Mastering Social Media and Mobile Apps for Reporting

Growing up, I always viewed social media as a form of entertainment and separate from real life. I was constantly told that it was a waste of time and my parents only allowed me to use it sparingly. Over time, I’ve seen social media evolve from something fun that was used almost exclusively by people my age, to something that is so integrated into society it’s not an option to not be active on multiple platforms. While social media is still in many ways a form of entertainment, it’s also a helpful tool for journalists and other professionals hoping to build a brand and an audience.

Reading Adornato’s Mobile and Social Media Journalism feels a little like reading an instruction manual on how to use social media — something I never thought I would need to read as a young person. Chapter 4 especially feels this way.

In the chapter, Adornato goes over the basics of the most popular social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn. For most of the chapter, I felt like I was reading stuff I already knew. Adornato goes in depth explaining things like the Twitter character limit and how to use hashtags on Instagram. Even though I know the basics of most social media platforms, it was useful to read the different features that Adornato believes are useful for journalists.

Obviously, it’s important for journalists to “speak the language” of social media, hence the section in this chapter explaining all the ins and outs. This is especially useful for journalists who are used to traditional reporting for actual newspapers. Adornato’s list of the basics of social media language includes handles, hashtags, tagging, geo-locations and notifications. Along with the detailed explanation of each of the features, he points out how certain ones can help journalists to share effectively and to find story ideas.

One of the most helpful tools provided by social media is live-tweeting. Adornato explains that it is important to first give a warning to your followers before you post a series of tweets so they’re not caught off guard. This introductory tweet can also help a journalist gain more attention to their reporting.

On Facebook, Adornato highlights a feature called Signal that allows journalists to see trends, videos, photos and posts on Facebook and Instagram. Unlike the normal search engine on Facebook available to everyone, Signal is only available to journalists. It can help them find topics to report on that are relevant and that already have an existing and engaged audience.

After reading this chapter, I realized that journalists must find a balance between consumption and production on social media. For many people, social media is a tool to facilitate consumption more than a tool for production. For example, many people probably spend more time browsing Facebook and interacting with preexisting content than they do creating their own original content.

I think it’s vital for journalists to do an equal amount of consuming and producing. It’s necessary for them to find trends and audiences through consumption of information found on social media. It is also necessary though, for journalists to use the information they find to create their own content in order to keep their audience interested and to share information.