How social media and digital platforms are changing newsrooms
I am currently taking a mobile social media journalism course that highlights how the media industry is changing because of social media and digital platforms. Now more than ever, news rooms are focusing on how to attract their audience digitally. Whether this is through crowdsourcing and engaging their audience by using interactive tools like Twitter polls, or thinking about digital elements to an online story to compliment a written piece, journalists are less concerned about the front page and more about what gets views/clicks. In Anthony Adornato’s book, “Mobile and Social Media Journalism,” he explains how newspapers, like the New York Times, are adopting this way of thinking. "In 2015, Dean Baquet, the Times executive editor, announced the newsroom was retiring the system of pitching for page 1, the front page of the print edition. The process of selecting page 1 stories will play a less prominent role, Baquet wrote in a staff memo. Under the new system, editors now pitch stories to be considered for a list of stories that get “the very best play on all our digital platforms”—web, mobile and social" (pg26).
In order to have a mobile-first mindset, you have to keep a few things in mind. Your audience’s experience is what will keep your audience engaged and interested. As Adornato stresses in his book, engagement is a two-way conversation. So have genuine interactions by replying back to your audience and include them in the news gathering process. Your audience can suggest angles to a story, and provide eyewitness accounts/information. News outlets also have to have multi-platform hubs on content. Print, broadcast, and radio reporters are not only just publishing their stories. They are thinking of different approaches for each digital platform space. What can make someone click on your story link on Twitter VS. what will make them want to watch this story on TV? Lastly, new business models are evolving that tap into revenue streams. This includes digital advertising for news outlets. While journalism is funded, how its being funded is changing as the news industry evolves. All of these factors are just a few examples of how newsrooms and journalists are keeping up with new demands, platforms, and interests.