Social Media Journal

My name is Michaela Steakley. I am a photojournalism student in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida and I want to discover how social media can be used on a professional level to teach, engage and inspire.  

[msteakley]

That won't happen to me.

Everyone who has ever been hacked, probably

Hacking happens all the time. In its simplest form, hacking happens when you leave Facebook open on your friend’s phone or computer and they post a status letting everyone know that you think they’re “the bestest friend in the whole wide world!!”

In a more serious example, Syrian hackers sent phishing emails to Associated Press staffers and gained access to the organization’s Twitter account, resulting in a tweet that negatively impacted the stock market. 

More recently, Russian hackers were said to be targeting New York Times journalists.

Personally, I don’t put nearly as much thought into hacking as I should. I joke about how I have nothing that hackers could possibly want, but what if I do? I always hear about two-factor authentication and creating unique passwords for all of my accounts, but how many people actually use these techniques to protect themselves?

According to this list of the “worst passwords of 2016,” some people aren’t putting much thought into their security at all, using ridiculously predictable passwords like “123456” or “password.”

The topic of hacking certainly got me thinking about what I could be doing to protect my information, especially as someone who is studying journalism. It’s one thing when it’s your own information you’re guarding, but when a source gets involved, it’s important to protect their information and keep their safety in mind too, and this guide is an excellent place to start. 

[msteakley]

Find that fireball! When journalist turns stalker - Storyful.

A woman is filming a thunderstorm when lightning strikes a tree metres from the camera. A fireball explodes, the woman jumps back, shouting “Oh shit!”. Video gold, a segment any local news network would love to broadcast. Judge for yourself: Initially, we had suspicions. Is this video a set-up? Or an old clip copied from elsewhere and reposted as new? Because if not, we knew this was something news organizations would be interested in. So we set about... Learn more

Storyful is a social marketing and news company that is known for discovering and verifying social news content. In this article, Storyful details the process of verifying the authenticity of a video of lightning striking a tree and creating a fireball. They used tools like Spokeo, WolframAlpha, White Pages, and Google Maps to find the person who posted the video and verify details like the weather on that particular day.

The title of the article, “When journalist turns stalker,” really resonated with me. My friends always come to me for help if they need to track someone down using the random bits of information they have. I have always found it fascinating that I can start with a tiny tidbit of information like someone’s first name and end up finding their mother’s maiden name and where they attended elementary school. Does that make me a stalker? Maybe, but isn’t that essentially what a journalist is?

On Election Day this past November, I was fortunate to be able to participate in Electionland, a project designed to track voting issues throughout the country in real time. Journalism schools at several universities, including mine at the University of Florida, joined ProPublica, the Google News Lab, WNYC News, Univision, the First Draft Coalition, and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, among other partners, to find and authenticate voting issues throughout the United States. Students and professors at the journalism schools were tasked with searching social media to find and verify potential problems at polling places, using tools tools like TweetDeck, Dataminr, Facebook Signal and TinEye Reverse Image Search. We passed the information we found to New York to be verified by the team there, and then it was sent out to reporters. 

We essentially followed the same process as Storyful did to verify the fireball video. In a world where you can hardly go a day without hearing about #fakenews, it is so important to have the ability to quickly and accurately prove the authenticity of videos, pictures and sources. Fortunately, as Storyful and the Electionland project prove, the tools we, as journalists, need to do this are right at our fingertips. 

[msteakley]

Creating Social Media Graphics with Web Apps

This week’s reading were centered around creating effective graphics for social media. This SocialMouths article contained some helpful hints for creating “highly shareable” graphics, like minimizing text and using high quality stock photography. 

In class, we were give an extensive list of apps for creating graphics, memes and GIFs and for editing photos, which we spent some time experimenting with.

I focused on two: Adobe Spark and Canva. I’m always on the lookout for resources that will help me with my personal brand, so I experimented with making graphics for my website, Michaela Meets World.

I loved how easy it was to use Adobe Spark. I typed my text, chose a background, and experimented with the layout and fonts. You can also add shapes and change the opacity and alignment of each element. These are two graphics I created:

The first is sized to be used as a Facebook header, and the second would be an Instagram post. I tend to favor very simple design over elaborate graphics, and Adobe Spark made it easy to create this look easily and efficiently. 

I took the advice of the SocialMouths article and avoided making the text too overwhelming. Instead of using high quality stock photos, I used my own high quality travel photos, because my brand is focused on both photography and travel.

One criticism I had of Adobe Spark is that you can’t change the opacity of both a shape and the text that it is attached to. Another was that you can’t simply create a shape with linking it to text. 

Canva was also a very user-friendly tool for creating graphics and I'm obsessed with the fonts and design elements that are available. Unfortunatly, a lot of these were too intricate compared to what I use on my website and social media, but I would definitely consider these if I was working for a company and making infographics or logos. 

This is the graphic I made with Canva:

Before this week, I had always used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to make graphics from scratch, and I honestly had no idea that tools like Adobe Spark and Canva existed. I’m very excited to experiment with these tools in the future.

[msteakley]

While reporting a story last week I had a sudden revelation: I’m an aggregator. I’m one of them.

Joel Achenbach, Washington Post

In his blog post for the Washington Post, reporter Joel Achenbach had a revelation. It’s something that hadn’t crossed my mind until he pointed it out. Journalism is aggregation. 

Personally, I don’t have a problem with aggregation. There’s nothing wrong with pulling from other sources in order to create an educated, well thought out article, as long as everything is properly cited and extra analysis and thought are given. I can see where journalists might take issue with some forms of aggregation, like when BuzzFeed and other listicle machines pull from Tumblr and Reddit to create articles that get tons of traffic and, as a result, revenue, with minimal effort and no original thought. However, I wouldn’t exactly call that journalism. 

But Achenbach makes an excellent point. When journalists write articles, they become aggregators. We find experts on the topics we’re writing about, maybe do some extra research, then put in all together in an article that will be published in our names and potentially get recognition and generate revenue. That’s journalism. Of course, we cite our sources and give all of the proper attribution, but that’s still aggregation.

BuzzFeed even has an article debating whether aggregation is theft. Throughout this very article, the author aggregates from other sources, linking other articles and websites. 

I don’t think we can do journalism without aggregation. In fact, aggregation makes journalism better. Why include only your own thoughts and analysis when there’s a whole world of journalism out there that can be added to help give the reader full understanding?

All aggregation is not journalism, but maybe all journalism is aggregation.

[msteakley]

How mobile phones helped solve two murders

Two murders sat unexplained and unsolved -- until reporter Paul Lewis starting talking to bystanders who had evidence on their mobile phones. Step by step, Lewis pieced together their evidence and their stories to find justice for the victims. It's the future of investigative journalism, powered by the crowd.

Crowdsourcing: obtaining data, information, or ideas from a group of people (source)

In this Ted Talk by Guardian journalist Paul Lewis, he discusses how crowdsourcing led to the discovery of details about the murders of two men in two different situations. Video, Twitter and other sources were used to connect bystanders with journalists, who investigated the deaths and discovered that there was more to each story than the police had said. 

The topic of crowdsourcing led to an interesting discussion in class this week. What qualifies as journalism? If a non-journalist unearths information and gives it to a publication, can their initial findings be considered journalism? If someone without any photojournalism training takes a news photo and a publication runs it, is that photojournalism?

As a photojournalism student, I would definitely say that if someone takes a photo of a news situation, that’s photojournalism. It doesn’t matter if it’s taken on a phone or a professional DSLR camera. For example, in 1953, amateur photographer Virginia Schau captured a picture of the rescue of two truck drivers on a bridge, and ended up winning a Pulitzer the following year. She just happened to be in the right place at the right time. If that happened today, I would be inclined to say that someone with an iPhone could take a similar photo and should be eligible for a Pulitzer. 

This also goes for videos. When people take videos of protests and other news events, the footage they capture is photojournalism. 

As for a situation in which a citizen unearths valuable information that a publication can use, I wouldn’t call the individual a journalist, but I would call their findings journalism. Yes, journalists have a degree and training, but that doesn’t mean that the average citizen isn’t capable of discovering newsworthy information that a publication has missed. On the other hand, this article makes some excellent points about what happens to our privacy as citizen journalism continues to become more common.

If we choose to discredit crowdsourcing and citizen journalism, especially when it is so easy for people to document everyday news, we will be neglecting important journalistic content.

[msteakley]

What happens when you only get news that supports your worldview.

This week’s topic was Facebook Live, and in preparation for class, we read this BuzzFeed article about the “filter bubble” that exists in regards to the live videos. It essentially addresses the fact that people watch live videos to avoid seeing media bias, when, in fact, that bias is still created by the reactions and comments that appear in real time on these videos. 

After reading the BuzzFeed article, I found the New York Magazine article above that also discusses the concept of the filter bubble. As the presidential election progressed, as it came to an end and every day since, we have constantly heard about the “biased media” and how everyone was confident that Trump was going to lose. This is where the filter bubble comes in. Facebook determines the content each user sees based on an algorithm that caters to each person’s preferences. Beyond that, when Facebook users see content they don’t like, they can simply unfriend or unfollow the person who posted or shared it. As the article states, rather than a “news feed,” they see a  “’my friend’s opinions’ feed.”

While I tend to avoid unfriending and unfollowing people on Facebook unless their posts are extremely hateful or annoying, I know a lot of people who click the unfriend button at the first sign of a differing opinion. These same people like to tell me that they read news from a range of different organizations, but they don’t realize that they are creating this filter bubble on Facebook, where they get a large portion of their news updates. How many people do this without realizing how much they are narrowing the scope of their understanding of the world? It’s certainly something that I will be more conscious of as I continue to consume news and build my career as a journalist.

[msteakley]

Going Viral

It happens every day. A post, meme, story or video sweeps across the internet and suddenly everyone is talking about it. In most cases, it’s forgotten by the next week or even the next day, but for that short period of time, it’s viral.

This week’s class and readings were focused on what exactly it takes to make something go viral. Before I did any reading, the first thing I thought of was Buzzfeed. I can’t go on Facebook without seeing at least one Buzzfeed post that has been shared by several of my friends. Appropriately, one of the assigned articles was written by Jonah Peretti, the CEO and founder of Buzzfeed. In true Buzzfeed form, he suggested 13 Ways to Make Something Go Viral.

Some of the tips are obvious: 

“Make content that takes human emotion seriously.”

“Make content YOU would share yourself.”

“Capture the moment”

“Human rights are inherently social”

“Don't post things people are embarrassed to share”

Peretti also suggests using humor, nostalgia and most importantly (in my opinion), cute animals. 

Beyond these tips, I have noticed some trends from using the Buzzfeed app several times a week. Quizzes and personality tests are huge on Buzzfeed. I scrolled through the trending posts tab on the app, and the items with the most views fit these categories.

“We Know When You’ll Get Engaged Based On Your Chipotle Order” had 785,000+ views, Can You Answer 10 Hard-But-Not-That-Hard SAT Questions From 1926? had 847,000+ views and Your Pizza Preferences Will Reveal A Thing You Do But Don’t Tell Anyone About had 744,000+.

The quizzes take five minutes to do and even though I would assume that most people don’t really believe that Chipotle has any bearing on their love lives, they still click it.

I’m not saying that food quizzes and funny Tumblr post compilations are groundbreaking journalism, but they are getting the clicks and shares that most traditional news organizations would pay big money to have.  I don’t see CNN making cute animal compilations in the near future (or ever), but it will be interesting to see how traditional journalism develops its own viral tactics going forward. For now, I’ll be on Buzzfeed, looking at 19 Insanely Cute Kittens Who Just Don’t Know Any Better. 

[msteakley]

Beyond Comments: Finding Better Ways To Connect With You

In order to prioritize and strengthen other ways of building community and engagement with our audience, we will discontinue story-page comments on NPR.org on August 23.

This week’s topic was comment moderation by news organizations. I don’t think I have ever posted a comment on a news article, and I think that in many situations, comment sections are a breeding ground for negativity and hate. I can see the use of having a place to exchange ideas and try to get people to understand each other’s points of view, but overall, reading comment sections exhausts me mentally.

Therefore, I enjoyed NPR’s article from last August about shutting down its comment section and finding better ways to connect with its readers. The news organization easily could have shut down the comments and moved on, but it instead gave readers several ways to continue to connect, discuss and engage with NPR journalists and fellow readers. 

A few examples of these alternatives include social media like Facebook pages and Twitter, ways to connect with journalists in order to continue discussion about their stories and give them ideas, and an Audience Relations team dedicated to responding to reader emails. When there’s so many other channels for interaction, I hardly see the point of allowing comments.

If nothing else, this shows that NPR clearly cares about what readers have to say and is dedicated to giving them plenty of ways to play a role in its journalism.

[msteakley]

How I got 100,000 Instagram Followers

Tips and hints from a photographer's successful quest to grow Instagram followers

As someone who uses Instagram professionally (and as a travel photographer, no less!), this blog post by travel photographer Gary Arndt about growing an Instagram following was right up my alley. 

I have read all there is to read about how to “make it” on Instagram, and yet, Arndt makes some excellent points that I have not heard before. 

Arndt’s points were very reasonable and provided me with a formula to follow, which is more helpful than the tips many other people give, often specific to their own content. Arndt discussed both discovery (getting people to find your account in the first place) and conversion (getting them to follow you and keeping their attention). You can’t make it easy for people to find your account and then have nothing to offer that would make them want to stick around.

One of Arndt’s best tips was that you must “check all the boxes”: 

“Make sure that you have a caption, tag another account, put in a location, share the photo on at least 1 other social platform, and do at least some basic editing in the Instagram app.” 

This past week, I kept these thoughts in mind while posting photos on my Instagram, and I was delighted to find that I had a surge in both my follower count the amount of engagement on my photos.

Here’s an example of Arndt’s magic at work, as demonstrated by one of my own posts:

I posted this photo, checking all of the boxes. I had a caption, tagged three other accounts, put in a location, shared the photo on Facebook and did some editing (although that was outside of the Instagram app).

Between this photo and one I posted two days before, I gained at least 500% more followers than I usually would with an individual post, and my likes and comments increased as well. By following even the most basic of Arndt’s tips, I am already seeing a return, and I’m looking forward to implementing the rest of his advice in the future. 

[msteakley]

With its subscribers Facebook group, The Boston Globe is mining the stickiest corners of the platform

An average post in the private subscribers group of just over 2,000 members attracts about twice the number of comments as a post on the Globe's main Facebook page, which is approaching half a million likes.

The Boston Globe is using Facebook in a way that creates meaningful conversation and discussion among its subscribers and content creators. 

Rather than simply having a Facebook page where the Globe can share articles and news updates, the news outlet created a Facebook group for its subscribers to join. In the group, members can discuss anything related to the Globe’s content. Journalists can join in as well.

I love the concept of an open forum where content creators and content viewers can interact. Knowing what your audience thinks and wants is essential a news outlet’s success, in my opinion. 

Have you ever read an article and felt so strongly about it in one way or another that you want to talk to other readers and find out if they feel the same way you do? Have you ever had questions about something you read in a newspaper or online and wanted to ask the author to clarify? That’s exactly what this Facebook group is for. 

I strongly believe that if every community had a platform such as this one for discussion, the consumption of news would be more meaningful. Creating a community for readers, writers and editors is a genius idea, and I hope to see more Facebook groups like the Globe’s in the future. 

[msteakley]

Creating a Brand

One of the topics we discussed this week in class was creating a brand. Branding is essentially the way you present yourself on social media and as a journalist. Everything that you post and present to your audience becomes your online persona. 

With that being said, branding is something that I have always been very conscious of. As a journalist, I have not quite found my niche, but one thing that I am passionate about is travel. In a previous post, I mentioned my Instagram account and my website, which I use to write about my travels and share my photography. On Twitter, I occasionally retweet travel news and share links to interesting articles about traveling. On Facebook, I have a page where I share updates to my website and Instagram. I don’t necessarily think everything has to be all travel all the time, but my content has to be consistent enough that I can keep my followers interested and not shock them with a sudden change in material.

As far as professionalism, I was told throughout high school to keep the content on all of my social media accounts clean. Even on private accounts, I have always kept everything professional. You never know who might gain access to your social media accounts, and what goes on the internet never goes away and can almost always be linked back to you. No matter what my brand ends up being, and even if it changes along the way, the professionalism of my online presence is something that will be consistent in everything I post.  

[msteakley]

Documenting bits and pieces of everyday life in Borno State, Nigeria. Find 'Bits of Borno' on Facebook and Twitter also. [email protected]

Yesterday in class, we had a guest speaker named Fati Abubakar, whose Instagram account is linked above. She is from Maiduguri, Nigeria, where there has been violence for years, much of which is in relation to Islamist group Boko Haram.

Fati talked about how she became very depressed because of the state of her country, and photography became a sort of therapy for her. She photographs people of all kinds in an effort to show that her country is not simply defined by war and violence. 

The way that Fati uses Instagram is so inspiring. There are probably thousands of Instagram accounts dedicated to photographing people and telling their stories, but her account is unique because of her goal: to show the rest of the world that Nigeria has so much to offer. 

As a photojournalism student, I relate to Fati in so many ways. She was inspired by Humans of New York, an Instagram account dedicated to photographing people and telling their stories. I can also relate to the desire to capture the vastly different lives and emotions of people from all over the world. Like Fati, I feel that photography is an amazing form of therapy and has the capability to pull your mind away from struggles you are facing. The fact that Instagram makes it so easy to share these photos is a huge bonus. 

[msteakley]

What does social media mean to me?

Social media plays a huge role in our society. This is a widely known fact and it is virtually impossible to escape it at this point. 

However, social media means something different to everyone. For a mom, it’s a place to share pictures of a growing child. For a musician, it’s a platform to share music and engage with fans. For companies, it’s a way to draw in new customers. For thousands upon thousands of people, it’s simply a place to complain, argue and be a bully. 

Everyone has their own reasons for using or avoiding social media.

As for me, I embrace wholeheartedly. As a journalism student and a student reporter, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook keep me up to date on the latest news and current events so I am able to stay informed about both my local area and the world. Through these platforms, I am able to read the latest news stories in real time, share these stories and my own with my followers or even interact with other journalists. 

As a photographer, social media is my most important ally. I use Instagram to share photographs from my travels and other projects. I can also follow photographers who inspire me, and interact with them directly in the comments on their posts. As I grow my own following, which is relatively small as of right now, I will be able to do the same, and hopefully inspire some followers of my own. 

As the popularity of social media continues to surge, so will the flaws and criticisms that come with it. But social media is a tool that, when used properly and with good intention, can change the way human interaction works.