subject: Digital marketing resources: newsroom or niche? [print this page] Digital marketing resources: newsroom or niche?
Digital marketing resources, such as social media, social bookmarking and SEO, are changingpersonal and professional communication.
Take Facebook: Once a platform only for college students, it has morphed into one of the most popular and intergenerational social networking mediums.
But perhaps most surprising is the social media revelation that has taken newsrooms by storm.Newspapers are a dying breed, as they're slowly being replaced by online publications and news blogs. At the same time, the landscape of newsrooms is changing as they struggle to find their place in journalism. As newsrooms shrink, deadline-driven reporters look for quick, easy-to-write stories and easy-to-find sources.
Enter Facebook and Twitter. Instead of the once-common practice of endlessly searching for sources, reporters are turning to Facebook to find sources. It's easy: They search for fan pages relating to their topic, look up fans and message them. It's quickand convenient. In a society where text messages trump phone calls, it seems to be working.
Twitter is equally effective. Reporters are now faced with tighter deadlines and more stories to write. Understanding the paradigm shift, public relations firms and communication offices are now frequently turning to Twitter to share news. And within seconds, the Associated Press retweets a story, complete with a link to the original release.
But the entrance of social media into the news cycle raises ethical issues. Is it O.K. for a news outlet to write stories based on tweets? Is it appropriate to contribute to the rumor mill without verification?
Case in point: Traditional journalists shunned at the coverage of MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo's decision about whether to stay at MSU or cross the line to NBA coaching. From the beginning, stories said, "According to Tweets...." For fear of being scooped, journalists turned to social media for updates. Soon, bloggers who understand SEO (keywords: Tom Izzo leaving, Dan Gilbert, etc.) became credible sources.
In a June 17 Mitch Albom columnin the Detroit Free Press, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said, "... rumors became stories and tweets became facts."
The point: Credibility should always take precedence overconvenience. A breaking, inaccurate story, written without ethical consideration, causes much more damage than a well-written second-day story in which sources are quoted in more than 140 characters.
