The Internet has made it easier for journalists to reach a broader and more diverse population of potential sources. Specifically, journalists have the ability to reach potential subject experts that they otherwise may not have considered thanks to access to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and MySpace. In a world in which more people are engaging online, journalists are presented the opportunity to complement their traditional offline “beat” sources with online subject-matter, technical experts.

Despite the periodic use of crowdsourcing during major events, some journalists appear to be slow to embrace the use of social media contacts to source their news stories despite a general trend toward social acceptance of social media tools. News organizations on the other hand are exploring ways to engage social media users as more than potential news sources, potentially leveraging user generated content to increase online engagement in their news services.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing offers the opportunity to tap into a broader community gathered around a topic or issue. Crowdsourcing is defined as the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to a group (crowd) of people or community in the form of an open call (Wikipedia, 2009). There have been several recent examples of this approach by mainstream media. The Des Moines Registered used Twitter, an online microblogging service, to cover the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, MN, in August 2007 (Yahir, 2007). Similar crowdsourcing took place during the 2009 presidential inauguration and the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Following Twitter feeds during major events has become more common for journalists and news organizations. Crowdsourcing of Twitter feeds supported most of the Western world’s coverage of the recent uprising in Iran after presidential elections earlier this year.

Gannett, publisher of USA Today, in 2007 transforming their newsrooms into “information centers” that were designed to recruit readers to help generate content for the newspaper (Yahir, 2007). While Gannett’s recognition of the community as a resource seemed novel, reporters have always used crowds for sourcing information. The difference is how technology has revolutionizing the relationship between reporter and audience by creating an efficient way to reach the sources, monitor the chatter and transmit the distillation of the conversation.

A variation on crowdsourcing developed organically from the idea that everyone is an expert on something. Peter Shankman, a public relations practitioner and entrepreneur, created the web site Help A Reporter (www.helpareporter.com) to connect reporters with public relations experts. HARO, as it is called, is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,200 queries from worldwide media each week (Help A Reporter, 2009). Shankman used the viral nature of social media to capture sources the reporters need for stories, making his money from advertisers who pay to be in his three-times-a-day e-mails that are sent to more than 100,000 “sources.” He does not advertise HARO, but both journalists and public relations experts pass along links to the HARO web page. The HARO daily e-mails list the stories that reporters are working on and how to contact the reporters with information on those topics. HARO’s “community” of journalists and sources is governed by a strict set of norms that includes a zero tolerance for blind story pitching, spamming journalists and other behaviors considered annoying by journalists.  

Yet, despite the easy access to specific interest groups and mass audiences, reporters apparently have not fully embraced social media sites as a place to find sources.

Research

Mainstream newspaper journalists appear to embrace the concept of social media more than they enact the practice, according to a recent survey funded by the Public Relations Society of America Foundation (Weaver Lariscy, Johnson Avery, Sweetser & Howes, 2009). The survey queried 200 business reporters, with the majority of respondents working for such prestigious publications as the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and the Financial Times.

More than a third said that social media was either very important to their work (7.5 percent) or important to their work (25 percent). Surprisingly, 34 percent of those journalists surveyed reported that social media sources were of little or no importance to their work (Weaver Lariscy, Johnson Avery, Sweetser & Howes, 2009). A third of the journalists surveyed indicated they spent no time on social media for story development or research.

The researchers concluded that while reporters are not heavily using social media to source their stories, they are not opposed to social media sourcing.

Why it matters

The decline in newspaper revenue has forced numerous publications to close, cut staff, eliminate special sections or even eliminate home delivery. Some major urban daily newspapers, believed to be the most credible sources of news information during the 20^th century, have disappeared. The largest expense in media operations is human capital. Declining revenues mean reductions in people.

Meanwhile, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a third (35%) of American adult Internet users have a profile on an online social network site, four times as many as three years ago (Lenhart, 2009). As recently as 2005, just 8 percent of adult users had social media profiles. The trend is clearly pointing toward more participation in online social engagement.

Some media experts see a nexus between the growing online activity at social media sites and the sagging financial fortunes of mainstream media. The Associate Press, which distributes news stories nationally and internationally through 1,700 member newspapers and more than 5,000 radio and TV stations, in July partnered with Yahoo News to “tweet” real-time coverage of the Sonia Sotomayor Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings (Lenhart, 2009). The direct from the hearing reporting in real time was intended to open up the AP’s coverage and engage users, according to Jim Kennedy, AP’s vice president and director of strategic planning (Crouch, 2009).

Mark Walker, the region business leader for Yahoo News, said, “Increasing transparency for the audience in the process of developing news will engage them more actively and in the long run, create them as sources for the development of our news coverage” (Crouch, 2009).

Conclusion

What Walker and Kennedy appear to be saying is that the focus on crowdsourcing via social media not only adds a new dimension to the reporting, it perhaps can open up the news stories to an evolving and changing demographic of social media users. Nearly 74% of Internet users – representing 55% of the entire adult population – went online in 2008 to get involved in the political process or to get news and information about the election. This marks the first time that a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey found that more than half of the voting-age population used the Internet to get involved in the political process during an election year (Smith, 2009).

The trend is pointing toward more user involvement online, which presents an opportunity for news organizations to better streamline and engage their readers. It will be through that reader engagement that mainstream news media reestablish a viable business model.

References

Crouch, I. (2009, July 10). The Associated Press tries courtside crowdsourcing Sotomayor coverage. Nieman Journalism Lab.

Hammami, G. (2009, July 13). AP to dabble in Twitter crowdsourcing at Sotomayor hearing. Editorsweblog.org.

Help A Reporter. (2009, November 6). Help a reporter: “Over 100,000 sources strong and growing!”.

Lenhart, A. (2009, Jan. 14). Adults and social network websites. The Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Smith, A. (2009, April 15). The internet’s role in campaign 2008. The Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Weaver Lariscy, R., Johnson Avery, E., Sweetser, K. D., & Howes, P. (2009, September). An examination of the role of online social media in journalists’ source mix. Public Relations Review, 35(3), 314-316.

Wikipedia. (2009). Crowdsourcing[The description of the concept of crowdsourcing].

Yahir, E. (2007, October). Crowded house. American Journalism Review, 29(5), 8-9.