Geoffrey M. GraybealGeorgia Scholastic Press Association
Sept. 22, 2011
PhD Student & Journalism instructor, Grady College
Teach news writing and news editing
Teach and research aspects of social media
Use social media for work and play (@graybs13 on Twitter)
Taught a “Media and Message: Communicating in the Digital Age” course to high school students
Former professional reporter, high school and college newspaper editor
A microblogging service Used by 13% of online
Americans (’11 Pew report) 140-character updates,
“tweets” One in five online Americans
18-to-24 use Twitter. Median age of Twitter user:
31 (27 for MySpace; 26 for FB)
Non-white (Black, Hispanic) use high
Frequency of usefor news & information Social networks Internet Mobile
Daily 56% 33% 31%
Several times a week
20% 32% 19%
About once a week
7% 18% 11%
Less than once a week
6% 12% 13%
Never 10% 6% 27%
Source: 2011 Knight Foundation study
@msnbc_breaking MSNBC @GaFrontPage Georgia News @Cnnbrk CNN @onlineathens Athens Banner-
Herald @AJC Atlanta Journal-Constitution @RedandBlack UGA newspaper @nprpolitics NPR @Washingtonpost Washington Post @nytimes New York Times
Find story ideas and sources Report Distribute Promote
“Follow” (on Twitter):◦ Groups/Organizations at your school◦ Readers/Potential Sources/Classmates◦ Other media outlets ◦ Media scholars and journalism organizations
(Poynter’s Al Tompkins, AEJMC)
“Friend” (on Facebook):◦ Classmates at your school◦ Group pages◦ Event listings
@atompkins What’s the Point of Cheerleading? It is the #1 cause of female injuries in High school and college - WSJ.com http://ow.ly/pRjE
@Dailytarheel A DTH reporter needs to talk to an '09 grad taking time off - not in school or looking for jobs. know anyone? email [email protected]
@nytimes Driven to Distraction: Doubts About Scare Tactics on Drivers Who Text http://bit.ly/1dbFDT
On Facebook:◦ FCA NE
Georgia
On Twitter:◦ @fcanews
Use hashtags to denote a topic Can cover and report on speeches,
happenings at conferences, events (#gspasoc)
Can text updates from your cell phone 40404
Can use for breaking news events◦ Example #atlflood◦ #egypt◦ #troydavis
“Unnecessary quotes” blogger speaks to Grady students
Friday Night football tweets DTH live “tweets” during National
Championship; Red & Black during Georgia Theatre fire
Can also incorporate real-time reporting in print (Alternative Story Formats)◦ Could publish timeframe of tweets; news/sports
Still need to verify, confirm Be skeptical Make sure the source you follow is
authentic Accuracy is important You don’t want this to happen
Use of social media in your core product (Follow us on Twitter, See our Facebook page”)
Promote news about your product to your followers (“Look for the new issue of the school paper on Oct. 1”)
Promote articles (Look for an in-depth interview w/ Coach in the next issue)
Create a page or group on FB or MySpace Engage in conversation with readers
Manteo (N.C.) Sound to Sea
Sound To Sea Twitter
Sound to Sea website
Sound to Sea Facebook
You must decide. Levels of censorship and control vary at schools.
Advisors Editors Reporters One “organizational” account versus
multiple twitterers Social media by nature is an “open”
medium
Duke TIP @ UGA Digital Media class blog.
geoffreygraybeal.com
Poynter.org (see Mallory Jean Tenore’s work)
My.hsj.org
Steve Buttry
A revolution is taking place!