24-Hour News Cycle: Social Media’s Role In News Production, Publication And Promotion

A look at the relationship and continuing interaction between social media and journalism.

I examine the industry today with a background on the history of how social media has evolved to become a journalistic tool, the ethics and technology at play, modes of communication between online and print media, and current and future trends industry professionals see developing.

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The goal of this paper is to show that social media is a tool to promote, distribute and create conversation between readers, content providers and curators. While at one point publications scoffed at the web, most are now embracing its power, using social media as a way to directly target their audience and promote content. This, among other reasons, is why I believe strongly in the value of this form of media as a tool to grow the discipline of journalism.

The following are a list of working professionals interviewed for this months-long investigative project:

1. Ryan Sholin, Director of News Innovation at Publish2
2. Michael Foley, journalist at Desert Sun/ content editor for Waggener Edstrom Worldwide/ social media expert
3. Rob Petersen, President/Founder BarnRaisers llc
4. Jay Adams, new media director for the Atlanta Falcons
5. Brenton Garen, former online video director, staff writer, Beverly Hills Courier, current Editor-In-Chief of the Santa Monica Daily Mirror
6. Amanda Peabody, former staff writer, assistant editor, Beverly Hills Courier
7. Abbey Hood, former news editor, Beverly Hills Courier
8. Sydne Summer, Fashion Editor at the Style Network’s mystyle.com & Editor-in-Chief of ThinkThruFashion
9. Erik Pedersen, senior editor at E! Online
10. Israel Lemus, online editor LAmag.com
11. Dorrine Mendoza, online content producer for North County Times
12. Tommy Tung, contributor to Juxtapoz Magazine
13. Josh Gross, Sports Illustrated mixed martial arts reporter
14. Chad Graham, social media and search engine optimization editor, azcentral.com and The Arizona Republic
15. Vicki Higgins, online producer for LA INC. (official tourism bureau for Los Angeles)
16. Pia Christensen, content manager, editor, Association of Health Care Journalists
17. Sumaya Kazi, CEO of @YoProCo. Award-Winning Entrepreneur. Former Sr. Social Media Manager at Sun, social media strategist
18. John Paul Aguiar, Blogger, Internet Entrepreneur, Social Media strategist
19. Lilliam Rivera, executive editor at Mondette.com
20. Justin Germino, Technology Manager, Blogger/Poet @dragonblogger
21. Robert Caruso, Founder & CEO Fondalo Inc.
22. Wendy Sullivan, web copywriter and journalist
23. Robert Hays, software development manager at DIRECTV
24. David Cohn, founder Spot.us
25. Richard Myer, former editor LA magazine, The Los Angeles Times
26. Larry King, former host of CNN’s Larry King Live
27. Dee Stewart, Owner of DeeGospel PR
28. Tanner Stransky, editor entertainment weekly & ew.com
29. David Politis, President of Politis Communications, a full-service PR/IR/Marcom agency focused on clients in the “green,” high-tech and life science/biotech industries
30. Jennifer Sheppherd, online producer for the Orlando Sentinel
31. Nic Wirtz, freelance Latin American journalist
32. Angela Kim, associate producer, Marketplace, American Public Media
33. Craig Newmark, owner, founder of Craigslist.com
34. Kim Bui, social media and community editor at KPCC
35. Ian Hill, community engagement specialist for KQEDnews.org in San Francisco

 

iPublish2

Some say the wave that is Publish2 is going to knock the Associated Press out of the water.

Right now Publish2 provides free content. The AP doesn’t.

Implemented in order to maximize reach and coverage, on May 28, Publish2’s Ryan Sholin told the Neiman Lab that Publish2 “did not set out to killed the Associated Press.” http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/05/publish2s-ryan-sholin-we-did-not-set-out-to-kill-the-associated-press/

Anything that eliminates jobs for journos, I am against as a rule. But I’m not so sure that Publish2 is going to drive the hard-working men and women of AP into unemployment. Not at least until Publish2 can figure out how to start getting consumers to pay for content.

Rick Edmonds, who writes for Poynter, reminds us that Publish2 only threatens a small part of the AP’s market; this big fish will take a long while to reach the bottom of the ocean. http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=184280/ He also noted that the AP has their own sharing service which I was not aware of. http://www.ap.org/apexchange/

Publish2 worked for me as a journo because it provided a clean, easy-to-use place to showcase my print and online clips. Major design and content changes at http://www.publish2.com/ have reorganized the site. Content providers are now called newsgroups. I.E. I am a newsgroup because I posted my clips to the site. Giving largely unverified people the newsgroup title does not make them a legitimate news source. As much as I appreciate the title, I’m not sure I’ve earned it yet. I am a journalist, but I am not a newsgroup in the traditional sense.

A more personal implication of this war between services: the redesign scrubbed clean my clips. Last week a few people told me “your link doesn’t work.” I checked it out: I still had a profile on the site, but now I didn’t have any clips or links anymore. Damnit.

Worried my digital brand was eroding, I furiously began re-linking stories onto the new Publish2. http://publish2.com/newsgroups/adam-popescu-links/ Exhausted, I quit after loading about a dozen stories, tag bombing to the nth. That would have to do for now. I went to bed a tired, but fulfilled man.

Then today I woke to a Google Alert—guess whose clips are at the top of the list under Publish2’s New York tag? http://www.publish2.com/search/links?q=&tag=new%20york/ Not only that, but look what popped back up—my old clip link, working again: http://www.publish2.com/newsgroups/adam-popescu-clips/

I guess you won me over Publish2. Now if we could start making some money together, I might even change my initials. Until then, I’m still Mr. AP.

—Adam Popescu