University Newspapers & Social Media
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have made it a lot easier for journalists to embed themselves as part of the community, to report on issues and to crowdsource story ideas or new angles. It has also made it easier for community members i.e. students and staff in the case of the Observant to exercise their right of reply, or to simply add something new and interesting to a story.
As part of our research, we reached out to the social media editors of various university newspapers and this post contains a brief summary of our insights. We have interviewed the following editors thus far:
1. Henk Strikkers, the web editor-in-chief of the Folia, the University of Amsterdam’s newspaper
2. Elmer Smaling, senior editor at Erasmus Magazine of the Erasmus University Rotterdam
3. Ries Agterberg, editor in chief of the DUB of Utrecht University.
These newspapers - or rather digital media organizations - were chosen because they all have a digital-only presence (without any print copies) in addition to being bilingual (both Dutch and English).
The goal of these interviews was to understand how these newspapers view their purpose of serving the informational needs of the community and providing an independent voice of criticism and analysis (nor is this very different from the way the Observant views itself). All of the editors agreed that digitalization in general and social media in particular had played a major role in transforming the journalistic process and making it more participatory in nature, such that there were often multiple points of convergence between the journalist and the community.
The social media accounts (all three of the media organizations maintain accounts on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram, while Folia & EM also maintain accounts on Linkedin) were bilingual, with posts being made in both Dutch and English. There is a filtering process that is used to decide which news article is promoted on which platform (and in which language). Most articles are published on Facebook and Twitter throughout the week (with relevant articles for domestic and international students being published in Dutch and English respectively), whereas Instagram has the stories which are more conducive for attractive pictorial depiction. Linkedin, on the other hand, was used by EM to publish more professional and academic oriented articles. However, not every tweet or post is about an article - journalists post (or reblog other relevant posts) throughout the week about various issues and also in case of “breaking news” - for instance, if a university team wins a sports prize.
Social media has also fundamentally changed the way university newspapers connect with their community, making it easier to crowdsource story ideas as well as to start a dialogue (with the newspaper as well as other members of the community). All the editors interviewed agreed that quite a few of their stories elicited negative reactions (for example, this bilingual post about gun violence at an international student housing complex by the Folia which generated a lively online debate amongst readers about multiculturalism and its impact on Dutch society and Amsterdam), but felt that these negative reactions were valid and helped to push the debate forward and shed light on different perspectives. A caveat though - intellectual debate can sometimes devolve into racist, sexist or hateful comments (as with this series of articles about sexual harassment of a student published by Erasmus Magazine), and it is the duty of every media organization to monitor and moderate the discussion so that the line is not crossed.
Social media has also made it easier to garner audience reactions and facilitate audience interaction so that the story continues and develops even after it has been published. It can also help journalists to build their own brands as experts on certain issues, in addition to establishing the university newspaper as the single stop for any information that students need about the university. This is strikingly similar to the advice given to us by Drs. Denis Ancion & Geert van Doorn (recounted in this post) about the importance of always being true to the core message of an organization to create a genuine connection with the audience.
- Mousumi
