Beatblogging: news and social networks
What happens when 13 news reporters try to build social networks into their beats?
I’m not sure, but you can follow it here, at Beatblogging.org.
Beats of every stripe and color, from the pharmaceutical industry to sports to education, are represented in the list.
For instance, Education Week started a Ning network of experts to help gather news:
We like the idea of using a “network” of well-connected experts, tech savvy administrators and principals, innovative teachers, ed. tech. industry players, and others, initially, to identify the top 10 ed. tech. problems schools are facing and how they should go about tackling those problems.
Look along the side of the Beatblogging page and you’ll find links to the news organizations and any Ning networks they have.
I am really happy to see news organizations taking the plunge with this idea. But I know a lot of newspapers, mine included, would balk because of legal ramifications. Nothing wrong with being careful, but if I recall correctly much of the paranoia about legal issues is widely untested.
But it seems reporters could build a closed social network to ask questions of sources who could answer at their leisure. That would be way better than calling each one on the phone or sending a blast email, in my opinion. But of course you would have to have sources who actually check Ning once in a while, too.
I know I’m late to the party on this (see post here from Ryan Sholin) . I have a valid excuse (selling my World of Warcraft accounts takes more time than I thought, yes I’m a video game dork).
July 5th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
The thing I really like about beatblogging.org is that it’s more about real action and less about pontificating. Real news organizations actually trying out new reporting methods. Doing something tangible to actually move us forward is a nice reprieve from arguing back and forth and getting nowhere on an intern’s blog.
If you want to do it and your newspaper is balking, I’d do some of your own research and show them why they have nothing to worry about. It’s worth it. Or maybe create the network at katemartinonline.com, so the newspaper has nothing to worry about?