Social media for journalists

Mikael Hindsberg, concept developer at svenska.yle.fi @mickhinds | mikael.hindsberg@yle.fi

4.10.2012

Social media for a public service broadcasting company• Our web to serve the public• On the web in general to serve the

community• In Finland to serve society

• Transparancy and openness objectivity • Interaction from sewer to respect • Helping the public Case Iceland’s ashcloud

• Yle’s social media policy (in Swedish):• http://

yle.fi/yleisradio/om-yle/yle-ar-till-publiken/verksamhetsprinciper/riktlinjer-yles-och-ylemedarbetares-verksamhet-i-sociala

Characteristics of the web

• The web is real time – don’t tease about coming stuff, deliver straight away!

• The web is fast and to the point - kill your darlings

• The web is multimedial • The web is interactive –

collaborate!• The web is mobile and

fragmented

Social media matter!!!

• Arab spring• Occupy wall street• We are the 99% http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

• Bridges of Mexico (!)• Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, Katy

Perry, Rihanna and Britney Spears http://twittercounter.com/pages/100

• Cyberactivism vs. Cyberhedonism

• Google as a geopolitical actor in the case of the anti-muslim video (!)

10 uses for social media in journalism• Based on the

excellent blog post:• 10 Ways Twitter is

useful for journalist• http://stevebuttry.w

ordpress.com/2012/08/27/10-ways-twitter-is-valuable-to-journalists/

• Read it!

1. Breaking News

• Tsunamis: Indian Ocean 26 Dec 2004 vs. Japan 11 March 2011

• Sumatra – communication by SMS from Thailand to Finland

• Japan – a ’tsunami’ on Twitter• #japan #tsunami #earthquake #quake

#tokyo #fukushima• Find a few, follow, contact

2. Follow people & org’s

• Google’s Eric Schmidt: historical time 2003 = today 2014• An endless stream of information noise• There is no such thing as information overload. Only bad

filtering.• Based on quote by Clay Shirky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabqeJEOQyI

• Problems: relevance, accessability, preservability

• Information strategies:• - prenumeration• - recommendation• - automated aggregation Flipboard, Zite, Prismatic

• - Curation

Charles Dicken’s Pickwick Club: read about ”Chinese metaphysics” in the Encyclopedia Brittanica

3. Crowdsourcing

• @NikuHooli & @AnttiHirvonen – Yle Suora Linja, an interactive news cast

• Work with the public

4. Find sources

5. Gather community quotes Curate!• ” News curators must collect, summarize, make

sense, add value, attribute, link, intrigue and entice.” Steve Buttry http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/curation-techniques-types-and-tips/

• Yle just nu – Yle right now http://svenska.yle.fi • We are the information hub for our audience!

• Reading the riots http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/series/reading-the-riots

• Excellent survey of what really happend!• Borderline between academic and journalistic

repporting (Farida Vis)

6. Story ideas

• Uppkopplad =online

• Fast look on Twitter,Zite and/or Google Reader and there’s a front page!

• What’s todays talk?

7. Save time

• Social media can be a time thief• It can be an extra gig• But it’s up to you!

• It’s a tool – we use tools to accomplish tasks, that takes time

• It’s a new tool, bosses haven’t allocated sufficient resources to it

• But it works – for you!

• Case: Looking for a young abused female

8. Distribute content

• Beware careful using social media as a distribution channel

• Works well for some content, not so well for other

• Broadcast is NOT social

• But – the established news media DO set the agenda on SoMe!

9. Continue the conversation• Follow up, listen to the

audience• Media convergence• Social TV Case: Obs.

10. Interaction & brand managment

• Interact on equal terms• Respond to criticism• Market & manage your

brand

• Case:• Nestlé• Audi Finland• Tate Modern

Personal vs. private

• Who are you?• How do the audience see you?• Does a personal touch endanger

credibility?• Personal vs. private accounts• Does it all matter?

From products to processes!

• Believe in your content• Work with your content, not with your media• Think about how you can package your

content through your work process• The same content can have different

functions, for different audiences, on different moments in time Don’t kill yourself with work! Maximize your work effort in the channels available for you!

The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed.

- William Gibson -

Thank you! Questions?

Mikael ’Micke’ Hindsberg

twitter.com/mickhinds mikael.hindsberg@yle.fi http://svenska.yle.fi

www.slideshare.net/mickhinds