Forget The Sun… Facebook could be the new election clincher

We’ve heard about Webcam, (cringe) and Sarah Brown’s tweets, dear ol’ Mr PM and his youtube attempts… But they seemed to me more like amusing follies, and unlikely to really make or break an election campaign.

But today, Channel 4 has been talking about the upcoming national voting session as “the first Facebook election”. It’s running the story because tomorrow Facebook is launching a page called “Democracy UK”, which will detail campaign news from each of the major parties.

When I was researching my PFW documentary, I asked a lot of young people about how they think Facebook could get young people more involved in politics. The general response was this: it worked for Obama, but it mainly  because he got young people to do a lot of canvassing via social media. This meant that it was young people talking to other young people through “young people’s” media. In contrast, the majority of people thought that Webcam was ridiculous, and that it seems like an embarrassing after-thought for politicians to shamelessly hunt votes by awkwardly jumping onto the social media band-wagon.

When I asked the same group of young people ways in which they would suggest getting British youth more involved in politics through social media, they all seemed to recognize the potential, but not one was able to suggest means of doing it. And I think that Democracy UK might well be right on the money!

Being able to inform yourself on party policy – by doing a simple search onto a Facebook page, whilst you’re chatting to your friends and admiring the glossy picture you have of yourself at the top of the screen – really brings policy to where the people are. The main reason that young people don’t vote, is because they’re not informed enough. (If you have any doubts about this, I’ve got an 8 minute documentary of pure radio genius to convince you of the point… ) If it’s not the over-arching reason, it’s certainly a factor. And I think that being able to casually peruse for party policy all within the comfort and safety of your own Facebook account, means there’s a good chance that young people at least will be more knowledgeable and more therefore perhaps more likely to vote in the coming election.

As channel 4 nimbly makes the point, there are 24 Facebook users in the UK. Almost as many people as the number who voted in the last election. Facebook could really make for some shiny electronic political capital.

Lydia

All bared

by Sharon Robins

It was a very social scene that our peers walked in upon so that we could begin our 15 minute presentation. 

Imagine streamers, glasses of wine (aka apple juice), balloons and glittery small shapes strewn all over tables.   And not forgetting the blowers and the party poppers.

 

 

 

Baring (nearly) All - tagged Party Scene!

 Sorry, couldn’t find a party scene, amazingly the above is what Reuters found for me. 

So, back to the presentation.   The Prezi tool turned out to be a wonderful invention that suited our Social Media angle.   It seemed to work well with the creativity of James Brown adding to the content on the canvas.

Achieved?

We have achieved a threshing of five very different people’s ideas and methods to deliver a presentation.

The structure of the presentation became a matrix by overlaying a vertical and then a horizontal stream of concepts that combined two individual structures suggested within the group. 

Learnt?

Working as a group was equally rewarding as it was frustrating. 

The burden was made easier by shared responsibilities but we all had slightly different study commitments.  Therefore, it was exceedingly difficult to all be in the same room at the same time for planning purposes.

Consequently, as we got closer to “Baring All” day a more directive approach was taken where decisions were made by members of the group who had met and explained to any missing. 

There was minimal time for further discussion or re-think; the time for that had been in the meetings before.  Since we had initially progressed with a collaborative style of working this was a little discomforting.

But the clock had started ticking and we had a deadline to meet.

 Done differently?

Retrospectively, it might have been easier to have undertaken the Social Media ten hour challenge in the Christmas break.  Not that it would have been easy as I was working for most of it but certainly easier than the weekend we did squeeze it in.

Apart from the last few time sensitive days wherein we had set “must get done” tasks, our group worked collaboratively with and supportively of each other; with the end result our presentation.

 Including;  “Can you please make sure your phones are switched ON!”

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA investigation & LEARNING EXPERIENCE

This blog is a record of our investigations and learning in relation to the question set to the group;

WHAT IMPACT ARE SOCIAL MEDIA HAVING ON ESTABLISHED NEWS GATHERING TECHNIQUES AND OUTPUT?

The Twitter feed is dialogue on our blog – hence the name Diablogue and is a feed from mediatress.

We would be delighted to receive your comments and invite you to take our poll:

 

 

 

 

Social Media’s power in situations where it is hard to report from

by Sofia Mostafa

Two good examples of Social Media’s power in situations where it is hard to report from are:

The Twitter Revolution – Where International media were banned from reporting during the Iran’s post-election protests in June 2009. Pictures on Twitter and videos on YouTube  helped  to both organise and publicise the opposition.

Another example is in northern Nigeria, where the BBC World Service found out about a government confrontation with a village about land rights using mobile phones. They had given one person in each village a phone which opened up for news ways of communicating.

Peter Horrock said in an interview with the Guardian. Social media is helping with reporting but it the ‘how‘ that is changing, and not so much the ‘what‘.

The Twitter revolution has however been criticised and Iran experts and social networking activists say that while the election protesters did use Twitter, most of the organizing was done through text messages and word of mouth.

Sysomos, researches social media and says there are only about 8,600 Twitter users whose profiles indicate they are from Iran. Gaurav Mishra, co-founder of the company thinks the idea of a Twitter revolution is suspect. She says in an in an interview with Business week “The amount of people who use these tools in Iran is very small and could not support protests that size. The main reason to use the tools is the attention it generates in the international media”,

To weaken the power of Twitter and social media networking governments can easily take measures to close down sites and control the information out of the country. Last week the Iranian government did exactly that ahead of the demonstrations during last week’s anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.You can read more about it on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ts website where they condemn the Iranian government’s attempt to slow down the Internet and block text messaging.

Iran and Iraq are two of the most dangerous countries to work in as a journalist. According to CPJ 2009 was the deadliest year ever for journalists, especially local reporters covering corruption.

Oliver Poole was an Iraq correspondent for a daily newspaper, in the Baghdad war zone for five years. Two weeks ago he did a presentation at University College Falmouth and I asked him what impact he things social media will have on news gathering in conflict areas.

His answer is in the below video. (Courtesy of Edward Kiernon).

The influence of Social Media

by Sharon Robins

 A cop in Washington DC pulled a gun during a snowball fight.  It became UK news on 22^nd December as reported in a free newspaper for rail users, The Metro

The Metro, 22 Dec 09

Shown circled in the photo above, editorial by Miles Erwin reads; “… organised a mass snowfight via Twitter on Saturday..”    with further down  “Washington DC police department initially denied a gun was drawn but backed down after various YouTube posts proved the opposite.

Washington City paper blogged about it with pictures and video sent in.  It is not clear whether the contributors, described as eye witnesses, were infact journalists out looking for material or geniunely citizens on the street.

Whatever the origin of the video footage, certainly many people saw it and it did influence the Police department’s final version and has made international news.

Showbiz

Radio Jackie target South West London with hourly 3 minute bulletins containing national and local news with half hourly summaries at peak times. 

They currently use Twitter to follow a couple of their local MP’s and report accordingly but at this stage they are not crowd sourcing. 

News & Sport Editor, Rod Bradbury believes that Twitter and Facebook are an invaluable tool for any journalist focusing on showbiz;

“..you know then you will be on Facebook and Twitter the whole time and you will be using those as sources.”

Click for the full Radio Jackie interview.

Skype

The immediacy offered by social media websites provided basis for the early coverage of Haiti following the earthquake that decimated their infrastructure.

Pressgazette.co.uk reported how various news teams scrambled for coverage with one of the first interviews being via Skype.  Although Twitter messages were coming through, broadcasters had difficulty verifying whether messages and images were genuine.

After making contact via Facebook and while mobiles and telephones were down, Skype enabled people to give their own live eye witness reports.

Public not private

Returning to Twitter and it’s influence on news, that is to say keeping people informed or indeed being the news, consider the updates from SkyNews which came an hour apart:

SkyNews Good morning all. Another busy day – Sky’s team in Haiti still coming up with great stuff. It’s all here: http://www.skynews.com/haiti about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck

 SkyNews Apologies to those offended by my newsspeak – maybe “powerful, compelling stories” is more appropriate. JG (@scook94, @corneiliuz, @hjames) about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck   

I don’t imagine the majority of the public would think pictures of amputees, reports of lack of food and water, not to mention dead bodies piled up, to really be ‘great stuff.’

It would be interesting to know whether that statement influenced any readers to no longer follow SkyNews.

Twitter Criticism: Twit-storm of misinformation

Twit-storm of misinformation, Photo by Sofia Mostafa

In what’s being called a “Twit-storm of misinformation,” social-media websites have according to Misty Harris spread rumours, hoaxes and falsehood about Haiti.

Misty Harris recognises that Twitter, Facebook, instant messaging and texting had a positive impact on the earthquake’s aftermath, helping with everything from rescue efforts to fund-raising campaigns. However, the technologies also “added noise to a crisis whose din was already overwhelming”.

She interviewed Advertising Age who described the post-earthquake cyber landscape as a “Twit-storm of misinformation,” with much of it related to relief efforts.

Ms Harris gives several examples of companies that have suffered from false information being spread on Twitter.

For example when USP announced its donation of $1 million, rumours spread on Twitter that that the company was also providing free shipping. The courier company had to spend a week influencing the online conversation to get the truth out.

Read the full article and get more examples here.

Posted by Sofia Mostafa

What about the future?

by Sharon Robins

The media guardian, 24th November 2009, reports After social networks, what next? 

The bits I found interesting:  LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman; “ I think the phenomenon of the online relationship empowers our personal and professional life. 

You might think, ‘who wants to consume all this useless information?’ but with some information it’s like with ice cream.  It is not nutritious but people still eat it.”

Surely the Flake is nutrious?

Dr Kate Blackmon, an Oxford lecturer says the future is not about crowd sourcing but crowd filtering. 

I would go one further after the chats I’ve had with newsy people and say a news team especially needs to crowd source and then it needs to crowd filter.  Maybe Kate had said; “not so much about crowd sourcing but more crowd filtering.”  Context can easily be changed by a lost word or two.

Just consider Emily Bell, Director Digital Content at the Guardian with 6,000 Twitter followers.  Surely she doesn’t read all their tweets; not with three children and a husband too? 

But those followers are access to a massive contact list who also have contacts.  Thousands of sources.

Back to the article where CEO of Twitter, Biz Stone said;  “I believe in the trend of openness.  Using an open technology, creating an open platform and being more transparent.  That is where we are heading.”

He also said Twitter isn’t a social network it’s an information network. 

Rosabeth Moss Kanter , Professor at Harvard Business School, believes success hinges on connectors making and expanding that information network; On Twitter and in the Workplace, It’s Power to the Connectors

She says; “Power goes to the connectors; those people who actively seek relationships and then serve as bridges between and among groups.  Their personal contacts are often as important as their formal assignment. 

In essence, she who has the best network wins.”

Social media challenge

Social media challenge: Lydia’s results

Well, with local news in mind, I found the best thing to do was location searches across Twitter, blog search engines, and of course, Google. So I would type in “Truro” or “Penzance” into Twitter for example, and see what newsworthy treasures were in store for me.

What did I find? Sadly, my secret hopes to swoop down on a dynamite scoop, suck it up and sell it to the BBC never really materialized.

As with most situations, it seemed that the job of a journalist in this context was to infer and interpret. No one had posted “there’s been a murder!” so instead I found myself sifting through seeds of potential stories.

These were my most interesting findings:

Croydonbusiness@jameson: Yep, Sunday going to Helston in Cornwall, to visit our delivery partners who will be transporting the much needed aid to Haiti.

Considering the time sensitivity of the Haiti disaster, and how the Cornwall Shelterbox activity has received a lot of coverage, I thought this was a potential follow-on and development of that story.

Blog: In a similar vein, one Cornish blog posted the details of a Haiti disaster fundraising event. It could tie in with another Haiti story, or it could be used as background information.

A blog post similar to a press release

Jodierich2009 – Any idea when buses will start running again through St Agnes to Truro?

Not exactly a white-knuckle ride tid-bit of information, but perhaps serves as a good alert to travel news and updates. The snow had caused transport to grind to a halt, and this Twitter user was flagging this up before the FirstBus Twitter account had managed to convey that information.

BitsNBolt – Anyone know anything about tools, products, etc. to help government with FOI and public record issues on Twitter? Cambourne council need a hand

Local councils bamboozled by the media revolution

This particular Twitter post flummoxed me. The council was appealing to the public via Twitter for help with the FOI in relation to Twitter. Following last week’s controversy with the Cornwall councillors’ Twitter indiscretions, I thought this could make quite a meaty story about how Twitter is causing problems for local government.

Analysis

As Jason says, Sunday is generally a slow news day, and as our geographical area was so limited, we may have got distinctly different results if we’d attempted to gather international news. Part of the utility of the internet is its global reach.

In terms of finding leads, my results show that there are seeds out there, but you have to have news-story-eyes. Twitter isn’t necessarily going to hand you stories on a plate. But it can give you leads to leads. It can hint at potential story leads.

From the blogs that I looked at, I found it quite a time consuming way of finding potential leads. The blogosphere is a vastly expansive universe, and there’s a lot of information you have to trawl through in order to find something even remotely interesting. Textually, this makes sense. By design, blog posts are at least several paragraphs. So scanning through is rather time-consuming.

I got the strong sense from my interview with Jon Gripton that Twitter is primarily used for finding someone out there close to the news story, or a specialist of some kind, or simply someone who has a some information that could supplement a story that is already in existence. In terms of blogs, I think that they may be more useful when looking to gather specific information. For example, the blog of a geomorphology expert could potentially be packed out with breaking news stories on climate change.  However, if your news gathering is location-specific, the blogs become a little dreary. Perhaps my search would have been more fruitful if I’d refined my search to Cornwall blogs that were dedicated to Cornwall specific issues, such as fishing. Either way, I conclude that when scanning blogs for news, the search should be thematic, rather than based on location.

So, what’s the impact of social media upon established news gathering techniques?

They provide another source, and perhaps in most cases a supplementary one. However, they provide no guarantee of actual leads, and in order to use them effectively I predict that it would be necessary to make the search very thematic and very specific.

SM Challenge; violence not condoned – not even any leather

Sharon Robins – Desperately scanning social media between 4:30 and 7pm – on a Sunday!

The most interesting thing that I found was a picture that might make a great ‘And Finally’ story.  And it hadn’t been there earlier that I’m aware of!

Batmobile in Cambodia - posted Digg 17:40

Yes, extraordinary how I found this picture when I was in fact looking for Cornwall, Cornish and focusing on Falmouth or Penryn. 

But that’s the interesting thing about social media and the influence on news – how easily the web provides related links that draw the crowd somewhere else.  

The news searcher/voyeur can be a news butterfly jumping where ever they want to go pulling whatever ‘news’ interests them.

Back to the challenge

http://www.kathijoonmyfamilyandothera.blogspot.com/  16:30 found blog from Twitter

Had a look to see if there was a hidden story in there somewhere but nothing particular.

16:35 Twitter “Bulldoza A little sore and hungry need ride to Falmouth ” 43 mins ago from myspace

Oops, Falmouth but not UK

Is there a Falmouth in the states? Still could be a story??  I twittered back to see if I could find what the story was but got no reply.  Quelle surprise. Who am I?

Facebook: Laura Tonkin: has had an excellent day and is now one step closer to achieving her aim of walking the entire coast of Cornwall!    Probably not a new story but maybe a new angle?  Possible prospect.

Facebook 18:23: Michel Maheu: last night was not a good night for me I hit a deer coming back from Cornwall    Poor deer.  And how annoying; Ontario.  But might have made a little story if not.

http://cornishzetetics.blogspot.com/2010/01/housing-plans-lib-dems-speak-with.html

17:50 blog search/google as above re housing in cornwall.  Not exactly new but a new angle.

http://itinerantwargamer.blogspot.com/2010/01/back-from-falmouth.html

18:00 blog search/google   Story about grown men and a week hol to play war games (21 hours ago though).  Def could do an article on this behaviour that is probably not common knowledge.

Throughout the time , I also checked Flickr and Technorati but found nothing of interest (to me).

Conclusion

Too small a search area and time span to be of significance – unless during that time there had been a major disaster, which thankfully there was not.

The Results are in: Jason on SMiLE’s Social media challenge

Well I did it!

It was certainly much harder to find news stories via social media, particularly on the agreed topic on Cornwall.  The main sites I visited included Twitter (including the Western Morning News, First bus and several personal pages), Facebook, YouTube, Technorati and Flickr.

How did I do it?

My stint was the late one in our 10hr marathon, running from 8pm to 10:30pm on Sunday 31^st January.  I must admit that it was a rather low-key affair.  As the focus was on Cornish news, I personally found it difficult to obtain anything of any particular relevance.

What stories did I find?

They were several stories of interest.  Probably the most significant post I located was one on PenwithRadio via Twitter.  This was a post advertising the ‘Haunted Cornwall’ programme, broadcasting live at the time on the radio.

Also on Twitter, Timrs2001 congratulated ‘the boys’ of Fredericton on 37 shots, compared to Cornwall’s 19 (the final score was 6-1).  Similarly, one Facebooker (Robert James) congratulated participants in Cornwall’s first ISK Regional Squad Training (karate).

I also found a post on First bus’ Twitter page advertising new timetable changes to Truro students.  New videos were posted on YouTube advertising new guitars available for sale, as well as several other interesting posts concerning Cornwall.

My analysis

Although there were some results of interest, none were of any particular significance.  In the confines of the experiment, I felt using social media to gather and research news was very difficult.  I believe that my alloted time and day is a key factor in me drawing this conclusion.  Yet as James has posted, social media does play a wider more extensive role in newsgathering generally (particularly international news).

However, I think we have to look outside of the limitations of our social media challenge.  If the challenge took place on a weekday with a wider news focus, e.g. International news, I believe results would be quite different.  Our social media challenge took place on a Sunday (not most the news-active day) and on Cornwall news, where news is quite difficult to come by outside the mainstream media (notably Spotlight, The West Country Tonight, the Cornish Times and the Western Morning News, etc).

Yet within the constraints of our MA course, it was agreed that carrying out our Social Media Challenge on a weekday would not be possible.  However, I do believe that had international news (which is 24-hour) been the focus of our research, our results (even on a Sunday night) would be more accurate of actual social media use.

The reliability of social media

Despite the relative lack of news found in our study, I believe our Social Media Challenge continues to reflect conclusions we have already drawn.

Yes…social media can provide journalists and readers with new information.

But…this information still needs to be verified by independent journalists to ensure its accuracy.  It may seem a common phrase, but don’t always trust everything you read on the web.

Conclusion

A very informative experiment, but too narrow to yield any substantive results.

Jason