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Social Media & the Loosening Up of Journalism
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Transcript of Social Media & the Loosening Up of Journalism
Social Media & the Loosening Up of Journalism
Martin Thomas @crowdsurfing
The Loosening Up of Journalism
1. Chaos, complexity & need for speed
2. Emergence of new patterns of collective behaviour
3. New generational expectations
4. New technology
1.Chaos, Complexity & Need for Speed
o Acceleration of news agenda
1952Lynmouth
flood disaster
1988Piper Alpha explosion
May 2008Sichuan
Earthquake
Jan 2009Hudson River plane crash
2 days 1 hour 30 minutes
Real Time
Real Time+
Spring 2011Live blogging during Arab
Spring
Most institutions struggle with Real Timeo Not configured to work in real time, in terms of
resources, structure or culture
One hourOne hour Ten MinutesTen Minutes
* Critical response time for responding to negative comments
Real Time Journalism
• Live blogging• Energising & engaging
(live blogs = 3.6m unique users on Guardian.com, 9% of site traffic (March 11)
v• Messy, unstructured & an insult to real journalism
“I’m fact checking and editing as I do it live. If I wrote something really crazy I’m sure someone would notice it … there isn’t really a way for someone else to get in there & change it …. For the most part it is what it is; here it is live and it is the best we can do.” Robert Mackey, live news blogger, New York Times
2. Emergence of new patterns of collective behaviour
o Capable of delivering political, social or commercial change … without structure or formal leadership
Underlines deficiencies of tight, bureaucratic structures that have to deal with them
Democratisation of Criticism
o Twitter-powered aggregator of amateur reviews
o End of the professional critic?
Collaborative Journalism
“mutualisation” = “getting readers to care about, inform and enhance our coverage” Meg Pickard
From Readers to Collaborators
3. New Generations
o Emerging at top and bottom of corporate hierarchy– Gen X in the Boardroom with a post-Boomer
mindset– Gen Y entering the workplace with new
expectations
Demanding new ways of working
Heightened Expectations
o Speed & responsiveness“The trouble with McDonald’s is it’s too bloody slow”
Instant access, instant response, instant gratification “living life through shortcuts” MTV
4. New Technology
o Social media driving new behaviours & expectations
Demanding new approaches
New Approaches
o Need to embrace new media opportunities without simply recycling old ideas & techniques
Multi-screen Mobile
avoid “trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools & yesterday’s concepts” Marshall McLuhan
Thriving by Loosening Up
o Operational & cultural traits of successful organisations
TrustingAgileInformal Collaborative
Tight Thinkers Need Not Apply
o Organisations & people that struggle with this new worldHierarchicalBureaucraticProcess orientedDistrustful
Trusting
o Bedrock of strong internal cultureo Allows shared responsibility & real time
decision making
The best company rulebook ever written?
Nordstrom Revisited
“Prescriptive rules have the effect of infantilising staff & make it harder for them to adapt to different situations. This goes as much for digital communications as for selling socks … Like the Nordstrom handbook we’re trusting staff to follow the spirit, not just the letter, of our guidelines”Meg Pickard, writing about The Guardian’s new social media guidelines, November 2010
Agile
o Ability to improvise & operate in close to real time
o Limitations of excessive faith in longer-term planning
o Speed more important than absolute accuracy
Informal
o NPD: Living life in Beta
o Design: Messy vitality
o Creativity: Authenticity more important than production values
www.crowdsurfing.net@crowdsurfing