Ian Reeves

Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

Includes:some bloggingsocial networkingMicrobloggingRecommendation sitesUser content sharing

Telling better stories – there is always someone who knows more than you do

Making better relationships – engaged users are more loyal, and more attractive to advertisers. They may even pay

Attracting new users

Finding sources – and their contacts - more easily

Message boardsComments on storiesNews UGCNon-news UGCCommissioned BlogsReader blogsMicroblogsUser-generated dataUser questionsMember spacesMember recommendationsOff-site engagement

In 2008, Facebook had fewer users than CNN.comNow it dwarfs it by up to 25xSocial networks massively outperform news sites in terms of engagement20 per cent of all internet time is spent on themAverage daily time on Facebook is 30 mins – 25 minutes more than most news sitesTelegraph gets 8 percent of traffic from social media sites

Iranian street protests of 2009

Huge amount of noise and false information – eg 3m protestors (only a few hundred thousand; Mousavi ‘house arrest’; president of monitoring committee ‘declared election invalid.’Little balance – conversation overwhelmingly in favour of MousaviSelf-selecting group, largely from liberal elite

Extended newsgathering possibilities – pictures and story leadsAccumulation of ‘kudos’ within social media communities, plus traffic gains from linksRelative simplicity of monitoring multiple news sources

• Newsnight and Lord McAlpine• George Monbiot and Lord McAlpine•

When social media goes wrong Quantas plane ‘crash’

When social media goes wrong Yarmouth reporter sacked after Twee

ts

When social media goes wrong Reddit and the Boston Marathon

bomb suspects

Reuters guidance

The tension is clear: Social networks encourage fast, constant, brief communications; journalism calls for communication preceded by fact-finding and thoughtful consideration. Journalism has many “unsend” buttons, including editors. Social networks have none. Everything we say online can be used against us in a court of law, in the minds of subjects and sources and by people who for reasons of their own may want to cast us in a negative light.

Reuters guidance

While, obviously, we cannot control what others may post on our accounts, we must maintain constant awareness when posting to Facebook, Twitter and other online fora that we are flying without a net, and that an indiscretion lasts forever. At all costs, we must avoid flame wars, incendiary rhetoric and loose talk. We should also remember that by friending or following someone, we may be giving out the identity of a source. Everything depends on our keeping trust.

Reuters guidance

In other words, be careful. By all means, explore ways in which social media can help you do your job. But before you tweet or post, consider how what you’re doing will reflect on your professionalism and our collective reputation. When in doubt, talk to colleagues, your editor or your supervisor.

Social media guidelines from around the world

http://kellyfincham.com/international-social-media-guidelines-for-journalists/123/123

Usage of social media sites is highly uneven – beware thinking it is representativeThe 90-9-1 rule of participation inequality holds

“People very often don’t want a conversation. People’s interest in media is very often as background. The earliest investigations into media going back the foundation of Gallup indicate that people are not as absorbed in media as the creators of media. “ – Adrian Monck.

Dan Gillmor – We, the media (full copies in library)Antony Bradley – A New Definition of Social MediaRusbridger video on Future of JournalismClay Shirky – How social media can make history