Excerpts from social media intership essays
Several weeks ago, I posted an item here inviting applications for a social media internship at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The applications arrived, the decision was made (although I cannot announce it here just yet) and we are preparing to move ahead.
I asked applicants to submit an essay “describing why social media is a vital tool for journalists and ways they should embrace it.”
Unfortunately, I wasn’t prescient enough to think about asking their permission to post their essays with their names. Not sure they would have agreed anyway, since they all couldn’t get the internship. I am, however, posting several excerpts from their essays, because I think they’re worth reading.
Starting on the disconnect between journalists who do or do not get it:
Leaving it as a mere generation gap doesn’t do justice to the fundamental shift in journalism.
For whatever reason, it just hasn’t sunk in that journalists in 2008 can’t claim to be fully doing their job (engaging and informing readers) without utilizing these tools in a two-pronged manner.
First, as a gathering tool, the Internet has proven indispensable. Having a social media presence, whether it be through Facebook or an in-house site, is instrumental not only because you can grow a loyal reader base, but because it can provide you with a competitive edge against some paper who has to wait nine hours for a PR person to arrive in the morning.
The second prong is becoming indispensable to readers. With so many media outlets fighting for eyeballs, it’s essential that we keep readers tuned in. The best way to do that is to constantly add and update content.
But above all else, new technology can humanize journalists and make them more relatable to the people that they serve. When people get comfortable interacting with a journalist, the cycle reinforces itself when we’re given all kinds of great story ideas that no other operation can duplicate.
On staying relevent:
Employers want journalists to do more for less, especially in the current economy. Individuals are expected to have a multitude of talents and to utilize them in a way that benefits the company’s reputation and financial interests.
Consumers have adopted new methods for receiving news information, thus giving them more control than ever before. New media technology continues to grow and become more and more a vital piece of communication. It is the responsibility of journalists to keep up with current technology and demand for these new methods.
On instant news:
Some have never opened a newspaper and define reading the news as staring at a computer screen.
I’ve read articles on Digg that didn’t show up in the paper or on the news until a day or two later. News is happening constantly, and social networking sites are the perfect way to get the news out to the public in an interactive way.
My cell phone never leaves my side, and with Twitter text updates, I know about events the instant they happen, whether it’s what my friend is cooking for dinner or the latest CNN update about the auto industry bailout.
On the wisdom of crowds:
Journalists need social media because-to quote techno-gods Daft Punk-the audience can do journalism “harder, better, faster, stronger,” than journalists. In a sense, up until a few years ago, Americans were driving through the fast food lane to get their daily news; served up hot and fresh off the local presses. We’ve become hunter-gatherers: eschewing fast food news for the mysterious, majestic buffalo that is the collaborative, pro-am social news network: untainted by big money and big bylines.
It’s not about being an information gatekeeper-it is about asking for help and tips and being totally accessible to your readers. Crowd-sourcing is one of the most useful tools in a journalist’s new media arsenal.
If journalists don’t embrace social media, it’s game over for the industry. Journalists should embrace social media by accepting the inevitable (acceptance is the first step to recovery, after all).
Game over, indeed.
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Kurt's Tweets- Realizing how woefully out of touch I have been with this part of the county. (@ Saint Louis Bread Company) http://4sq.com/5z5Bfh
- Just had my first Gmail phone call -- with my parents -- and the quality was fantastic. Wow. http://tcrn.ch/a8GndI
- Another day, another interview. Fingers crossed. (@ Saint Louis Bread Co) http://4sq.com/avGImL
- Helping my son learn the first 20 elements on the periodic table. Disturbed by how many more elements there are since I studied this stuff.
- Giving blood. (@ St. Martin's Episcopal Church) http://4sq.com/aiWuEk
View Comments on Excerpts from social media intership essays
Interesting. Substitute “journalism” and “journalists” with “communications and public relations” and “communicators,” these also describe every PR flak’s job also.
It sounds like you had quite the batch from which to choose. I look forward to seeing where this project goes. Good luck to the winner!
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