#socjourn

An MOOC from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas - registration opened today!

The five-week course Social Media for Journalists: The Basics will begin February 3 and end March 9, 2014.

Understanding social media, how it works and how it can benefit journalism has been a rarity in newsrooms around the world. This course aims to provide journalists, media practitioners and the general public with knowledge about finding and distributing news and information in social media. Students will be introduced to common platforms, techniques, and ethical considerations.

by Luiz Guilherme Alves

TVCOM is a local TV Channel in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It shows a variety of programming: journalism, entertainment and sports, with a focus on local issues, along with broadcasting the major cultural, political and sport events throughout the south of Brazil.

With more than 3 million potential viewers, the content can be watched on cable, UHF transmission or in the website (www.tvcom.com.br).

The social media strategy is focused on Facebook and Twitter. Their facebook page has 15.300 likes. Their posts are related to local breaking news, what will be broadcasted that day in the the entertainment shows, and even content (like photos and videos) sent by the viewers. The cover photo on changes periodically, depending on what´s happening in the city (Porto Alegre). On 11/11/2013, for example, the city was suffering with the rains and some areas were flooded. Because of the importance of this subject for the local viewers, the cover was the following:

The current strategy is to bring the viewers from TV to the social media area, informing and involving them with breaking news and the programming. Other important aspect is that TVCOM is a part of GRUPO RBS, the largest media corporation in the south of Brazil. The corporation runs newspapers, radio stations, tv channels, besides other businesses. Thus, some content can be shared among the websites and pages. For example, in the TVCOM facebook page, they link content published on the newspaper site (zerohora.clicrbs.com.br): 

Their main strategy for facebook is to focus on the tv channel page (facebook.com/tvcomrs), but the most important shows have their own pages:

These pages don´t have a huge number of likes, but they have their own viewers that probably are more interested on the programming of their favorite shows (maybe only) than the whole TV channel content posted on the main page. This is the reason they don´t give up on these smaller pages. They have an audience that demands information and content.

How the main facebook page (facebook.com/tvcomrs) works? Actually, they don´t have a big team designed just for that (who has?). They have a journalist and an intern, plus the help of the newsroom. Mostly of the photographs used on the page are taken by someone of the newsroom, but sometimes they have content sent by the viewers. In this case, they use the images that are related with something important happening in the city (the local factor is the most important). For example, a viewer sent images from the flood this week. This kind of images are important, not only to make the viewers closer, but also to report breaking news from areas away from the reach of reporters:

The heavy rain and subsequent flooding this week in Porto Alegre is a good example of the way social media is being used for this TV channel. Taking Monday as an example. First, they have the reporting about the weather conditions (during the morning, to help people that are leaving home for work, school, etc.). After, they ask the viewers to send content (images, videos and information) to publish it in the facebook page. Some of the content published come from people in the streets (following the situation by facebook or twitter) and some comes from the newsroom reporters broadcasting or producing the TV content.

Being a local TV channel, the strategy is to keep informing and involving the viewers. Broadcasting local breaking news, sports and entertainment shows is what the channel does. The facebook page has the purpose of add something and, besides that, allow some meaningful interactivity for the viewers. Not always this can be done, but keeping the social media channels active and responding to the interaction made by the viewers is essencial to create and maintain a good image of a business concerned with what the consumer thinks.

Regarding to twitter, they have a bigger audience (something around 21.280 followers) but they drawn less attention to this network. They still tweet, because depending on the programming the twitter has a specific audience that likes to interact. For example, some breaking news or sport shows always use twitter as a way to talk with the viewers and receive feedback.

About marketing, the current number of likes on facebook or followers on twitters keeps growing. A year ago, they made several contests and promotions on facebook to attract viewers. It worked and the number of likes grew. Nowadays, they are trying to keep the viewers they already have and keep the numbers growing, even more slowly.

Concerning the management of the social media, they already do a great job, responding to the purpose they signed for (inform and involve people in the local issues). The things that could be done differently demand specific work (and people) that may not be available for them now. I believe it would be great if they could develop some special content for the facebook page or their web site. The videos displayed in the website are the same already broadcasted on television. This is an important thing, allowing the viewers to catch up with some show they missed or re-watch something they liked. However, it would be better if they could produce and publish specific and original content just for the web. The problem is that it demands people to produce, record, edit, and the small team that exists is already full of work reporting the breaking news on the page, editing and posting the broadcasted videos and curating the social media.

One solution for the short term is to integrate even more the newsroom to produce specific material from their shows to the web. The web team, being really reduced, can´t spend their time doing that because of their own responsibilities. In this way, for example, if someone in the sports newsroom that know about infographics could produce a small video summing up the preparations for the World Cup events in the city, this content could be published directly in the website. Besides that, there are a lot of subjects that don´t have the opportunity to be on TV (because of the short time or other issues) and could be explored better on the web. For the entertainment shows, backstage footage with musicians and celebrities is always something that draws attention.

Thinking about the contents sent by the viewers it is important to notice that most of it is published raw or almost like this, without any treatment, producing or editing. For breaking news it doesn´t matter, because the important thing is to be fast and true. However, for entertainment shows a better production could be done, with web exclusive reportages and better producing/editing. This would demand time and people, but it would show that the network wants to offer more than the usual for the viewers.

Another problem that local news have is that the number of viewers/readers for each neighborhood focused news page or website is inherently small. If this number is sliced further and further down, it gets smaller and smaller audiences. Because of that, it could be hard to have advertisers that support big projects just for the web. Thereby, a good solution remains in the cooperation within the newsroom. Having several shows and a wide variety of programming it could be easier to make a schedule of producing web content. Once a week, for example, each show could produce and publish a special content designed for the web.

In the meantime, there is always the issues of how much it would cost or the time the journalists would have to dedicate to these tasks. Anyway, it´s time of paying attention in the web and the importance of good quality content produced for this media. Maybe, one or two editors could be designated to edit web content. The newsroom journalists could start, with the production, some reporter or even the producer himself could record or write, or depending on the complexity just one person could do everything. It´s the multimedia storytelling world, isn´t it?

by Luiz Guilherme Alves

The brand DKNY found itself, less than a year ago, into a social media issue, but they solved it fast, becoming aware of the situation very fast and extinguishing the problem before it began to go viral.

Brandon Stanton, of Humans of New York, posted the following to his Facebook Fan page, arguing that DKNY offered him $15000 for 300 of his pictures, but he proposed that would be better to donate $ 100.000 to YMCA in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn.

After a few hours, DKNY posted the following post in their facebook fan page:

The crisis appeared to be solved at that point, and the DKNY Social Media team worked fast enough. Nevertheless, people started to post negative commentaries on facebook, claiming that DKNY should have donated the full amount asked by the photographer ($100.000).

Probably, if they did match the donation, this would only lead to more cries about how they only did it because everyone made them. In the beginning of the crisis, they handled well, but when we talk about social media, always will be people unsatisfied. What they did, immediately correcting the error, issuing an apology, complimenting the photographer and deciding to make a donation of $25.000 to the YMCA was fast and rare within social media crisis.

by Luiz Guilherme Alves 

Facing change – Documenting America (facingchange.org) is a website from a non-profit collective of photojournalists and writers who wants to document important issues around the country. Their purpose is to create a visual resource about important themes and discussions. They focus on under-reported aspects of America´s most urgent issues, distributing their work through an online platform.

They´re trying to illustrate great concerns into America´s society like health care, immigration, the war on terror, etc. The FCDA was founded in 2009 by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers Lucian Perkins, who worked as a photographer for the Washington Post, and Anthony Suau, formerly working for Time magazine.

They want to narrow their coverage of vital issues. FCDA is filling the gap between mass media and the communities by humanizing a wide spectrum of neglected issues. For example, even with a well reported subject like the hurricane Sandy in 2012, they try to focus on the images of the consequences for the population, and how their lives had been affected. Moreover, FCDA focus is to follow true stories like the life of veterans as they reintegrate into civilian life; or forgotten corners like Hereford, Texas; Fayette, Mississippi, and Allen, South Dakota; places that rarely draw the nation’s attention. Reporting on everything from the obesity crisis in Upstate New York, through the fallout in Detroit, where the auto industry once thrived, to housing foreclosures in Las Vegas where, every building once sparkled with possibility.

In order to highlight these issues, FCDA has created an online “Public Sphere”, an interactive platform that hosts stories, images and multimedia pieces created by the collective teams. These stories are searchable through a series of issue related US maps linking the public to FCDA photographers and writers, community nonprofits and individuals via active blogs, and comments sections.

The FCDA inspiration was the Farm Security Administration photography project. Under the guidance of Roy Stryker, head of FSA’s Historical Section, the agency sent a handful of then unknown photographers to document the Great Depression in 1935. They were tasked with the assignment of bear witness America. Widely disseminated through newspapers at the time, the photographs lodged themselves in the public consciousness and have remained there. Their images portraited an era and made America aware about what was happening throughout the country.

FCDA want to show people what is happening today. Their images, stories, and multimedia pieces are searchable online for use in both traditional and new media. They claim that in the future the Public Sphere will be expanded in the form of interactive installations traveling to towns and cities throughout the nation to reach audiences beyond the internet. The archive will reside at the Library of Congress.

by Luiz Guilherme Alves

Pinterest is a social network that started in 2009 and works like a pinboard, where you can pin whatever you want. After making an account, you pick out subjects which you are most interested in, such as Fashion, Design, Home Decor, Celebrities, Sports, etc. This will lead you into the direction of people that like the same things. Moreover, it´s possible to search by categories or just surf the network randomly. If you see a picture of something that you like, you can re-pin it onto one of your categorized boards. After that, you may go back at any time and see where that picture came from and also similar ideas. Because of that, Pinterest can be very useful as a database for images that you use for personal or professional interest.

In the beginning, people had to be invited to join Pinterest. However, it changed and now it is really easy to sign up. When you do sign up, there will be the option to link with Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Yahoo, making the process faster. Also, this make easier to find your friends, family, and favorite brands to follow. Anyway, it is possible to start with just an e-mail address, connecting with other social networks later. There aren´t limits for boards and you can name them in the way you want, so you could have a “Things that I wish I could buy” board, “Cute pets” board, “Places I would like to go” board, etc.

How it can be a social network? When you start to pin, and discover other people with the same interests, you can comment and like pins in the same way you do with posts on facebook, for example.  Pinterest makes sharing easier, and is possible to know many people who share your interests.

One of the best features of Pinterest is that it let you organize and share all the things that you found beautiful, interesting or just worthy to remember on the web. Besides that, boards can help you understand your own thoughts. Some people use them as a study resource to remember things and structure ideas.

Pinterest is useful to keep up with trends, no matter what field you´re interested on. For instance, Twitter can be used to know people thoughts through 140 characters, Pinterest, by its way, allow to think in images, and better than that, organize this thoughts.

The social element is really important, because Pinterest is a place where friends and strangers alike can share their interests and inspirations. Users can always see what their connections are posting. In addition, the apps for smartphones make it easier to pin wherever you are.