By Martenzie Johnson
Joy Mayer spoke oabout community engagement and how it applies to “social media” in journalism. What stuck out the most was her emphasis on “knowing the audience” and opening a two-way conversation between journalists and users.
The Mutualisation quadrant is a very interesting concept in social media: going beyond the reporting and consumption of the news. I was, and still am, skeptical of its feasibility in the United States—it is used heavily by The Guardian in the United Kingdom.
The post-production phase for journalists is mostly implemented in most newsrooms, with a majority of online newspapers opening up comment sections (The Columbian Missourian even offers a “Show Me the Errors” section for users to interact). But I sense a possible stagnation when it comes pre-production at the user level.
Mayer suggested that writers and editors could live blog/tweet their meetings to inform the public of what they are working on and possibly grow a source list. There are many reasons why that is problematic, including:
- It notifies your competitors of what you are working on.
- It might not serve to prompt them to read the paper or view online.
- It could tip off corporations that you are looking into them.
I don’t know how to start pre-production when it comes to users. The Associated Press has an effective method of its writers Tweeting out for help writing on particular topics, but I am not sure how media organizations can go beyond that method. Live-blogging feels more counterintuitive than beneficial.
The message that was drilled home all day—including lectures from Richard Deitsch and the news staff at KOMU—was knowing the audience and giving them what they want. At the same time, the bottom line matters. The above bullet points identify problems in attempting to reach out to users, but we have a few starting points, and need to build from there.
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