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Social Media & the Loosening Up of Journalism
Martin Thomas @crowdsurfing
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The Loosening Up of Journalism
1. Chaos, complexity & need for speed
2. Emergence of new patterns of collective behaviour
3. New generational expectations
4. New technology
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1.Chaos, Complexity & Need for Speed
o Acceleration of news agenda
1952Lynmouth
flood disaster
1988Piper Alpha explosion
May 2008Sichuan
Earthquake
Jan 2009Hudson River plane crash
2 days 1 hour 30 minutes
Real Time
Real Time+
Spring 2011Live blogging during Arab
Spring
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Most institutions struggle with Real Timeo Not configured to work in real time, in terms of
resources, structure or culture
One hourOne hour Ten MinutesTen Minutes
* Critical response time for responding to negative comments
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Real Time Journalism
• Live blogging• Energising & engaging
(live blogs = 3.6m unique users on Guardian.com, 9% of site traffic (March 11)
v• Messy, unstructured & an insult to real journalism
“I’m fact checking and editing as I do it live. If I wrote something really crazy I’m sure someone would notice it … there isn’t really a way for someone else to get in there & change it …. For the most part it is what it is; here it is live and it is the best we can do.” Robert Mackey, live news blogger, New York Times
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2. Emergence of new patterns of collective behaviour
o Capable of delivering political, social or commercial change … without structure or formal leadership
Underlines deficiencies of tight, bureaucratic structures that have to deal with them
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Democratisation of Criticism
o Twitter-powered aggregator of amateur reviews
o End of the professional critic?
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Collaborative Journalism
“mutualisation” = “getting readers to care about, inform and enhance our coverage” Meg Pickard
From Readers to Collaborators
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3. New Generations
o Emerging at top and bottom of corporate hierarchy– Gen X in the Boardroom with a post-Boomer
mindset– Gen Y entering the workplace with new
expectations
Demanding new ways of working
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Heightened Expectations
o Speed & responsiveness“The trouble with McDonald’s is it’s too bloody slow”
Instant access, instant response, instant gratification “living life through shortcuts” MTV
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4. New Technology
o Social media driving new behaviours & expectations
Demanding new approaches
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New Approaches
o Need to embrace new media opportunities without simply recycling old ideas & techniques
Multi-screen Mobile
avoid “trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools & yesterday’s concepts” Marshall McLuhan
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Thriving by Loosening Up
o Operational & cultural traits of successful organisations
TrustingAgileInformal Collaborative
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Tight Thinkers Need Not Apply
o Organisations & people that struggle with this new worldHierarchicalBureaucraticProcess orientedDistrustful
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Trusting
o Bedrock of strong internal cultureo Allows shared responsibility & real time
decision making
The best company rulebook ever written?
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Nordstrom Revisited
“Prescriptive rules have the effect of infantilising staff & make it harder for them to adapt to different situations. This goes as much for digital communications as for selling socks … Like the Nordstrom handbook we’re trusting staff to follow the spirit, not just the letter, of our guidelines”Meg Pickard, writing about The Guardian’s new social media guidelines, November 2010
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Agile
o Ability to improvise & operate in close to real time
o Limitations of excessive faith in longer-term planning
o Speed more important than absolute accuracy
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Informal
o NPD: Living life in Beta
o Design: Messy vitality
o Creativity: Authenticity more important than production values
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www.crowdsurfing.net@crowdsurfing