Social Media and Future Newsrooms

Over the last couple of years, there has been much debate about the role of social media and citizen journalism in newsrooms. The topics of debate range from the broadcasting unverified content to use of twitter photos and video feeds by large media corporations without permission. One thing is for certain, given the power and impact social media has on the general public, it is not a question of whether it should be integrated in newsroom, but rather how best to do it.

Recently, the BBC has been experimenting with some new formats for live coverage. Their trials are showing an interesting balance of traditional correspondent copy complemented with social media feeds from twitter, video clips, images and links across to related topics on the web. As is largely standard there is also an area for visitors to comment on the topic at hand. In all, the approach is definitely in the right direction and there is plenty of positive feedback given that this model in some form or other has been running for quite a while.

Given my experience with political blogging, the one area that appears to be still rather underdeveloped is that of interactivity. By this I mean not just publishing popular tweets or related facebook updates, but rather somehow allowing that social network to engage directly with both correspondents and other users through the news site. Very few readers actually wind up commenting and interacting on the news site and this is unlikely to change unless newsrooms integrate themselves more tightly with social media applications.

To prevent this getting too theoretical, here are some examples of what I believe with take newsrooms to the next level in terms of their service offering:

1. Introduce interactive polls - these have been proven to be popular as even lazy users seem compelled to voice their opinion with a couple of clicks on blog posts (rather thank writing a full comment which is too much work)


2. Creating mini-sites on breaking news - not just a news live coverage page, but rather a structured site of 10 or so pages including correspondent and public blogposts on the subject.


3. Ranking of social media content - lots in the social media space is junk. It is largely impractical for broadcasters to screen all of it before publishing. So why not publish the stream and allow users to rank individual contributions. This will ensure the cream of articles on the topic rises to the top.


4. Possibly more difficult to manage in terms of quality and appropriateness, one idea might be to allow users to upload their content - photos and video clips to the breaking news page more easily. These would then be screened for appropriateness and published by the moderator team.


5. Encourage feed subscriptions to that news topic/ mini-site - this will make the mini-site/ breaking news pages more sticky. Suddenly this makes the broadcaster become a one stop shop for professional journalism, citizen journalism and a meter of public sentiment.. a valuable offering since news junkies have to likely go to quite a few different sites in order to build themselves a more complete picture.


6. Develop an online journal that can be referenced - In my opinion, broadcasters have a unique opportunity to create an invaluable public resource - almost like a Wiki on a topical news subject. Most broadcasters do this already but it's published in a disjointed way - a blog post on history, a news article about the potential consequences, a public opinion page (like BBC's World Have Your Say, for example), etc. - and each of these are typically in different parts of the site that make it practically impossible to navigate to with just a a click.

So imagine if the events of this year around Libya we to be reported with the above ideas implemented. Readers would access a Libyan Uprising mini-site linked to from news pages etc. There would be tabs on that mini-site like: History; Latest news (accompanied by social feeds); Public opinion/ articles; Going Forward.

If structured properly, the mini-site would become an online journal on that breaking news subject - one that will be referenced long after the next news flavour of the month takes hold.

* - * - *

In other news, South Africa seems to have been taken by surprise by the Julius Malema suspension decision this week. For once, it looks like his gamble on civil disobedience, has not paid off although it is still early days according to many political analysts in South Africa. The appeal process for the suspension decision may well extend into next year through to the ANC conference (in which Jacob Zuma would be under threat this time, just as Mbeki was a few years ago).

Given the South African political environment right now as well as Malema's backers (notably Tokyo Sexwale and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela), I would be more inclined to try my luck at a South African online casino, an international one over here, or simply even buy lottery ticket online than to bet on Julius Malema disappearing from the South African political landscape. He is just far too valuable a media resource in so many different ways.

Julius is probably single-handedly responsible for boosting newspaper sales, prime time advertising cost on TV and a proliferation of blog posts covering the impending doom of South Africa. This is one area where citizen journalism would need to be heavily screened before publication! I do wonder if the SABC would publish a mini-site on Malema - no doubt it would be a seriously popular destination!

Gambling on Civil Disobedience

I believe that an interesting situation is going to unfold over the next few weeks in South Africa. With the prospect of high toll fees being introduced by the South African government without proper consultation, I expect, and would hope that this would give rise to one of the most significant public protests since the collapse of apartheid.

If ever there were a case for using civil disobedience in South Africa, this issue would be it. With the rampant amount of corruption on display in government and its associates (a la Julius Malema's charitable trust fund to which he appears to be the sole beneficiary), it is about time the public took a stand against them.

Patrick Craven of COSATU has already made a blanket statement addressing the unfairness of the new toll fees and the dire effect it will have on the working class in the country. Additionally, this comes in the realisation that the world economy is in a seriously fragile state. The world's powerhouses are being downgraded in terms of their credit rating - albeit by S&P, the rating rocket scientists that failed to spot the problem with Lehman Brothers which led to the collapse of the world economy in part 1 of the crisis. Unless the South African government is naive enough to believe that this will have only a limited impact on the man in the street locally, surely they realise that taxing to fund NHI and imposing a road tax that really should have been catered for through ring-fenced fuel levies is not going to help the public right now.

As it is, things are tight. Increasing the cost of transport will inevitably increase inflation which in turn will place added pressure on the reserve bank to up interest rates. This is likely to stifle any green shoots that we may have seen emerge over the last year. With more expensive funding come job losses and restricted growth. So the vicious cycle is likely to continue to burden the masses.

So what is the way forward? Is it time for the public to really put a stake in the ground and gamble on civil disobedience as the answer. For me, it seems like a logical way forward - if South Africans in fact have a stomach for such mass action. All it would involve is the entire public (bar a few SANRAL officials and the totally spineless), to simple NOT PAY the toll fees or register for the e-tag system. There is no way the government will be able to prosecute 5 million people through the legal system and an alternative approach to enforcement, or reconsideration of the toll road funding would need to happen.

The government was foolish in their approach to the toll roads. Without providing any credible alternative, they cannot expect to increase a basic cost across the board for the public. Further, if one considers that those impacted by the new cost would largely be people forced to live in certain areas due to the previous apartheid regime, that makes it even more unacceptable. If South Africans do not create some serious pain for government about this, they can expect much more of the same going forward.

* * *

If you're certain winning a jackpot of some sort would solve all your problems, toll fees included, perhaps now is a good time to consider to buy lottery tickets online from anywhere in the world. If you're based in South Africa, you may want to check out the best online casino South Africa; or if you're based in India, then click here to visit a great Indian casino review site, if that's more your style of gambling instead of civil disobedience.

Related article: Toll fees South Africa - options going forward for the public.