This presentation was delivered at Media Culture Days at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, on May 15, 2019. Linda Austin spoke as a Fulbright Specialist. It summarizes the benefits and detriments to journalists from the advent of social media. The promise includes (1) Promotion and branding, and (2) Reporting and audience engagement. The peril includes (1) Trolling of journalists, (2) Journalists misled by hoaxes, (3) Less trust in social media reduces trust in all media, (4) Press freedom restricted, (5) Journalists amplifying the ugliness, and (6) Platforms suck digital-ad revenue.

1. Linda Austin
Project co-director,
Associated Press Media Editors’ NewsTrain
Former professor of practice, Arizona State
University
SOCIAL
MEDIA:
Promise
and peril for
journalists Linda Austin
Project co-director,
Associated Press Media Editors’ NewsTrain
Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow, University of Missouri
laustin.newstrain@gmail.comImage by howtostartablogonline.net under CC BY 2.0

2. Who am I?
● Tailored 18
workshops to
train 1,000+
journalists in
digital skills
● Taught
journalism in
Burma, China and
the Arizona State.

3. Who am I?
● Developed first mobile-microlearning
course in digital journalism.
● Led three local newsrooms in digital
transformation

4. “It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.”

5. Who is David Fahrenthold?
Image courtesy of Doug Haddix

6. Used Twitter to report
Images courtesy of Doug Haddix

7. Found two portraits
Images courtesy of Doug Haddix

8. Invited followers to help
637,000
followers
Images courtesy of Doug Haddix

9. Followers delivered
Images courtesy of Doug Haddix

10. Confirmed self-dealing
Images courtesy of Doug Haddix

11. Video leaked to Fahrenthold
ImagecourtesyofDougHaddix

12. National Reporting, 2017
https://wapo.st/2L00eYB

13. Where are we going today?
Photo by Yevgen Pogoryelov
Identify:
• How social media have been
beneficial for journalists
• How social media have been
detrimental to journalists

14. Social media, messaging useHigher
usage
for
news
Higher
usage for
any
purpose
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2018/united-states-2018/
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2018/romania-2018/

15. Trust in news, social media
Higher trust in
news overall
Higher trust in
social media
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2018/united-states-2018/
http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2018/romania-2018/

16. Your turn: form groups
ImagebyKeithWilliamsunderCCBY-NC-ND2.0

17. Your turn: discuss and report
In five minutes:
• Name three ways that social media
have been beneficial for
journalists.
• Provide an example for each way.
• Appoint a spokesperson to report
back.

18. 1. PROMOTION
and BRANDING

19. Journalists as brands
2 million
1 million
3 million

20. Broader, instant distribution
v
55 million
43 million
39.5 million
https://friendorfollow.com/twitter/most-followers/

21. 531,000
Broader, instant distribution
229,491

22. 2. REPORTING
and AUDIENCE
ENGAGEMENT

23. Finding sources: events
vimeo.com/279848321

24. twitter.com/search-advanced
UBB

25. Finding sources: geolocate

26. Words to search after news
CourtesyofDougHaddixandDanielVictor
Words to search after disasters: explosion, terror,
attack, horror,OMG, OMGGGG, WTF, f---k, holy,
s--t, crash, shot, shots, shooting, terrible, shocking,
WOW, people, run, running, someone, police, bus,
car,plane, train, killed.
For example: WTF OR s---tOR OMG AND
explosion
AND ADD:
I, ME, MY

27. A train has derailed.
What would
a perfect source tweet?
Courtesy of Daniel Victor
Search: “my” “on” and “train”

28. Finding experts:
LinkedIn.com
• Tap in search box and
select, People
• Select Locations: United
States
• Select Past companies:
Google
• Select Industries:
Information technology
and Computer software
• Select Schools: UBB

29. Finding experts:
LinkedIn.com
Five who:
• Attended UBB
• Live in the United
States
• Work in computer
software or IT
• Used to work at
Google

30. Finding experts: Twitter lists
[Romania] site:twitter.com/*/lists

31. Finding experts:Twitter lists

32. Backgrounding people
https://www.facebook.com/linda.austin.biz

33. Backgrounding people
https://www.facebook.com/linda.austin.biz

34. Backgrounding people
Past events

35. Backgrounding people
Events I
said I was
going to

36. Surfacing news: #metoo
Actress
Alyssa
Milano
Image by Tom Sorensen under CC BY-SA 2.0
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-metoo-campaign-me-too-alyssa-milano-1508173882-htmlstory.html

37. Listening for story ideas:
Image courtesy of Anthony Quintano | Quote from bit.ly/ctmegastory
“We use CrowdTangle every day across the USA TODAY Network to
track how we’re doing on social, see what interesting stories are
being shared, and look for new ideas….
“Social listening is a key part of our strategy.”
– Mary Nahorniak, deputy managing editor for digital at USA TODAY

38. Listening for story ideas:
CrowdTangle
bit.ly/ctmegastory

39. Listening for story ideas:
“The world’s social media
intelligence and news agency”

40. Listening for story ideas:
“Dataminr alerts get the
editors breaking news faster,
which means we can dispatch
our photographers faster
than before.”
– Pancho Bernasconi
vice president of news
Getty Images
“Transforming vast public social media
feeds into the earliest alerts”

41. Crowdsourcing stories

42. Crowdsourcing stories
Now: 5,990
members
bit.ly/patientsafe
Images courtesy of Daniel Victor

43. Building a source database

44. Resulting in these stories
https://www.propublica.org/series/patient-safety

45. Live coverage of news
https://youtu.be/57gkhHxuAb4

46. Use by violent extremists
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47758455

47. Your turn: discuss and report
In five minutes:
• Name three ways that social media
been detrimental for
journalists.
• Provide an example for each way.
• Appoint a spokesperson to report
back.

48. 1. TROLLING of
JOURNALISTS

49. #MoreThanMean
https://youtu.be/9tU-D-m2JY8

50. A global problem
“Nearly 2 out of 3
respondents said they’d
been threatened or
harassed online at least
once….
“Of those, approximately
40 percent said they
avoided reporting certain
stories as a result of
online harassment.”
https://yoursosteam.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/attacks-and-harassment_fall-2018.pdf

51. 2. JOURNALISTS
MISLED by
HOAXES

52. Images courtesy of The Buttry Diary

53. Image courtesy of The Buttry Diary

54. Images courtesy of The Buttry Diary

55. Images courtesy of The Buttry Diary

56. 3. LESS TRUST in
SOCIAL MEDIA
HURTS MEDIA

57. News
from
social
media:
89%
https://www.projectinfolit.org/uploads/2/7/5/4/27541717/newsreport.pdf

58. said “fake news” had
made them distrust
the credibility of any
news.
https://www.projectinfolit.org/uploads/2/7/5/4/27541717/newsreport.pdf

59. “I really don’t trust
any news source….But
I think you can piece it
together if you pull
enough from different
news sources.”
– a film major
https://www.projectinfolit.org/uploads/2/7/5/4/27541717/newsreport.pdf

60. Lacked confidence in
telling real news from
fake news.
https://www.projectinfolit.org/uploads/2/7/5/4/27541717/newsreport.pdf

61. Try it yourself: fake or real?
bit.ly/fakeynews

62. Try it yourself: fake or real?
bit.ly/fakeynews

63. Try it yourself: fake or real?
bit.ly/fakeynews

64. 4. PRESS
FREEDOM
RESTRICTED

65. Blocking social media
http://bit.ly/poyntersri

66. Anti-misinformation efforts
https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/anti-misinformation-actions/

67. 5. JOURNALISTS
AMPLIFYING the
UGLINESS

68. When to report
on falsehoods?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pizzagate-conspiracy/

69. “Just by touching a
story — just by
engaging — you’re
making it live
longer….Be
thoughtful and
reflective.”
– Whitney Phillips
When to report
on falsehoods?
https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/3-PART-
3_Oxygen_of_Amplification_DS.pdf#page=6

70. 6. PLATFORMS
SUCK DIGITAL-
AD REVENUE

71. 58% digital ads to top two
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-
2019
58%

72. 1,300 communities lost news
https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/#1536249049294-115f3533-f5e9

73. To recap: pluses and minuses
1. Promotion and branding
2. Reporting and audience
engagement
1. Trolling of journalists
2. Journalists misled by hoaxes
3. Less trust in social media
reduces trust in all media
4. Press freedom restricted
5. Journalists amplifying the
ugliness
6. Platforms suck digital-ad
revenue

74. Mulțumesc foarte mult!

75. More reading: last 5 slides
Find the slides at:
slideshare.net/laustinnc
Contact Linda Austin at:
@LindaAustin_
laustin.newstrain@gmail.com

76. Words to search after news
http://bit.ly/findbreaknews

77. NPR’s Facebook Live guide
bit.ly/FBLiveguide

78. Troll-busters.com
http://troll-busters.com

79. http://bit.ly/hoaxaccount
Spotting hoax accounts

80. When to report
on falsehoods?
https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/when-and-how-to-use-4chan-to-cover-conspiracy-theories/