Ace portland how_reportersusesocialmedia_slideshare

How Reporters Use Social MediaMartha Filipic and Suzanne Steel

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“Facebook is a cesspool.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“It’s relatively new to me, but sink or swim, I’m jumping in.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“Social media will not be evergreen, certainly not the Facebook of today. It’s already passé.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“. . . I’m disappointed at how it has resulted in everything becoming less accurate and more superficial.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“I hate social media. I find it unbearably narcissistic.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“Why on earth would I want to see the random, 140-character thoughts of people I don’t know?”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“Would like a Twitter link on every press release to send that release out to my Twitter followers.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“E-mail is still far better than direct messages on Facebook or Twitter; I can’t check everything all the time.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“It seems to be way oversold in terms of its benefits.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“Using social media is a great way to quickly aggregate reactions around breaking news . . .”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“Using social media is a great way to . . . find new sources for stories and share content we think will resonate.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“The future of news gathering and dissemination will broaden because [social media] has immediacy.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“Be selective about what you tweet, post, etc., so that it is really useful. Tweet real news.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“Reporters want certain things exclusively . . . Once it’s on social media, it’s not as interesting.”

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WHAT REPORTERS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

“We are being urged to use it more, but I really don’t like it that much.”

GOAL FOR OUR STUDY

Discover:• How much reporters use social

media• What type of social media they

use• Preferences when working with

communication offices

PROCESS USED FOR STUDY

• ACE Development Fund Supported study

• Face-to-face interviews with nine Ohio reporters

• 53 e-mail or telephone surveys with reporters representing 40 news outlets

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

“OTHER” SOCIAL MEDIA

TWITTER

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

REPORTERS’ USE OF TWITTER TO POST STORIES

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

REPORTERS’ USE OF TWITTER TO FIND

STORY IDEAS

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

REPORTERS’ USE OF TWITTER TO FIND SOURCES

REPORTERS WHO FOLLOW HASHTAGS

ON TWITTER

EXAMPLES OF TWITTER HASHTAGS

• #farm• #farmbill• #GMO• #cawater• [disaster or event

specific #]• #Plant[year]• #harvest[year]

• #soil• #agriculture• #[companies on beat]• #soil• #state name

TIME OF DAY ON TWITTER

FACEBOOK

REPORTERS’ USE OF FACEBOOK TO POST NEWS

REPORTERS’ USE OF FACEBOOK TO FIND

STORY IDEAS

REPORTERS’ USE OF FACEBOOK TO FIND SOURCES

REPORTERS WHO FOLLOW GROUPS ON FACEBOOK

EXAMPLES OF GROUPS FOLLOWED ON FACEBOOK

• United Farmers and

Ranchers Alliance• International

Federation of Ag

Journalists• I (heart) climate

scientists• National cotton

Council• Various land-grant

sites• NPR • National Geographic• Food Tank• Food & Wine

EXAMPLES OF GROUPS FOLLOWED ON FACEBOOK

• Modern Farmer• Fish and Wildlife

Service• Army Corps of

Engineers• Various state

departments (ag, NR)• National Weather

Serv.• State and American

Farm Bureau• NAFB• TV/News outlets• Police departments• 4-H, FFA

EXAMPLES OF GROUPS FOLLOWED ON FACEBOOK

• National Farm

Machinery Show• Machinery Pete• Machinefinder• Rotary Club• City pages• Resaturants

• Various companies on

beat• Various commodity

organizations

TIME OF DAY ON FACEBOOK

TIME OF DAY ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK

BLOGS

REPORTERS USE OF BLOGS TO FIND STORY IDEAS

REPORTERS USE OF BLOGS TO FIND SOURCES

EXAMPLES OF BLOGS

• Farmpolicy.com• Bovidiva.com• The Rural Blog• Aquaafornia• Maven’s Notebook• Edible Geo• Discovery blog• Forbes blogs

• The Salt• Modfarm• Createquity• Small Business Admin• Nonprofit associations

related to business

EXAMPLES OF BLOGS

• Advocates for

Agriculture• Inside Iowa State• Civic Skinny• Chronicle of Higher Ed• IFT Cropwatch• Farmgate

• AgWired• AgDM blog• Machinefinder• Righteousbacon.com• Buzzworthy• Education Week• Agricultureproud.com

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

USES TWITTER, FACEBOOK TO POST STORIES

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

USES TWITTER, FACEBOOK, BLOGS TO GET STORY IDEAS

COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS

FINDS SOURCES FROMTWITTER, FACEBOOK, BLOGS

• Snapshot in time (2013) Higher use of social media today?

• Twitter is currently used more than other outlets.

• Social media is a way for ACE members to reach reporters — even those who don’t like social media. Should not be ignored.

• Should look at impact on social media engagement on relationships with reporters

• In face-to-face interviews, older reporters tended to use social media less. More use in future?

• News outlets still like exclusivity: how do we balance that with our use of social media?

• Follow hashtags, FB groups and blogs reporters use to get insight about their interests.

Conclusions, Reflections

• Farm Progress • The Daily Dig blog• Associated Press• ThomsonReuters • DTN • Capital Public Radio,

Sacramento

• LA Times • Penton.com • Sacramento Bee• Fresno Bee• Baton Rouge Advocate• Baton Rouge Business

Report

PARTICIPATING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS:

• Monroe News Start• KTVF11, Fairbanks• Fairbanks Daily News-

Miner• Ames Tribune• Statehouse News Bureau,

Columbus

• Toledo Blade• Cleveland Plain Dealer• Akron Beacon-Journal • Farm Journal Media• Delta Business Journal• Sun Herald, Gulfport, MS• The Hattiesburg American

PARTICIPATING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS:

• Delta Democrat Times• Vicksburg Post• S. Market Bulletin• The Starkville Daily News• Clarion-Ledger• Chickasaw Daily Journal• Daily Journal

• Columbus Dispatch• FarmPolicy.com• Ohio Farmer magazine• Farm and Dairy newspaper• Brownfield Network• Feedstuffs• Ohio Farm Bureau

PARTICIPATING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS:

• ACE Development Fund• Anne Adrian• Tracy Turner• Kurt Knebusch• Marci Hilt• Brian Meyer

• Pam Kan-Rice• Nancy Tarnai• Linda Benedict• Susan Collins-Smith• Keri Collins Lewis• Bonnie Coblentz

THANKS TO:

• Suzanne Steel, steel.7@osu.edu

• Martha Filipic, filipic.3@osu.edu

CONTACT US: