For Samford Crimson journalists

Paul Bradshaw gives us plenty to think about when it comes to using social media in the practice of our journalism. He finds there is a small amount of extra work, but a worthwhile reward.

As journalists we used to be active in seeking those people out – and we used reliable, often official, channels to do that, meaning we were often too reliant on particular sources. Now sources are increasingly coming to us and the work is in making ourselves visible, accessible and trustworthy; and in filtering and verifying the information they provide.

That’s not ‘more passive’ journalism, it’s getting out of your silos and making contact; it’s moving from being a conduit to a stimulator. It’s moving from a linear production process to a networked one, and too few journalists are doing it.

The feedback, the better angles and the better reporting you can produce will be worth the effort. Doing so will also help you build a better brand for your newsroom and for yourself as a journalist.

Deborah Howell asks, in The Washington Post,  “What makes a good reporter?”

Here are some of answers in bullet form, but you should read the entire piece:

Endless curiosity and a deep need to know what is happening.

Reporters go where the story is

Good reporters are committed to telling the story.

Good reporters are savvy enough to find sources they can trust

Good reporters know how to get access to people and documents

In which of these areas do you think you’ll do well? Where might you find yourself lacking and in need of improvement? How do these traits carry over into reporting and writing in your online journalism?

We’re going to soon be talking about this a lot. We’ll discuss ways that we can think beyond the newspaper paradigm and how we can use the tools already in place to help you develop audiences, cultivate brands and how that will ultimately help your portfolio.

One such little idea is by using Twitter. Here’s a post from Amy Gahran about Twitter for journalists:

Twitter can be quite an effective radar screen for news or relevant issues.

[...]

Twitter can help you engage people on a personal level, and to demonstrate your interest in them. This is something that, IMHO, many journalists resist — but that can benefit journos and their work significantly once they loosen up about acting like human beings in a public venue.

Twitter is going mainstream now. Early this year I started the Twitter stream at al.com. In a matter of days we had more than a hundred followers — when few people around here were on the service. In the first week we broke two big fire stories via Twitter …

Gahran’s also got tips for how you can get started — which I’d encourage you to do. I’d also encourage you to follow (to follow is to friend if you’re in a Facebook frame of mind) relatively talkative people. Follow those who fall into your interests and they’ll tip you off to ideas and great new things.

Also follow a few people of different and varied interests, just to get a nice slice of the conversation.

You can follow me too, if you like.