When Your Audience Wants Facts On Demand, Get Purple
In addition to worrying about building up credibility of the media, so much is happening in the news these days it’s hard to keep up and decipher facts from “alternative facts.” Audiences are looking for news they can trust with somewhat of a custom approach. That’s why bots had a slight boom, remember those? News bots gave readers a chance to curate what came to their message box. While the hype around news bots has died down a bit, there’s an increased desire for fast fact checking in a digestible form.
Founded by Rebecca Harris, Purple is the answer to wanting facts on demand. Purple is a news product that allows news organization interact with their audience in real time through text message. Answers are created by a real person. So if a reader has a question about what’s happening in Israel or what’s going on with TPP, they can text their question and get an easily understable response.
So what makes Purple different than just tweeting out a question and getting a response? Harris, who came to speak to our Community Engagement class, says the direct communication cancels out all of the noise. No twitter fights or trolls means your audience gets to focus on the facts.
If I’ve learned anything from my Social Journalism program thus far it’s this:
Community engagement starts by connecting with real people. This is what sets Purple apart from products like news bots. When someone sends in a question, they are getting an answer from a real human. And someone who has a good amount of knowledge on the topic. Giving the audience member a chance to engage in a real conversation for better understanding.
