Social media, journalism and politics: a fatal embrace?
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and now SlashKey are all continuing to grow with stunning speed according to exclusive research by Nielsen Online published in new media age (05/11/09). Key to their growth is the fight for their online audience's time. UK online population spent 11.1 billion minutes using social media sites during September 2009, an increase of 83% on the previous year.Twitter - public enemy number one or popular darling, depending on whether you are a 'typical' BBC Moral Maze listener or enthusiastic Reuters news pundit - continues to grow. Currently standing at sixth most popular social media sites by unique users (4.43 million to be exactly), it is the fastest growing online real estate (1,959%), with 5,734,350,000 Tweets to date and counting.
Earlier this week, I attended a debate at Reuters to discuss with other Twitter users from the worlds of journalism, politics and PR, to discuss Twitter and social media's role in shaping the world. Top of mind were recent debates including BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze programme where people on Twitter were described as a "baying mob", as well as the recent Jan Moir/PCC event, plus Trafigura.
Of course at a self-selecting event such as this, there will always be an element of the digital gold-fish bowl preaching to its-self. However, I came away feeling that the reason why these tools are important are for the same reason that a complaints line, or marching against the poll-tax have always been important. Whilst I doubt that Government ever will take such tools to the heart of their communications strategies, social media certainly has a place, a powerful one too, at the table for those with ambition, aspiration, ideas and desire to make a difference. However, these same tools become less permissible as people progress up the food chain - the voice of the one has to bend to the voice of the party (a touch of the Stalins creeping in here), particularly in our current 'democratic' process of party line and party whip.
In today's anguished world of publishing where the debate on free vs. paid seems to rumble on towards its doomed end, social media has added a layer of complexity to the mix. Does a publication compromise the truth for the need to be the first to break a story? Speed puts the industry under immense pressure, however many of the journalists attending, particularly the younger ones, kept on reminding the audience - nothing has changed. The tools have evolved but the reasons haven't.
Labels: Facebook, journalism, LinkedIn, politics, SlashKey, social media, Twitter
posted by thebluedoor at
13:22
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