–328, 338; responsibilities 14–15, 309–317, 329; skepticism, need for 14; student see student journalists; tips for 112–113 kabob structure, stories 207 Katz, Lauren 138 Kellett, Ryan 185, 197 keywords 110, 122, 204; newsgathering 126–128; search engine optimization (SEO) 208 Kitzenberg, Andrew 10 Kleinberg, Scott 104, 242 KPBS (public broadcasting station) 237 Krums, Janis 7–8 KUT (public radio station) 132 Kyle, Kelly 347 Laham, Nick 181, 182 LaMonte, Trish 41, 48, 49, 196 law, media 284, 285 layoffs 41, 45 layout of web stories, mobile-friendly 65, 196–204; articles and news consumers’ behavior 202–203; bullet points 198; chunking

(breaking) of text 197–199, 200; example 219–221; eye-tracking technology 197–198; Layer-Cake Pattern 198, 199; length 199; lists 198; mobile audiences 196–197; prioritizing of article pages 197; pull-quotes 199; ranking of articles to facilitate searching 203–204; secondary headlines 198; short paragraphs 198; subheadings 198; URL, changing 204; visuals 198, 199–200, 201 Leavenworth, Stuart 276–277 Lee, Rhonda 266 lighting, when shooting 168, 183 Lih, Andrew 166f LinkedIn: Alumni section 335, 336f, 346; employment of journalists 335–336; groups 130; keywords 127; profiles on 97; usernames 98; using for sourcing and story ideas 129–130 links: articles 209, 232, 237; clickable 186, 209, 229, 308; e-newsletters 36; internal, within articles 209; in posts 17, 229; search engine optimization (SEO) 208–209; sharing of 16, 68, 229, 307, 332; to social media accounts 95, 96; social media optimization (SMO) 229; to stories 34, 209 listening, social see social listening lists 65, 181; bullet points or numbers 109, 111, 198, 203, 213, 219, 341; private 120, 144; public 107, 120, 121, 144; see also Twitter lists Littau, Jeremy 235, 242 live coverage 235–238 live storytelling 239–240 live streaming 174–175, 235, 237–238; and graphic video 287–288 live tweeting 235, 236 load time 249

IND E X

local journalism, funding of 47 location-based searches 123–126; check-in features 125; tagging 125 long bios 100–102 Luck, Melissa 269–271 LumaFusion 162, 164 Lyons, Dylan 331–332 McCartney, Sir Paul 280 Macedonia and fake news 311 McGinley, Allison 344 McIntyre, Lee 305 McKisson, Irene 251 Magnuson, Karen 273 malicious transformation 309 Manfrotto Compact Light Aluminum Tripod 158–159 Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland (Florida), shooting at 26–27, 126 The Marshall Project (nonprofit newsroom) 139, 140 Martinez, Marty 124 Media Insight Project 62, 64, 67 media law 284, 285 media literacy education 314, 315– 316; empowerment of students 318–320 @mentions see handles (usernames) metadata, inspecting 282 metrics, checking of 259 microphones, external 159, 178 Migdal, Alex 88–89, 90 Milan balcony singers, in lockdown 123, 125 Millennials 51 Miracle on the Hudson event, 2009 7–8, 11 Mirand, Kristen 331 misinformation 14, 63, 279, 300, 301, 316 misrepresentation 309 Mitchell, Amy 46

mobile audiences, writing for 204– 219; front-load stories 212–213; inverted pyramid structure 204, 205, 230; key points 213; layout of webstories 196–197; narrative/ anecdotal stories 205–206, 207, 212, 216, 231; news lodes 213–216; nut grafs 216–217; photo captions 218–219; search engine optimization (SEO) 208–209; secondary headlines 212–213; short and shareable headlines 210; story structures 204, 205, 206–207; subheadings 217–218; see also layout, mobile-friendly webstories mobile devices and social media platforms: accessibility 6; active audience 6; on-air newscasts 56; analytics tools 252–259; apps 57; audience engagement 3–4; devices with network connectivity 157; editorial strategies, newsrooms 61–77; embedding of in reporting process 151; experimentation 72–77; ideal strategies, mobilefirst mindset 53; impact on journalists 20–37; interactivity 6; jobs and internships 329–333; live storytelling across 239–240; measuring success of activity 246–261; news consumption 15–19; news distribution 28–29; newsgathering process 23; newsroom use of social media and webanalytics 248–250; newsrooms, audience reach 45; pitfalls, analysis 250–252; use by older generations 18–19 mobile journalism 147–194; digitalfirst mindset 150–156; remote working 156–161; video storytelling 161–177

357

358

IND E X

mobile majority 16, 19 mobile marketing campaigns 57 mobile reporting apps 161 mobile-first mindset 19, 40–81; audience experience 49, 50; brand loyalty, building 53–54; checklist 76–77; evolving business models 49, 50; ideal mobile and social strategies 53; multiplatform hubs of content 49, 50; skills needed for journalists 54 mobile-first workflow 187–190; decision-making 189–190; prioritization 187–188 mojo (mobile journalist) 149; checklist 159–160 Mojo app 163, 164, 170 monopods 158–159 Muir, David 20–21 multimedia web stories 189, 244 multiplatform hubs of content 49–50 multitrack stories, editing 168–170 narrative/anecdotal stories 205–206, 207, 212, 216, 231 National Public Radio (NPR) 46, 50– 51, 184; correction guidelines 288– 289; ethics handbook 122; New Boom series about millennials 135; NPR One mobile app 51, 63; tips on writing headlines 211 natural sound 178–179 NBC News 162 network connectivity, mobile devices with 157–158 networking 337 The New York Times 50, 56, 71, 107, 127, 181 news: articles and news consumers’ behavior 202–203; bias in 63; breaking see breaking news; consumption of, on mobile devices and social platforms

15–19; distribution of 28–31, 151; fake see fake news; go-to community sources 107; mobility of 16; social referrals 16; traditional outlets 75; traditional television news 3; see also newsgathering; newsrooms news directors 11 news events, information sharing 7–11, 13, 26–27 News Literacy Project 308 news lodes 213–216 News5 Philippines 51–52 newsgathering 23–27; official accounts 121–122; organizing listening and searching 128–129; social 116–146; story ideas 117–130; story planning 151 newspapers: decline in advertising revenue 47; decline in readership 44–45; evolving business models 54–56 News-Press, Fort Myers 22 newsroom policies, ethical social media 271–292; audience interaction 277–278; contacting sources on social media 275–277; context, adding to retweets 275; correction guidelines 288–290; embedding a social media post without permission 284–285; live streaming and graphic video 287–288; ownership of accounts 290–292; professional and personal activity 272–274; seeking permission, copyright and fair use 283–287 newsrooms 41–48; adapting to mobile audience 330; analytics tools 245; A/B testing 259; employment of journalists, changing patterns 45–46; ethics see newsroom policies, ethical

IND E X

social media; feeding content to 190; financial challenges 43–45; mobile and social media editorial strategies 61–77; mobile-first mindset 19, 40–81, 189; as multiplatform hubs of content 49–50; Nielsen ratings 248; ownership of social media accounts 290; personalization 66; powers of social media providers 46–48; silos, breaking down 41–43; training 313; use of social media and webanalytics 248–250 niche communities 122 notifications, official accounts 122 NPR see National Public Radio (NPR) nut grafs 216–217 Obama, Barack 13 Obamacare 137 off-air radio advertising 58 Omidyar, Pierre 59 ONA see Online News Association (ONA) on-air newscasts 56 Online News Association (ONA) 272; Build Your Own Ethics Code 268, 271, 288 optimizing 235 optional gear 159 Orlando shooting, posting on 102–103 Outlier Media, Detroit 75, 76 overhype, avoiding 233 ownership of social media accounts 290–292 page URLs 208 page views 257 Palmer, Tammy 24 paywalls 55, 59, 61 Pelley, Scott 267 Perez, Simon 188

permission: embedding a social media post without 284–285; seeking 14, 283–287 Peters, Jonathan 285 Pew Research Center 16, 17, 43, 176, 196, 312 The Philadelphia Inquirer 75 Philadelphia International Airport, emergency landing at 123, 125 phone interviews 179 photography 181–184, 244; photo captions 218–219; photo credits 219; profile photos 98, 340; variety of shots 183–184; see also cameras; shooting; video storytelling Pizzagate case and 2016 presidential election 297–298 platforms, social media: citizen reporting 9; demographics 69–70, 72; diversity of approaches for 68–72; experimenting with mobile and social news products 72–77; mobile reporting apps 161; and relationship with audience 21; social networking 97; style 69, 70–71, 72, 109; time of posts 69, 71–72 podcasts 58, 72, 74 police violence, protests against: disinformation 302–303; see also Floyd, George: killing by police (2020) Politico 339 portable chargers 158 portfolio page 96 Portland Press Herald 285 The Post see The Washington Post posting: assuming everything posted is in public domain 88; brevity of social media posts 31; continuing the conversation 241–243; embedding a social media post

359

360

IND E X

without permission 284–285; links in posts 17, 229; mobilefirst workflow 189; multiple posts 231; narrative/anecdotal stories 231; scheduling posts 226; short bursts 231; thinking prior to 102–105; threading of posts 231–232; time of posts 69, 71–72; while reporting 226–246 The Post-Standard, Syracuse 41, 74, 116, 117, 170–171, 196 post-truth 303–305, 319 presidential election of 2016 25, 297–298, 311 print advertising, decline in 47 print newspaper readership, decline in 44–45 printing press 4 privacy settings, Facebook 93, 99 production apps: audio 177–178; still images 180–181; video storytelling 162–164 professional and personal activity 272–274; best mix on social media 338; separate accounts 91–94, 269–270 profile photos 98, 340 ProPublica 15, 59, 125, 132, 136; Local Reporting Network 131 public domain 88 publication 188, 268; publishing video to social media 175–176 pull-quotes 199 Puod, Ana 52 qualification requirements, journalism 327–329 quality content 62–63, 68 radio: evolving business models 57–58; historical immediacy of 5; local stations 58; see also National Public Radio (NPR)

Raghavendran, Beena 131 readable social videos 19, 72, 162, 170–171, 191; audience engagement 228, 240, 244 Realtime, reporting in 235–240; recommendations 239–240; see also live blogging; live streaming; live tweeting recording and editing 178–179 Reddit (collection of forums) 116–117 Reddy, Sudeep 339 remote working 156–161; checklists 159–160; equipment and accessories 156–160; mobile reporting apps 161; storage and file management 160–161 Report for America 47 reporting: analytics tools 259; citizen reporting 8; continuing the conversation while posting 241–243; crowdsourced 141; inside look at process 34, 35f; managing of process 187–188; mobile apps 161; mobile-first workflow 187– 188; original 105; posting while reporting 226–246; in Realtime 239–240; required skills 22, 280 reporting page, websites 96 researching 109 Resendiz, Eric 2–3, 7 resume 340–342; infographic 346–347 retweets, adding context to 275 Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 54, 71; Digital News Report 274 Richardson, Allissa 160 Robinson, John 92 Rode iXLR adaptor 155 Rode smartLav+ 159 Rode VideoMic GO Shotgun Microphone 159 Rodriguez, Alex 181

IND E X

Rosen, Jay 6 Roston, Michael 233, 247 RTÉ News, Ireland 31 rule of thirds, social media 104, 166–167 Saliba, Emmanuelle 126 scanning, facilitating 109 Schade, Michael 8–9 Scheibe, Cyndy 318–320 Scott, Kelly Ann 245 search engine optimization (SEO) 110, 195, 208–209; and social media optimization 227 search engines 209; algorithms, use of 311; Google 85, 176; headlines 210; prioritization 229; results 210; YouTube 176 searches 85–86; analysis of 86–88; geocodes 125; Google 83; organizing listening and searching 128–129; ranking of articles to facilitate searching 203–204; social searching 123–128; timebased 128; Twitter 23 SEO see search engine optimization (SEO) session duration (time on site) 257 sharing on social media: analytics tools 259; blogs 110; critical information first 230–231; of fake news 305–306; knowing what not to share 103; knowing what to share 104; links 16, 68, 229, 307, 332; original reporting and curated content 106; refraining from sharing right away 307; short and shareable headlines 210; unawareness of 13; video sharing sites 97; while reporting 226–246 Shaw, Dougal 154, 164 shooting: airplane mode 164; aspect ratio 183; burst mode 183; close-up

shots 165, 168; composition 182; front-facing camera 167–168; holding of shots 167; horizontal or vertical position 165, 167, 174; lighting 168, 183; moving around 165; play back interviews 168; sequences of shots 165; short clips 168; steady shots 167; video clips 165–166, 170; wide shots 165; zooming (with feet) 168, 182 short bios 99–100 silos, breaking down 41–43 Sinclair Broadcasting 291, 292 sites see websites skim reading 109 sleuthing 123, 280 smart speakers 74 smartphones 29, 57, 66, 157, 158, 188, 249; and changing role of audiences 19, 29; see also iPhone Smith, Amber 112 Smith, Erica 259 SMO see social media optimization (SMO) Snap Map 125–126 Snapchat 29, 33, 125–126, 162, 172 Snapseed 180–181 social listening 24, 66, 118–123; defining 118; organizing listening and searching 128–129 social media: 80/20 rule 104; and active audience 1–39; applying journalism ethics to 267–268; assuming everything posted is in public domain 88; contacting sources on 24, 275–277; daily use 21; gatekeepers 10–11; graphics 184; history 308; impact on journalists 8, 20–37; language, speaking 100; limitations of using as sole source for stories 14; news organizations and social media companies 46;

3 61

362

IND E X

one-way communication prior to 5–6; origins 4, 12; ownership of accounts 290–292; personal attacks from users 270; powers of providers 46–48; rule of thirds for 104, 166–167; sites 16; terminology 12; tips line 23, 24, 117, 118; trending on 11; use by newsrooms 248–250; writing for 230–233; see also ethics, social media social media audits 85, 113, 340 social media optimization (SMO) 225, 227–229; and search engine optimization 227 social media profiles 97–102; bios 99–101; cover photos 98–99; handles 97–98, 228 Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) 271, 312, 341; Code of Ethics 267 soft ledes 214, 216 Sonmez, Felicia 265–266 SoundCloud 177, 178 sources: considering/evaluating 307– 308; contacting on social media 275–277; and content 24, 117–130; credibility 308; go-to community sources 107; trusted 84 Sperry, Chris 318–320 Spicer, Sean 304 SPJ see Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) St. Regis Deer Valley Resort 125 standards of journalism 14, 84 Stay Tuned (daily vertical newscast) 162 Stelter, Brian 106–107 Stern, Reuben 143–144 Stewart, Daxton 285 still images 180–186 storage 160–161 stories: audio-only 179; background information 150; digital

storytelling skills 29; DigitalFirst Story Pitches 150–151, 152, 187; feature 102, 221, 222, 226; ‘final,’ going beyond 241–243; focus 150; front-loading 212–213; inverted pyramid structure 204, 205, 230; kabob structure 207; limitations of using social media as sole source for 14; LinkedIn, using for ideas 129–130; links to 34, 209; live storytelling across mobile devices and social media platforms 239–240; multimedia web stories 189, 244; multitrack, editing (video) 168–170; narrative/ anecdotal 205–206, 207, 212, 216, 231; newsgathering 117–130; planning 150–151, 152; social media command center 128– 129; social searching 123–128; sources and content 24, 117–130; storytelling across multiple platforms, requirement for 22; structures 204, 205, 206–207; vertical format 162, 165, 167, 172; video storytelling 161–177; webstories see webstories, mobile-friendly; student journalists: brand-building recommendations 90–91; careers 326–348; crowdsourcing advice 141; live blogging, learning 237; Realtime, reporting in 240; skills required 22, 156; see also employment of journalists style 69, 70–71, 72, 109 subheadings 217–218 superpowers 327–328 Superstorm Sandy, 2012 107 surveys/questionnaires 136–137 Syracuse Media Group (later Advance Media New York) 41, 42

IND E X

tablets 15, 19, 29, 66, 158, 259 tags 209, 228 Teaching Moment assignment 36 technology and journalism 4–7; digital-only operations, tech giants investing in 59; power of tech giants 46–48; technology companies and fake news 309– 311; website analytics 258–259 TEGNA 313 telegraph 4 “tele-papers,” downloading 42 television: on-air newscasts 56; evolving business models 56–57; historical immediacy of 5; stations 30–31; traditional news 3 Tenore, Mallary Jean 231 tethering 158 Texas Tribune 29, 59, 60, 68, 120 Texas University sniper shooting 29 text messaging 75, 76 theory of business 45 Thompson, Matt 339 threading of posts 231–233 Tim Ressert Fellowship 344 time of posts 69, 71–72 tips line 23, 24, 117, 118 titles of sites 95 Tkaczevski, Michael 119 tools, webanalytics: Facebook Insights 252–254; Google Analytics 256; Twitter 255–256 Tow Center for Digital Journalism 134 Tozzi, Lisa 17 traditional mass communications 5, 6; and older generations 18–19 traditional television news, decreased viewing 3 trainee programs 334 transparency 268, 313–314 trending on social media 11 TripAdvisor 26 tripods 158–159

Trump, Donald 32, 132; exposing lies of 320; on fake news 301; and presidential election of 2016 25, 297–298, 311; see also Donald J. Trump Foundation; fake news Trump National Doral Miami golf resort 26 TuneIn app 58 tweet chats 104–105 TweetDeck 128, 129, 226, 242 Twitter: advertising revenue 57; analytics 255–256; and breaking news 70; breaking news on 70, 123, 236; context, adding to retweets 275; and crowdsourcing 132; editing of posts unavailable 290; versus Facebook 70; and hashtags 229; launching in 2006 5; live tweeting 235, 236; news events, information sharing 9, 10, 13, 26–27; and official accounts 121, 122; posting on 231; and presidential election of 2016 25; profiles on 97; searches 23; separate personal and professional accounts 91–92; threading of posts 231–232; uses of 6; widgets 96 Twitter Analytics dashboard: Engagement Rate 256; Impressions 255; Top Tweets 255 Twitter lists 105, 111, 118–119, 128, 144, 281, 344; creating 118–120; subscribing to 120–121 unique visitors 257 URLs: changing 204; checking 308; search engine optimization (SEO) 208 U.S. Food and Drug Administration 206 USA Today Network, Gannett 22, 52–54, 203

363

364

IND E X

user experience 249 user-generated content 26; content producers 12; and crowdsourcing 130–131; social searching 123; terminology 14; verification 270, 279–282 usernames see handles (usernames) van Ess, Henk 120 Vargas, Elizabeth 4 verification: accuracy and authenticity of information 14; curation and fact-checking of content 106–107, 282–283; of user-generated content 270, 279–282 Vermont Digger (VTDigger) 51 vertical photographs 183 vertical video orientation 162, 165, 167, 172, 174, 328 Vice, digital-only outlet 58 Victor, Daniel 127 video storytelling 72, 161–177; avoiding repetition 169–170; editing multitrack stories 168–170; embedded videos 244; graphic video, and live streaming 287–288; layering of audio and visuals 169; length of video 170; live streaming 174–175, 287–288; manipulated video 309; matching video with audio 169; native videos 175–176; production apps 162–164; publishing video 175–176; readable videos 19, 72, 162, 170–171, 191, 228, 240, 244; shooting 164–168; text, graphics 169; vertical story format 162, 165, 167, 172; video clips 165–166, 170; video sharing sites 97; YouTube generation 176–177; see also cameras; photography; shooting Videolicious 163–164

The Village Green, hyperlocal outlet 58, 61 Vimeo 97, 162 Visitor Analytics app 256 visuals 109, 244; manipulated 303; mobile journalism 150, 169, 185– 186; social media optimization (SMO) 227–228; writing mobile-friendly web stories 198, 199–200, 201 Vo, Lam 166 voiceovers 179 Vox/VoxCare 137–138 Wagstaffe, Johanna 175 Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University 102 Wardle, Claire 12, 306 The Washington Post 25, 91, 132, 197, 309; editorial strategies 70, 71; ethical issues 266, 274, 285; webanalytics 249 webanalytics 225–263; editorial decisions 250; employee evaluations 250; pitfalls 250–252; prioritization of article pages 197; tools 252–259; use by newsrooms 248–250 websites: active audience as a key driver of news to 17; active online spaces 94–96; advertising revenue 57; analytics 256–259; blurbs 95; bounce rate 257; consumption of news 16–17; contact page 95–96; creating 92; domain names 95; homepage 95; links 100; mobile-friendly 57; page views 257; portfolio page 96; reporting page 96; session duration (time on site) 257; source 257–258; stand-out, creating 92; technology 258–259;

IND E X

templates 94–95; title 95; unique visitors 257; video sharing 97; widgets 96 webstories, mobile-friendly 196–224; checklist 221–223; front-load stories 212–213; layout 196–204; radio wraps/video packages embedded in 161; story structures 204, 205, 206–207; writing for mobile audiences 204–219 Welch, Edgar 297–298 Wenger, Deb 327, 328 White Island volcano, New Zealand (2019) 8–9, 11, 13

widgets 96 Wi-Fi 155, 157; public 158, 160 Wineburg, Sam 315, 316 Wix website 256 Woodward, Bob 83 WordPress 94–95, 208, 256 YouTube 162; creating accounts on 97; social videos on 51; video storytelling 175, 176; YouTube generation 176–177 Zaffarano, Francesco 71 Zhang, Kathy 249

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