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Module 2:

Social media and the

news organisation

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Why social media?1. We cannot be everywhere: social media allows

us to access the masses to get leads, photos, videos, generate story ideas, connect to sources.

2. Traffic from social networks on the rise: referrals to news sites from blogs, Twitter, Facebook, photo/video sites are on the rise.*

3. Social and mobile skill sets enable us to tell our stories in new ways. We can shape conversations, engage communities, create and moderate discussions and deliver a better news experience.

4. Explosion of new apps and tools driving innovation on how media is consumed, created, distributed, shared and enjoyed.

* Link: http://bit.ly/socmedj

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New roles in journalism/publishing

• Web editor

• Community developer

• Search engine optimizer (SEO)

• Multimedia producer

• Digital content producer

• Database programmer

• Data visualization programmer

• Content aggregator or curator

• Director of audience engagement or development

• “Seeking nerdy journalist or journalism

nerd” ** Actual advert for a new publication

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New concepts in journalism

• Spreadable media

• Livestreaming

• Crowdsourcing

• Aggregation & Curation

• Community Building

• Hyperlocalism

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What is spreadable media?

• Henry Jenkins* coins the phrase

spreadable media – to challenge the

metaphor of viral media.

• Viral = connotation is an infection or

contagion you involuntarily give to others

• Spreadable = media you find compelling

and consciously make a choice to pass on

to others via links, posts, social networks,

microblogging, sharing widgets. Motivated

circulation from the grassroots level.* Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts,

USC Annenberg School for Communication

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Spreadable media

• Power of word-of-mouse: Aggregators,

curators, filters, communicators, evangelizers,

influencers, messaging mavens, content spreaders,

gossip-mongers, antagonizers, community organizers.

• “Earned media” - Content is shared voluntarily

through email, chat, linking, blogs, forums and social

networks (as opposed to paid media eg print ads,

billboards, TVCs)

• Pass-along value – News deemed of value to tell

a friend, a relative, a follower, a fan. It has some

contextual meaning – funny, political, geographical,

historical, societal. “Do your best, link to the rest.”

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Spreadable media: Connect + value

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Google tips

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10 Google Tips1. Capitalization, quotation marks: Google searches are

NOT case sensitive. Searches for najib razak, Najib

Razak, and nAjiB rAzaK will all return the same results.

Use “quotes” to home-in with specific search, - (minus) to

exclude words

Eg: "nombor telefon balai polis ampang"

2. Limit to .my sites, - (minus to exclude sites)

Example 1: “church arson” site:my

Example 2: “najib razak” site: gov.my, “najib razak” -my

3. Either OR. If you want to include either this or that in result

list, use the OR operator (must be upper-case). Example:

rosmah OR najib site:my (Leave out the OR, Google

returns pages that include both terms)

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4. Try searching News, Images

5. Finding specific FiletypesGo to Google > Advanced Search.Try finding Acrobat (pdf), Powerpoint (pps), Word (doc) Excel spreadsheet (xls) files. Eg: filetype:xls site:bnm.gov.my

6. Older stuff and newer stuffOld: Try Google Cached, or www.archive.orgNew: Enter keyword, click Search, More, Updates

7. Find definitions, synonyms eg: define:dodecagon

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8. Tools: Calculator, Metric/Currency Conversion

Eg 1: 233 square feet in square meter OR 233 sq ft =? sq m

Eg 2: USD in ringgit, 5.6 million British pounds in MYR

Eg 3: half a cup in teaspoons9. Flight details

Eg 1: mh123Eg 2: flights from kuala lumpur to langkawi

10. Weather, time,

Eg 1: weather kuala lumpurEg 2: time london

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Monitor keywords using Alerts

1. Monitor specific keyword with Alerts

2. Get an email everytime someone mentions

a company, a personality, a subject matter,

anything that interests you.

3. Popular alert services: Google Alerts:

http://www.google.com/alerts

Yahoo Alerts:

http://alerts.yahoo.com

Twitter alerts:

http://www.tweetalarm.com

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RSS

• Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication is a method to syndicate your web content out to users.

• RSS feeds benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from their favourite blogs or websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

• Most blog software generates an automatic RSS feed for others to “subscribe” to that blog.

• Subscribers can use a dedicated software called an RSS reader to scan updates quickly. Popular web-based RSS readers: Feedly, Netvibes.

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Using RSS1. Monitor News, Press releases, Blogs:

Star: http://thestar.com.my/rss/

RMP: http://www.rmp.gov.my/filebase/mainhtm/beritarss-1.xml

KSN: http://www.pmo.gov.my/ksn/rss.php

MOH: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ikdn/

FMT: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/feed/rss/

2. Monitor Facebook Pages:

• Copy and paste this link into the new document:http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=atom10&id=PASTE_ID_HERE

• Find Facebook Page ID: http://findmyfacebookid.com/

• Paste ID number in “PASTE_ID_HERE”

• Copy feed in Feedly, Netvibes

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Livestreaming

• One definition: Producing and pushing

out content to users in real-time

• Examples: live blogging, live tweets, live

chats, live forums, live video

• Applications: Blogs, Twitter,

CoverItLive, Livestream, Google+

Hangout, Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, Twitcam,

Facebook Live app

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ABC: SFO Crash live blog

http://liveblog.abcnews.go.com/Event/LIVE_UPDATES_Boeing_777_Crash_at_San_Francisco_Airport

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Live blog: Haiti Quake in Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/jan/13/haiti-earthquake

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Tips on live blogging

1. Make sure you have enough battery

power or plug in to a power outlet.

2. Internet access must be reliable

3. Time-stamp updates and post above the

previous one, freshest take at the top.

4. Follow sports-style reporting: a mix of

play-by-play reporting with analysis and

colour.

5. Attribute information and maintain

accuracy

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Tips on live blogging6. Tell readers when you are working to

verify something as factual.

7. If in doubt, leave out

8. Tone: Witty asides are okay for a lifestyle

event but not a murder trial

9. Posting audio clips or digital photos fast

requires practice

10.Best used for controlled events – a

seminar, court case, parliament, public

forum, concert, sports event in which

little movement required

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Tips on attribution

• Always ask for permission: even though you

are their ‘friend’ on social networks doesn’t mean

they want to be quoted. Respect privacy.

• Be skeptical: Photos, videos can be manipulated

• Always attribute to primary source: plagiarism

can get you in serious trouble

• Link to primary source. For images: Use

tineye.com, images.google.com

• Caveat: “This information as yet to be verified

through independent sources”Link: http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/you-can-quote-me-on-that-advice-on-attribution-for-

journalists/

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Verifying information on social media

• Examine profile: bio,

links, email, previous

updates, retweets,

friends, followers

• Check time of update

esp. breaking news

• Check photos, location,

correlate with other

tweets, updates

• Send email, message,

ask for photosSource:

http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/how-to-verify-information-from-tweets-check-it-out/

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Social media policy for journalists

Eg 1: ABC.com.au

• Do not mix the professional and the personal

in ways likely to bring the ABC into disrepute.

• Do not undermine your effectiveness at work.

• Do not imply ABC endorsement of your

personal views.

• Do not disclose confidential information

obtained through work.

Source: http://about.abc.net.au/reports-publications/use-of-social-media-policy/

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• Emerging as one of the best tools to liveblog

• Uses: Minute-by-minute live blogging an

event, Q & A, sports coverage, weekly chats

• Can embed anywhere

• Allows for moderation

or instantly publish

commentary

• Quick polls

Features

• Upload pics, audio and video.

• Newsflash and scoreboard

• Instant replay when done

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Examples of use of CoverItLive

• Anil Netto: anilnetto.com

http://anilnetto.com/malaysian-politics/live-

the-big-debate-soi-lek-vs-guan-eng/

• Sacramento Bee:

http://www.sacbee.com/live/

• NST Live

http://nst-live.blogspot.com/

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Example: anilnetto.com

http://anilnetto.com/democracy/live-perak-state-assembly-sitting-2/

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Livestream : Ubah.tv

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Google+ Hangout: Sarah Hill/KOMU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvdhSH3nGZI

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Social media news curation tools

Example 1: Joplin before and after the

tornado: http://bit.ly/joplinstory

Example 2: Rory McIlroy win at US Open

http://bit.ly/rorymcilroy

Example 1: Covering a fire

http://bit.ly/storifylah

Example 2: Saudi Arabia’s women drivers

http://bit.ly/saudidrive

Example 3: The Star GE13 coverage

http://bit.ly/starge13

Emerging curation and aggregation tools ie Storify, Storyful, Keepstream, Curated.by being used to pull together a stream of tweets, status updates, pics and videos on the fly.

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Crowdsourcing: Capture Cincinnati Engaging community through pics

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Crowdsourced photo project• Project started in 2007 by Cincinnati

Enquirer. Readers submitted photos to be

published in a coffee-table book and DVD.

• Successfully sold out, repeated in 2008 and

2009.

• 1,396 photographers submitted 24,395

photos, and 2,473,484 votes cast in ‘09

• Those who submitted/voted were given

discounts on book, eligible for prizes, asked

to promote pics/site to family and friends via

email, blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

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The Guardian and MPs’ expenses

Invited readers to dig through 458,832 pages of

documents of British MPs' expenses to flag up individual

claims, or documents that merit further investigation. Over

25,000 took part and to-date sifted through over 200,000

pages.

The exercise uncovered various

suspicious claims of seeming

extravagance or over-claiming

of items of furniture, electrical

goods, refurbishments and food.

http://mps-expenses.guardian.co.uk/

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Mumbai 2008 attack: Victims list using Google Docs

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Haze: Singaporeans crowdsource

price and source of N95 masks

http://bit.ly/n95maskssg

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SeeClickFix• Allows anyone to file a report and track non-

emergency issues (potholes, graffiti, broken street lights, vandalized playgrounds, etc) anywhere in the world via the internet.

• Instantly informs local councils, community groups, media organizations and governments to “fix” issue

• Empowers communities to improve their neighbourhoods.

• News sites use it to draw visitors and fish for stories.

• Similar:http://www.fixmystreet.com

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Example of SeeClickFix in action

Residents point out suspicious activity in

neighborhood. New Haven Police Dept Tactical

Narcotics Unit alerted, conduct surveillance and

sting operation. Police arrest heroin dealer and

buyer and seize 10 packets of heroin.

Link:

http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/3998

Pothole problem resolved

Link:

http://www.boston.com/yourtow

n/newton/seeclickfix/

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http://www.malaysiacrime.com/

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Case study: Ushahidi

• Aggregates information

from the public via

SMS/MMS/email and

visualizes the data on a

map or timeline

• Useful when real-time

responses needed: eg

crisis or disaster, flu

outbreak, election

watch.

• 1st used to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-

election fallout at the beginning of 2008; used by AlJazeera

for War on Gaza in 2008-09; used in Indian election in 2009

for voter reports; used to map flood in Queensland 2011

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“In the past you were what you

owned. Now you are what you

share,”Charles Leadbeater