The Internet Persona
When utiliziing the internet, journalists have to keep in mind that the world is able to see them in a whole new angle. Being a journalist, they’re going to want to be as aesthetically pleasing online as they are to look at and listen to. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be tweeting out 24/7 about their days — but also means they have to keep readers informed and hooked.
An example of a journalist who I believe utilizes twitter to the fullest, creating a pleasing feed to look at and read, is Lyndon alum: Tyler Dumont for WCAX.
Now I don’t really know Tyler, so I have no personal bias for this one, but I was scrolling through my twitter feed and the WCAX feed just to find some reporters for this, and he stuck out.
He is very active on twitter,
with his own tweets, shares articles that he’s interested in, which provides a little bit of personality, as well as news he hears about or works on with WCAX, and tags them in it.
WCAX often retweets Tyler, which is how I found his account.
Another appealing thing about his twitter is he has his own tweets, shares articles, pictures, and videos so there is a lot of variety keeping the short attention span of tweeters hooked.
An example of a twitter account in which a journalist isn’t using their account well is the account for WPTZ
They are very active, tweeting at least 3 times an hour, but their tweets don’t include any videos, pictures, or personality, just text and link to their website. They also don’t retweet that often. I think that it’s pretty weak and doesn’t really keep you captivated when you’re looking for a quick news update and you just get a headline and a link.
And their reporters’ twitters seem to be of a similar nature.
After Googling myself, I was not very surpised to be honest. I have multiple social media accounts made both for school (like Prezi) and personal use (….Myspace). The finds where essentially all of those, I’ve created the habit of if I don’t want people to see what I am posting, I simply exclude my name from it. I don’t really have a lot to hide anyway, I just have a private Twitter which is more of a vent station that’s kind of embarrassing above anything else.
I was surprised, however, that my cross country times and m yold town newspaper’s honor roll fell so high up, along with Prezi. I also was able to stumble across 13-yr-old Morgan’s myspace, which I have no idea how to delete, and it will haunt me forever.
