Reporting with Twitter and Facebook
This write up is mostly for coworkers, who could not attend the Twitter and social networking class sponsored by Western Washington SPJ in November.
First up, Twitter. Here are some terms:
- Twitter: The platform wherein the writer uses 140 characters to answer a simple question: What are you doing?
- Tweet: An individual post to Twitter
- Tweeps, Tweeple: People who follow you on Twitter
Last month I went to a workshop about Twitter, hosted by the Seattle PI’s Mónica Guzmán. She runs the PI’s Big Blog and uses Twitter to connect with sources and find stories. (Read her writeup of the event.) She said writing the blog lends itself to using social media.
She encouraged people who attended to dive in and start using Twitter. I’ll admit it’s a little awkward at first. I started a few months ago by following other journalists in the area that I knew, and then some across the country whose blogs I read. Then as I started tweeting other people started following me. Then I found a local teacher in one of the school districts I cover.
Guzmán said using Twitter is about being open and finding your boundaries. Share things you find interesting, or what you are doing. You have to talk with your tweeps or they will ignore you.
Here are some other links for using Twitter as a reporting tool:
- TwitScoop: What’s hot on Twitter right now. Watching the tag clouds expand and contract live is somewhat addicting
- Twitter Local: Find people within a certain geographic area who use Twitter.
Guzmán says you should follow people who follow you, but I am not sure I agree with that 100 percent. Yes, it’s polite. But the time it takes to sift through all of that information could be intimidating. I’m following less than 100 people, and Guzmán has more than 1,000.
Twitter is being used to report from the courtroom, where few people have access. Ron Sylvester of the Witchita Eagle has been doing so for about a year. His tweets are incredibly addicting. The American Bar Association wrote a nice article about Sylvester’s efforts after he tweeted from a murder trial.
Sylvester uses a T-Mobile Dash phone and a Bluetooth foldable keyboard to send his updates to Twitter through text messaging. He always asks for permission before bringing his equipment into a courtroom, and judges are amenable.
“They like my set-up with the phone and keyboard, because it is smaller and less noticeable than a laptop,” he told ABAJournal.com. “Judges who won’t let laptops in will let me use this set-up—as long as I keep it on the silent setting. Judges tell me if the phone makes noise, I lose it.”
One other item to note. Twitter seems to be a metro phenominon. There are not many people out in the sticks using Twitter. It is not a representative sample of the population, either.
Twitter has been used to break news in a number of ways, the most recent were the attacks in Mumbai, India. Mindy McAdams’ post discusses Twitter and journalism:
The example of Mumbai reinforces a few things I am always telling journalists about our online future:
- Breaking news will be online before it’s on television.
- Breaking news — especially disasters and attacks in the middle of a city — will be covered first by non-journalists.
- The non-journalists will continue providing new information even after the trained journalists arrive on the scene.
McAdams has many more good points, so visit her post for more.
Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
Facebook is another application Guzmán uses to enhance her reporting. I personally have not used it much for that purpose, but I think the potential is there. For me it’s a matter of whether I would have much time to do it properly.
With all social media, a few no-brainers include don’t talk about politics or religion, be careful and verify your sources.
MySpace is good to find information about teens, bands and the media. It is also popular in rural communities. Facebook is best for students and people from urban areas. Guzmán said a lot of people tend to use real names on Facebook. I’ve also noticed that.
Facebook also has tons of groups, like employees of big companies. I think Facebook could be especially useful for a business reporter.
Regarding friends on Facebook, what does it really mean? Guzmán said she creates a permissions list for people who friend her, but she doesn’t know. Those people cannot see many of her personal details.
A belated thanks, Mónica, for sharing your expertise.