How social media transformed journalism
Two media powerhouses discuss how the industry’s changed for publishers and reporters alike
Social media has changed the world—for individuals, businesses and entire industries. Its effect on journalism and publishing is particularly profound. Social media is a research tool for reporters and a distribution channel for media outlets. It’s also propelled citizen journalism, allowing laypeople to broadcast news and commentary in real time. We posed a single question to two publishing powerhouses: How has social media changed publishing?
Tim Brooks, CEO of BMJ and former managing director of Guardian News & Media
A: Very profoundly. I was in my previous role of managing director of the Guardian when both Facebook and Twitter took off. They changed the behavior of our journalist team significantly.
It changed both inbound and outbound behaviors. Journalists, at least sensible journalists, are now using Twitter to promote their own work. It’s also changing how they research stories.
During the Arab Spring (anti-government protests that spread across the Middle East in early 2011), we had Arab-speaking people sitting at the news desk with their Twitter feeds, looking at tweets. It provided journalists with a real-time, real-people source of information, which up to that point had been unavailable to them. It radically transformed reporting.
There are other famous examples—Jimmy Mubenga, for instance. He was deported and died after being restrained by guards on the plane, and the incident was subject to criminal procedures. The security company said it was a heart attack, but there were doubts. A reporter tweeted something like, “Was anybody on this flight? Did anybody see this man die?” An oil engineer on a platform in the middle of the Indian Ocean who had never heard of The Guardian saw the tweet and reported, “I saw that poor man die.” This is just one example of social media’s profound effect on journalism.
Barry McIlheney, president of UK’s Professional Publishers Association (PPA)
A: When I think of social media, I think of this unique opportunity to communicate all the time with your audience. I used to work at Heat magazine, and I saw the way social media changed what you had to provide for your audience, and how you had to provide it. Now publishers are responsible for this running dialogue. It has radically transformed the operation. How you monetize that is a whole other phenomenon, but in terms of how it affects the process of running magazines—it is a huge issue.
Then there’s user-generated content. This is completely unscientific, but it feels to me that we went through a big period of that and are coming out the other end. People are realizing that professionally produced, edited and beautifully designed content has actually got a lot going for it, versus the ramblings of somebody who happened to be on the spot at the time. It is very useful for news events, and there is a fantastic rise in appropriate bloggers, but not everybody can do that. Just because somebody has got the platform to spout off about something doesn’t necessarily make someone else want to read it or advertise in it. I think there is a bit of a retreat to professionalism, which isn’t a bad thing. PGC, professionally generated content, that’s the “new” thing.
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