1. Social Media and
the News Revolution
the News Revolution
Sue Robinson
Spring 2013

2. Before we begin...
• Have one ipad with the slides, one ipad with the hangout video,
one ipad with the hashtag sman_uw, and perhaps one with the
readings
• Designate one person as the “leader.” This person is not
necessarily the one who speaks on video but s/he is the one
who listens for an insightful statement to contribute to the
Google Hangout and urges that person to either speak up
(don’t be shy!) or repeats what was said for the group
• During Discussion Breaks, we will take 5 minutes to banter with
our groups about the question and then come back on screen
to weigh in on most salient points. Please tweet random
thoughts as well.

3. The group with the most
interesting, significant
comments/tweets today will get a
grab bag of goodies next week.
MUST pull directly from the
readings to be selected.
The group with the most
interesting, significant
comments/tweets today will get a
grab bag of goodies next week.

4. Interactivity:
-- Publick Occurrences (1690)
-- Bulletin Board Systems (1980s)
-- New Jersey Online’s Community Connection(1990s)
and Madison’s own thedailypage forums (1994)
Distributed content/reporting ---------> Self-publishing
(prosumers)

5. Online Journalism Story trajectory
First Wave: 1972-1994 (ARPAnet-videotext, BBS, Viewtron --
too expensive, tied up both TV and phone, end users taken
for granted, world not ready)
Second Wave: 1990-2001 (Web browser, Shovelware, digital
newsrooms, Matt Drudge -- Recession; Dot.com crash;
innovation too spread-out)
Third Wave: 2001-2006 (Convergence, widespread
broadband, multimedia, interactivity -- Business models failing;
user expectations; YouTube/Facebook)
Fourth Wave: 2007-present (Twitter, Pinterest, SOCIAL,
semantic web, dynamic content, J-entrepreneurs)

6. Information anywhere, anytime
Enhanced Experience, Improvisation
Fusion of data from variety of sources into one web
application
Melding of media formats into 1 interactive platform
Communal, spatial, temporal, private-public blend

7. • Multimedia: text, audio, visuals, animation,
combinations
• Interactivity: Ability for the user to manipulate or
modify the product or engage with the author, or
create product themselves
Use print to explain
* Use multimedia to show, emote
* Use interactivity to engage, connect
and build relationships

8. Discussion Break
• What did you think of Page One? What does it
tell us about how journalism has changed? What
is the biggest take away of that movie in terms of
journalism in relation to social media’s impact on
the industry?
• How does the NYT reflect journalism as process,
if it does?

11. News Event
Cyber-Newsroom
Citizen
Contributors Sources
Audiences Journalism
Individual
Reporters
Cyber-Newsroom: Reporters, sources, and local/national audiences come
together in cyberspace. News as first gathered by journalists is negotiated by
individual sources, reporters, and citizens, who add to the reporting. Such
contributions influence the narrative formation, content, and impact, as well as its
very unfolding at times.

12. Corporate Media Groups like Yahoo, AOL and
other Pro-Am (Patch, Public Insight Network,
The Local)
Entrepreneurial Journalism (Spot.Us) (firedoglake)
Non-Profit Journalism (WisconsinWatch)
Community-based Media like Dane 101
Freelance Marketplaces like eByline

13. Interactive Examples in News
• Live Blogging
• Online diaries, forums
• Games: Plan
your park (or school, road, house, festival)
• Learning in New Formats: Understanding budgets
• Earning “badges” and a rep

14. None of these would be
around without digital
capabilities, the capacity
for distributed
reporting, and the
increasingly networked
society.

15. Discussion Break
Are citizen blogs and tweeting
of news journalism? Can you think of an instance
where what YOU
blogged/Facebooked/tweeted reached level of
journalism?
How so or why not? Do you think the Nieman
piece attributing the Egyptian revolution to
social media was accurate or overblown? Is
this what Jarvis thinks about in regards to
journalism as process?

16. Detecting Online Bull

17. Discussion Break
• Let’s talk about Blur, and particularly how
did the NYT (in the movie) demonstrate or
not demonstrate what Kovach & Rosenstiel
advocate?
• Name some specific ways in which we can
use social media to “skeptically know.”

18. • Tunisia, Egypt, Madison, Britain: recent uprisings
that depended on social mediated organization.
Let’s watch how one NPR journalist covered the
Egyptian story via social media.

19. Accuracy
• Check the validity of the tweets, posts
before you retweet or storify them
• Make it clear in your tweets and copy when
you don’t know for sure about the
accuracy
• Correct your mistakes, often and quickly

20. Step 1: Check the person’s credibility
• Check how long the person has been active on
Twitter via http://howlonghaveyoubeentweeting.com/
• How frequent are updates?
• Is there a photo with their account?
• Who are their friends/followers? Any suspicious
Bots?

21. Step 2. Follow up on the tip
Direct message them and:
• ask for a phone number, ask if they witnessed
the event and interview them privately
• ask them to describe what happened
• ask if they have other photos
• ask if there are other witnesses or if they
were with anyone you can talk to

22. Step 3. Check the credibility
of the information
• Check the earlier information. Do tweets leading up
to the tweet in question seem logical?
• Do follow-up tweets and updates make sense?
• Does it read “authentically?”
• Is there a photo attached? Check geolocation and exif
data.

23. Step 4. Corroborate the story
• Check police scanners; call the cops, etc.
• Do a Twitter/Google/YouTube search to see if others
are capturing same information
• CrowdSource (the Andy Carvin method)
• Call around the tweet/photo by looking up nearby
businesses, for example, and asking if they see the
same event happening, etc.
• Go to the scene.

26. • Check exif data: regex.info/exif.cgi Verifying Images
• Check for edits to photos: fourandsix.com. Tineye.com is a reverse image
search site that can help determine if photos have been used before
elsewhere.
• Reference locations against maps, weather reports, other images from the
area
• Do the vegetations, shadows, sun/rain, etc. all correspond to the photo’s
exif date and time?
• Check other information such as the clothes/license
plates/language/structures against the photo
• Are there other photos they can share (typically more than one is taken;
be aware of the amazing shot)

27. Verifying Web Sites
• When was the domain registered? (WhoIs.net)
• Check out page rank by Google (PageRank)
• Go to the Internet Archive: how long has the site
been there? Has it been radically changed recently?
• Is there: About, activity, clear ownership,

29. • How could we have made this more
interactive and dynamic? (if time)

30. HW due Feb. 5:
• Networked, Chapters 1 (The Triple Revolution) and then SKIM Chapters 2-4 (The new Social
Operating System of Networked Individualism, The Social Network Revolution, The Internet
Revolution, and the Mobile Revolution), as well as Ch 5 and ch 9
•Anderson, Chris: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html
•Heinrich, Ansgard. (2012). What is “network journalism?” Media International Austria. 144, 60-67.
(See Learn@UW)
•Anderson, C., Bell, E., and Shirky, C. (2012). Post Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present.
Tow Center for Digital Journalism: http://towcenter.org/research/post-industrial-journalism/
SKIM (OR you can watch Shirky talking about this here in a half an hour video:
http://buzzmachine.com/2006/07/05/networked-journalism/)
•Respond to the Facebook Group page (see posted question). Please research Wellman’s work
and tweet out two questions (@barrywellman) before Sunday at noon.
I’ve moved the other readings to Feb. 7, but if I were you, I’d try to stay on this reading schedule
laid out in the syllabus so it doesn’t get too onerous. They are all super useful readings, for the
most part. (and let me know if something is NOT useful. The Networked book can be slow going
but it’s an important fundamental concept for this class.)