Finding Story in Social Media

Social Media & NewsSue Robinson

University of Wisconsin-MadisonCopyright

Let’s talk first about…

• Narrative Theory• Claude Levi Strauss, Jung, Barthes

• News Narrative– How are journalists storytellers for the nation?– What kinds of stories are journalists supposed to

tell?– What elements of storytelling does journalism

often comprise?

If we think of news story in text as having the following elements…

• (When) Chronology – past, present, future• (Where) Setting – local geography• (Who) Character – archetypes, officials• (Why) Motivation – hegemonic values• (What) Plot – episodic, thematic, mythic

… Then what are content characteristics/dynamics of social media platforms?

• Group 1: On Facebook?• Group 2: Pinterest?• Group 3: In Twitter• Group 4: Our blogs?• Group 5: LinkedIn?

Each group please tweet out a 6-second vine with your answer, done in one-

word responses. Put on the FB post related to the platform.

Twittering the news: The emergence of ambient journalism

What is the main point of this article? Thinking about the following in particular:• What is ambient journalism?• How can journalists adapt to the awareness

system they argue is developing?• “In an awareness system, value is defined less

by each individual fragment of information that may be insignificant on its own or of limited validity, but rather by the combined effect of the communication” (301)

Affective News and Networked Publics: The Rhythms of News Storytelling on #Egypt

What is the main point of this article? Thinking about the following in particular…

• “Twitter is frequently used to call networked publics into being and into action during periods of political instability. “ What possibilities does this hold for story?”

• …platforms like Twitter permit individuals to bypass traditional gatekeepers and contribute directly to the news process. However, these instances also expose temporal incompatibilities between Twitter as a news platform and the conventions of journalism.” How can we change or adapt our notions of narrative to resolve this discrepancy?

Discussion

Discuss an answer to the following question:How can we use the networked culture

to resolve these issues? • Group 1: stereotypes• Group 2: simplicities of story• Group 3: missing voices• Group 4: inattention and apathy• Group 5: bias?

How do we use our social-media platforms to do good journalism?

– The Genuine Article– The Lego-Approach to Storytelling– From Blog to Narrative– Stelter’s piece– Reporting Life

Best Curating Tips• Have a meaningful, key-worded headline• Make sure you use the description box• Don’t just stack tweets, updates but write them into a story

with context (beg, mid, end AND transitions)• Introduce characters; make sure you know who you are

citing (go to their profile)• Verify the tweets if that makes sense to do so, such as

declarations of facts (see our Detecting Online Bull lecture)• Ask questions• Use lots of different combination of search terms• Take advantage of opportunity to bring in alternative

perspectives!!!

Let’s Curate• Storify Contest– Working in groups, please pick a focus from within your topic

and compose the best storify on your topic • Group 1: Sequester• Group 2: Oscars• Group 3: Last week’s Twitter hacks (BurgerKing, Jeep)• Group 4: Mining bill in Wisconsin OR Gun control debate• Group 5: Daytona crash

– You must give us the handles of FOUR key influencers and TWO major hashtags on the topic as a way that you would market your storify

– Best package wins prize!!– Please link to your storify and add your key influencers,

hashtags in a Facebook post and comments