Twitter this week launched ‘Twitter for Newsroom‘, an online guide to help those in publishing and journalism understand how best to find sources, verify stories and publish news online.
For many events Twitter has become the stories break, confirming how, as @nicnewman states in a report that news organisations are ‘abandoning attempts to be the first for breaking news, focusing instead on besting the best at verifying and curating it.’ Twitter has become a must-have tool for journalists, enabling them to reach out directly to people caught in the story and who want to share their experience.
All this said, the #TfN guide is very basic and top-line, not adding much value to what we already know. The announcement highlights more how Twitter is understanding the use of it’s channel by the community as it tries to set some standards and best practice. The channel has already made public ‘Producers’ guide to Twitter on TV‘ and ‘On-air [TV/Web] display guidelines.’
You just have to look at the case’s of injunctions in the UK of the uprisings in various Middle East countries to see how Twitter and other social networking channels have made the public into individual broadcasters, voices that can add value to a story. But with so many voices journalists are having to develop a forensic view to enable them to dig through the noise and spin. It is these skills that add value to journalism.
The announcement this week is a case of how the community is leading and the company is accepting the standards that we are setting.
With the upcoming integrating into Apple’s iOS5 we will see Twitter as a possible default messaging platform for those using Apple products.
The CIPR’s Social Summer
Friday, June 4th, 2010Following on from the CIPR’s acclaimed Digital Impact conference last month the institute will be hosting a series of social media meetings this summer.
Entitled The CIPR’s Social Summer events will take place every Thursday until the end of August and will bring together leading PR and social media professionals to discuss and debate this ‘not so new’ communications channel. Speakers include Philip Sheldrake, who yesterday presented a session on analytics, Andrew Smith, Stuart Bruce, Stephen Waddington, Steve Earl and myself.
The events will be held at the institute’s London head-office with sessions ranging from social media analytics and the rise of mobile networking to insight and tips on how to get ahead in social. I will be hosting an after-work session on how social media is used in the newsroom and broadcast television.
The fact of the matter is that while social media has affected how we do public relations – forcing many of us into real-time reaction and into a culture of conversation and dialogue, newsrooms and television programmers have had to adapt to ensure that their own industries survive the change in the balance of power between providers and consumers of news and content.
But how does the communications industry adapt? What does we need to learn from sectors that for so long we’ve work with? How do we work together to make sure that the people that we wish to speak with engage with us? These and so many more questions will be debated during my session on 15th July.
To find out more about this and other CIPR social summer sessions visit the wiki and sign-up soon. Tickets for each session are only £10 on the door, to cover the cost of beer and a seat!
Below is my presentation that I gave at the Digital Impact conference and which I’ll be expanding from in July.
So this summer, remember, PR is getting social!
Tags: broadcast, cipr, communications, newsrooms, public relations, publishing, social media, social networking, tv
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