Vadim Lavrusik is a new media student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is @lavrusik on Twitter and blogs at lavrusik.com.
With news organizations beginning to create special positions to manage the use of social media tools, such as the recently appointed social editor at The New York Times, journalism schools are starting to recognize the need to integrate social media into their curricula. That doesn't mean having a class on Facebook (
) or Twitter (
), which many college students already know inside and out, but instead means that professors are delving into how these tools can be applied to enrich the craft of reporting and producing the news and ultimately telling the story in the best possible way.
And though many professors are still experimenting and learning how these tools can be used, below are the 10 ways journalism schools are currently teaching students to use social media. Please share in the comments others that you have found to be important and effective as well.
1. Promoting Content
Social media tools are bringing readers to news sites and in many cases are increasing their Web-traffic. This isn't just through the news organizations' own social media accounts, but those of their writers that tweet, post, share and send links to their organization's content. Each writer has a social network, and using social media tools to promote and distribute content increases the potential readership of the article being shared.
Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, said this is one of the most basic and yet very important social media uses for journalists. Sreenivasan, who is teaching a social media skills course in the fall, said it is a way for journalists to engage their audience and point them to the information that you are gathering.
2. Interviewing
Though they are often frowned upon, email interviews have become regularly used by news reporters. But the same concept can be achieved through a Facebook message or chat, Google Talk, a short exchange via Seesmic (), or one of the most useful apps in a journalist's arsenal: Skype ().
Paul Jones, a clinical associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, teaches journalism students how to use technologies like Skype for conducting interviews. "The thing you use for play is also the thing you use for work," Jones said of the tool. A student can conduct and record the interview on Skype and later embed it within an online post.
Jones said that using services like Skype allows journalists to interview international sources quite easily – and affordably, not to mention that it adds a visual element to the text of the story.
3. News Gathering and Research
The power of real-time search is providing journalists with up-to-the-second information on the latest developments of any news, trends and happenings, worldwide.
Jeff Jarvis, a professor and director of interactive media at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism, said it's important for students to know how to use real-time searches to gather information and keep up on what is breaking. This includes, but is not limited to, using search on Twitter, FriendFeed (), OneRiot, Tweetmeme, Scoopler, and SearchMerge.
Sreenivasan said searches on social media sites can point journalists to supplementary information for their reporting. These sites can also help in the process of crowdsourced news gathering.
4. Crowdsourcing and Building a Source List
It's amazing how many websites don't include their staff's contact information, and the WhitePages really no longer cut it. Luckily, because of the nature of social media in networking, most people post their contact info on their profiles. Social media tools are becoming vital in building source lists. One can track now fairly easily down a source on Facebook or Twitter and send them a message. (Of course, picking up the phone too still can't hurt.)
Students are also being taught the power crowdsourcing using social media. A journalist can tweet a question involving their reporting or announce that they are looking for a source via their FriendFeed and get some remarkable responses. Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, earlier this month posted a FriendFeed request to his more than 2,000 subscribers to help him determine why he was receiving conflicting traffic figures for different URL shorteners, for example. He received dozens of responses to his question.
Jones from the University of North Carolina teaches his students the importance of not only finding sources using Twitter and Facebook, but keeping them. One of the important factors in getting responses is doing the same when others ask questions — you have to be an active member of the social network if you expect your peers to help you ask for help.
5. Publishing with Social Tools
There are many social media tools that journalists can use to publish information, and this variety is something that journalism professors are encouraging students to explore. Publishing via social media tools can be as simple as updating readers or "followers" on Twitter during a breaking news event or building an entire news site focused around Facebook connectivity and conversations about local news – something Northwestern University students created with "NewsMixer" as a project at the Medill School of Journalism last year.
Paul Bradshaw, senior lecturer of online journalism and magazines at Birmingham City University, said the most basic tools that students should know how to use are Wordpress () for blogging and site building, Twitter for live updates, Facebook for posting articles or videos, Delicious () for bookmarking, Flickr () for photos or videos, and YouTube () for video. All of these can be used from the field with a smart phone or laptop.
Jarvis also noted the importance of using these mediums to meet the audience where they exist: social networks. "We used to always have the audience come to us, but that's not the cast anymore," Jarvis told me.
According to Jones, it is important for students to practice publishing information on these networks to learn how social media works and how it can be applied. He's teaching a class on vernacular video and virtual communities in the fall, in which all of the course material come from videos, as well as student assignments and responses.
6. Blog and Website Integration
Because so many news sites are incorporating live blogging into their daily dose of content and conversation with readers, Katy Culver, a faculty member in the journalism school at University of Wisconsin at Madison, had her students learn how to use CoveritLive, which can be embedded within a site.
Culver had her students use CoveritLive to cover a lecture on journalism ethics that had limited seating. She said the conversation on the live blog was quite fascinating and informative with students linking to content that the lecturers were discussing. She said using live blogging is a great tool for readers to get a chance to ask questions of an expert, reporter, or editor at a news organization. Tools like CoveritLive also include integration with Twitter, Qik for live video, or YouTube pre-recorded videos.
Jarvis from CUNY, who had his students use BlogTalkRadio to host live audio broadcasts, said it's about hosting a conversation with the readers and using it within content creates an interactive experience.
This is also why it is important for students to learn how to integrate social media tools into websites. Jones had his students build a Ning social network that integrated various social tools, for example.
7. Building Community and Rich Content
Sure a journalist can use social media tools to have a conversation with their audience, but what's the point? The greater goal is to build a community through engagement. Crowdsourcing, live blogging, tweeting — it's about building a network around issues that matter to the community. In a way, social networks are the new editorial page, rich with opinions and ideas.
Jarvis said building community can be done by joining groups on social networks (though always be careful that you're not somehow taking sides). Ultimately, he said, social media should help journalists do their job and be integrated into their reporting, but not take it over. Content is still king.
Jones emphasized the importance of creating rich content. "A tweet shouldn't just be 'I am eating a sandwich,'" he said. It should include a link with details that are useful to someone reading it. And retweets, he said makes the original tweet more rich and gives it credibility because someone else thought it was useful to share with their network. In a way, it is like the Associated Press wire picking up your story, Jones said.
8. Personal Brand
Students can't stay in school forever — eventually they need to get jobs. Social networks can be used to build a personal brand that can help students land a reporting gig after college. But Jones emphasized this applies to students only, which is what he teaches.
He believes that a journalist is representing their organization and not their name, and that applies to their use of social media. Often times, he said, a journalists' followers are following them because the news organization they represent has credibility, not necessarily them.
9. Ethics: Remember, You're Still a Journalist
Sreenivasan from Columbia said there are no hard and fast rules for ethics and social media yet. But told me that what a person posts or shares or produces on social media reflects on the person's judgment and students should be cautious. He used the example of broadcasting your affiliations on Facebook through notifications on your wall.
In some cases, a journalist may actually be joining an advocacy group as a way to gain sources, but their social network could interpret that they support the group or are involved in some way, he said. Keep in mind the horror stories of people not getting jobs because of their social media profiles and the things they put on them — remember that employers no longer just look at your resume. Also, take a look a Leah Betancourt's post on How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom.
10. Experiment, Experiment, Experiment
Sreenivasan, Culver, Jarvis and Jones all pointed to the importance of students experimenting with social media tools. For example, if Flickr isn't meeting your needs, try another tool that suits your use better. Sreenivasan pointed out that we are all still learning the best practices of social media. Journalism students experimenting with these tools can learn how to apply them once they join the workforce.
Here are a few tips from Bradshaw for how teachers can encourage social media experimentation:
Source: http://mashable.com/2009/06/19/teaching-social-media/- Use the tools themselves to teach the class. Use them in any setting possible.
- Do it publicly and socially. For example, Bradshaw paired students up with "Twentors" to help students that were new to Twitter.
- Less talk, more action. Put the students out there and get them using the tools one by one.
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