Using Social Media for Community Engagement Andy Carvin National Public Radio [email protected] andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt.

Using Social Mediafor Community Engagement

Andy Carvin

National Public Radio

[email protected]

www.pbs.org/learningnow

www.andycarvin.com

andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt

Traditional Media Production

Until recently, to produce content for a large audience you needed to be a...

Publisher Broadcaster Billboard owner Pilot flying a sign-dragging airplane Guy holding up signs at televised football game

Enter stage left: Web 1.0

Most people read the Net instead of producing for it, because producers needed:

HTML coding skills Programming skills Graphic design skills Hosting ability Promotion mechanisms

Today: Web 2.0

Late 1990s: New classes of online software to simplify content creation

Allowed people to focus on ideas and creativity rather than technical know-how

“The Read-Write Web”AKA “Web 2.0”

AKA “We Media”

Social Software and theDemocratization of Content

classblogmeister.com: edublogging tool flickr.com: photo blogging community epnweb.org: education podcast network blip.tv: make your own video blog youtube.com: 100 m videos downloaded daily

Common thread: Online communities where people

are actively encouraged to use and share each other’s original content

Content Production:All The Cool Kids Are Doin’ It

48 mil Americans have posted content online One in 12 Internet users publish a blog One in four have shared original content Young people more likely to post content Race, income, education less of a factor Latinos, African Americans slightly more likely

to post online content than whites

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Home Broadband Adoption 2006

The Web 2.0 Universe

Geotags Blogging AggregationPodcasting Folksonomies Rating Tools

Vlogging Community Discussions

Online Social NetworksTagging Instant Messaging mashups

RSS Citizen Journalism Wikis

Most Famous Example: Blogs

Early days: online geeks posted personal homepages or diaries (example: me)

Blogging software made online publishing easy; anyone can do it (again: me)

Fill-out-a-form publishing Today: 60-100 million+ blogs online,

including many of you Perception: A media-blogger war of attrition

The Media Hates Bloggers

Can’t trust bloggers or “citizen journalists” to get the story right

Bloggers have agendas/bias/grudges etc. Web 2.0 dominated by mob mentality Bloggers don’t respect journalists Bloggers don’t do hard news

Bloggers Hate the Media

Can’t trust big media (or “old media”) Big media claim they’re unbiased – right. Big media dominated by soundbites They don’t respect the public’s brains,

collectively or individually They do hard news anymore, pandering to

lowest common denominator

Today: Happy Internet (War is Over)

Concerted attempts at finding understanding between the media and the blogosphere

Media/blog collaboration now more common Greater emphasis on “networked journalism”

(Jeff Jarvis) Finding ways for the media to work with

“The people formerly known as the audience” (Jay Rosen)

Why Are Media Outlets Embracing Web 2.0?

Improving journalistic transparency Creating a public dialogue Tapping into public knowledge and creativity New collaborative opportunities with affiliates Maybe it’s profitable, too?

Open Piloting

Inviting the public to help create new broadcast programming

Sharing rough drafts of shows before they’re ready for prime time

A focus group, but everyone’s welcome Examples: Rough Cuts, Bryant Park

Radio Open Sourcehttp://www.radioopensource.org

“A blog with a radio show” Not about open source software! Opens editorial process to the public Invites users to submit, debate program ideas Users recommend guests, questions Asks users to participate on-air Hosts online debriefs after each show Similar: TOTN, WHYS

BBC Have Your Say

Centralized forum for discussing news Only select stories covered Two-tiered moderation Users can rate each others’ comments Best comments integrated into stories

CNN iReporthttp://www.cnn.com/exchange/

CNN citizen journalism project with Blip.tv CNN asks users to submit photos, video for

specific stories Very best clips included on air, other

highlights archived in an online gallery Published early video from VT shooting “Tell your friends, “iReport for CNN”

USA Today

Embedding social networking across site Not balkanized to a special section Users can comment on any story Comments featured on homepage, elsewhere Syndicating blogs from around the Internet

OhmyNewshttp://english.ohmynews.com/

Korean online news service Publishes in Korean, English, Japanese Dedicates 20% of its space to citizen

journalists Invites public to submit content as volunteers Ones that submit consistently get paid

Global Voiceshttp://www.globalvoicesonline.org

Project of the Harvard Berkman Center International citizens media news service “Bridge bloggers” monitor blog discussions

around the world and summarize them GV/Witness.org Human Rights Video Works closely with Reuters

VoteGuide

Organized by Center for Citizen Media Berkeley journalism students created blog and

aggregator for California’s 11th Congressional District

Automatically collects news, photos, etc using tags

Citizen journalists encouraged to cover candidates

Test case for larger project during next cycle

Minnesota E-Debatehttp://e-democracy.org/

Used blogging to host gubernatorial debate Candidates submitted text, video, voicemail Public rated responses, posted comments Users uploaded video, photos, text and audio

to various Web 2.0 and tagged them “MNpolitics”

Result: Dozens of podcasts, 100 videos, hundreds of photos, text comments

Could be replicated nationally in ‘08

NewAssignment.net

Networked journalism project by Jay Rosen Launching in April 2007 Will provide a platform for pro and amateur

journalists to collaborate on stories together Developing endowment to pay pro journalists,

cover expenses of amateur journalists First project: collaborating with Wired News

H2OTownhttp://www.h2otown.info

Community blog for Watertown, MA All news stories produced by town residents Includes text stories, photos, video Excellent example of “placeblogging” H2OTown founder Lisa Williams launching

placeblog platform for other communities

Outside.Inhttp://www.outside.in

Neighborhood content aggregator Combines placeblogging, citizen journalism with

mapping and geotagging Allows users to explore community news as a

blog, or on a neighborhood map

Tunisian Prison Map

Created by expat Tunisian A new form of civil disobedience Uses Google Maps to chart Tunisian prisons Lets users track down famous dissidents Built with free tool: gMapEZ

The Gates @ Central Parkhttp://nycgates.blogspot.com

Event blog: “The Gates” art project in NYC Anyone could post their own content:

Blog entries by email Photos by email Voicemails converted to podcasts

Used free tools (Blogger.com and Flickr.com)

Katrina Aftermathhttp://katrina05.blogspot.com

Based on “Gates” website Solicited public contributions Aggregated news, blogs, missing persons

info, photos Also used free tools

Blogger.com Flickr.com Feeddigest.com

The Echo Chamber Projecthttp://www.echochamberproject.comhttp://www.echochambermovie.com

Collaborative documentary by Kent Bye about pre-war media coverage

Recorded hundreds of video clips interviewing journalists, experts

Public invited to work on segments, review and edit video clips into playlists

Playlists exported into Final Cut Pro to produce the documentary

Open Source version of Jumpcut.com, focused on collaborative video storytelling

So What Should You Do?

Community blogs and discussions? User-generated photos, videos or podcasts? Collaborative documentaries? Citizen journalism? Citizen policymaking? All of the above? What else?

Photographed by Ethan ZuckermanBathroom, Rhodes University, South Africa(cc) 2006 by-nc

Thanks!

Andy [email protected]

www.pbs.org/learningnowwww.andycarvin.com

Presentation:andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt