Image credit: R. Rasmussen
In a Q&A interview with Paul Smalera on True/Slant Jennifer Preston, NYTimes social media editor said the conversation, the tips, and the ability to monitor trends has all been helpful to their reporting.
Leah Betancourt, digital community manager at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minn.writes in a post for Mashable that social networking sites are some of the newest tools reporters are using in news gathering, networking and promoting their work.
Some newsrooms have created guidelines for using social media tools
Editor & Publisher reports that The Wall Street Journal has expanded its conduct guidelines to include online-related restrictions, including warnings not to “friend” confidential sources or get into Web-related arguments with critics. Others are debating whether to, and how to, control usage of sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
One of the issues that has arisen is reporters tweeting about stories before they appear in print, giving bloggers and online news sites an opportunity to jump on the story.
Looking at the list of newspapers mentioned in the E&P article, one hting is clear: journalists are using Twitter, Facebook and other social sites to tap into conversations, find trends and sources and gather the news.
And for PR practitioners, understanding social media and becoming adept at using these online services to interact with journalists is now an essential PR skill.
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