Tips for integrating Twitter, Storify, Facebook, Google Plus and much more into your newsroom. Presentation at workshop for International Press Institute World Congress in Amman, Jordan, 2013.

1. USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN NEWS COVERAGE
Matt J. Duffy, PhD
Center for International Media Education
GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, Atlanta, USA
Amman, Jordan For International Press Institute’s World Congress

2. What is Networked Journalism?
“Networked journalism takes into account the collaborative nature of
journalism now: professionals and amateurs working together to get the
real story, linking to each other across brands and old boundaries to
share facts, questions, answers, ideas, perspectives. It recognizes the
complex relationships that will make news. And
it focuses on the process more than the product.”
product.”
Jeff Jarvis, 2006
New Media Researcher
Author of “What Would Google Do?”

3. Examples of Networked Journalism
 Blogs
 Micro-blogs
 Social Media sites
 User-generated video
 Crowd-sourcing
 Ushahidi Maps (next page)

4. Ushahidi Maps
 Allows users to send in information via SMS,
email to provide aggregate information
• iPhone
thefts
• Snow
clearance
• Etc., etc.

5. More Ushahidi maps
SyriaDeeply – tracks refugees, fatalities,
and trending videos

6. More Ushahidi maps
Harass Map -- Egypt
Send an SMS to 6096
Tweet your report to
#harassmap or
@HarassMap
Post your report on our
Facebook page or send
us a private message
Email your report to
report@harassmap.org

7. Now let’s tweet something!
 All these examples came from this article:
 http://www.wamda.com/2013/02/10-crowdmaps-
 Allow me to stop presentation and Tweet it to
the conference hashtag.
 #Hashtags allow Twitter users to find similar
information easily

8. Why use Twitter?
 Many of these tips come courtesy Steve Butry
 Social media expert
 Digital Transformation Editor
with Digital First Media
 You should follow him on Twitter
 @Stevebuttry  Twitter handle

9.  Monitor activities, discussions of people in your
community and on your beat.
 Connect with people who will provide you
helpful tips and information.
 Connect with colleagues and share ideas with
them or get ideas from them.
 “Crowdsource” stories by asking your followers
for story ideas or information.
Why journos should use Twitter

10.  Quickly find people who witnessed or
experienced a news event.
 Break stories quickly.
 Provide live coverage of news events.
 Drive traffic to your content.
 Improve your writing as you learn to make
points directly in just 140 characters.
 Any headline writers out there?
 Finally…
Why journos should use Twitter

11.  Allows you to provide live updates in a disaster
zone when communication is down
 New York Times’ Brian Stelter did this for Joplin,
Missouri, tornado coverage
 @brianstelter  180,000 followers
 What he learned, His tweets
 #Joplin  hashtag
 Instagram also useful:
 http://instagr.am/p/EoTHO/
Why use Twitter?

12. Tips for integrating Twitter
 Ways to find interesting people to follow:
 At Twellow, you can check for people to follow in
your community or for other journalists to follow.
 At NearbyTweets, you can check for people who are
twittering now in your community (or a community
you are writing about).
 At WeFollow, you can look for people who have
chosen topical and geographical tags, ranked in
order of their numbers of followers.

13. Tips for integrating Twitter
 Consider using Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to help
manage your Tweets.
 Can set up filters to have Tweet streams dedicated
to one topic
 When broadcasting links:
 Use a URL shortener; Twitter comes with one, but
…
 Bit.ly will give you metrics, so you know how many
people clicked on it

14. Tips for integrating Twitter
 Finding Tweets
 Try “advanced search”
 https://twitter.com/search-advanced

15. Corporate accounts
 Handled by group of staffers
 Preferably full-time
 Not just a one-way street
 Monitor your @handle to see what audience is
saying
 Engage in conversation, if possible
 Good example: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
newspaper in my hometown (200,000
circulation)http://storify.com/mattjduffy/how-ajc-
uses-twitter-for-good-journalism-in-the-
at#publicize

16. Storify
 NY Times , Global Post uses storify
(or something similar) to aggregate news
from social media
 Can grab text, pictures, video from…
 Twitter
 YouTube
 Instagram
 Facebook (doesn’t work)
 Flickr (good source of copyright-OK photos)
 Google (very useful)

17. Your assignment
 First, I’ll give a demonstration of how to use
Storify
 Then, you’ll make a storify to share with the IPI
World Congress
 #IPIwoco2013
 Either something IPI related (search for
content)
 Or, anything you want!

18. Verifying info from Twitter
 As with all journalism, verification is essential
 Kovach and Rosenthiel’s
“Principles of Journalism” reminds us:
 Journalism’s “essence is a discipline of verification.”
 Steve Buttry offers a few tips….

19. Verifying info from Twitter
 Evaluating Twitter sources
 Use Twitter regularly in
reporting
 Develop Twitter sources
 Evaluate the profile
 Seek connections
 (Will demonstrate)
Not credible

20. Verifying info from Twitter
 Evaluate context
 Check time of Tweet
 Check for photos
 Check location
 But few people actually
include location
 Look for confirming
tweets (use advanced
search if necessary)
 Check previous tweets
Can't see much, but
that's the crash site.
http://twitpic.com/ut
2c

21. Verifying info from Twitter

22. Verifying info from Twitter
 Connect outside of Twitter
 Send direct message
 But they must be following you (rare)
 Send them a tweet asking to talk
 Put their handle at beginning and send your phone
number, email address
 Only people following you both will see that tweet
 Try to find email address, phone number
 Seeks connections – check followers of the person
you want to talk to
 Ask for photos, good questions

23. Verifying info from Twitter
 Evaluate the situatiaon
 Fact-checking is laborious, time-consuming
 Alter level of fact-checking with importance of story
 Reactions to a football match  not that important
 First account of building fire  pretty important
Flickr:
photobydave

24. Verifying info from Twitter
 Consider
crowdsourcing
 Use your followers to
help with verification
 Andy Carvin, of
National Public Radio
in US, did this with
report that Israeli
mortars were being
used in Libya
 Storify account

25. Ethics and Social Media
 Consider everything public.
 Once you post anything even to a closed network,
you lose control of it.
 Consider everything signed.
 Consider everything to be bogus.
 Consider whether opinions are appropriate.
 Consider whether internal matters are
appropriate for discussion.
 Consider separate personal and professional
pages.

26. Ethics and Social Media
 Photo and video networks
 Don’t assume it’s OK to grab a picture off Flikr
 Often photos are posted
under “creative commons
copyright,” meaning it’s OK to
use the pic as long as credit is given.
 Often acceptable to post pic at top, then credit at
bottom of post
 Photos on social media sites
 Important to verify info from them before use
 If photos are “public,” generally OK to use

27. What about Facebook?
 Personal accounts: Allow yourself to be “followed”
 Toggle in user settings
 Basically, audience can subscribe to your updates
without being your “friends.”
 Can engage with audience through comments
 Corporate accounts: Create a page for people to
“like”
 Provide updates – pictures engage better than text
 Invite engagement
 On a story about lower wages, ask who has been cutting
back on spending and how?

28. Google Plus
 Google Plus will soon take over the world
 Ignore it at your own peril
 Really helps with SEO – use it to expand
audience
 i.e., Search Engine Optimization
 (Since it’s owned by Google)
 Consider using Google Hangouts
for interviews
 Can upload automatically to
YouTube

29. Whew! The End
Matt J. Duffy, PhD
Fellow
Center for International Media Education
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA
Email: mattjduffy@gmail.com
Presentation is available at www.mattjduffy.com