Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Does Social Media Have a Place in Journalism?

TV has always been accepted as a tool for entertainment, so TV news adopting the tools of online media doesn't really seem too big a stretch...but newspapers have always been a bastion of old-school journalism.

To TV people, newspapers have a reputation for being staid, slow-moving and slow to react. Newspapers have extensive planning operations, and TV news has to be able to move with the immediate changes to a story.

This piece, then, from a staff member of one of the largest newspapers (The Chicago Tribune) discussing the usefulness of social media is refreshing. Not only refreshing in that it shows a gr0wing acceptance of the usefulness of emerging online media...but especially so since that it outlines a plan they implemented to create an online social media identity for their operation.

So, how did this little foray into social media turn out? According to the author, Bill Adee, the "goal for [the project] was one million page views a month. By June, at its peak, it was doing more than six times that number."

The project continues with permanent funding.

There's an enormous opportunity for media outlets...and they can either buy-in now while the price is low, or be forced to play catch-up in the years to come.

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