New Focus for Journalism Students

Nearly every large business uses some kind of social media site to advertise and to tell their consumers the latest news. How does that information get on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, you ask? It's someone's job.

Social media is on a whole new level in the classrooms. In today's job market for journalism students the knowledge of social media is a must. Schools today do not solely teach classes on Facebook and Twitter because students today already know the ins and outs.

Professors are now figuring out how this knowledge can be used to enhance the art of reporting the news by using social media, and to tell the story in the best way possible.

There are now ten ways that journalism schools are teaching their students how to properly use social media.

1. Promoting Content

Readers are brought to news sites through social media which usually increases the user's web-traffic. This isn't only through the news organization's media account, but also of their writers who tweet, post, share and send links. Each writer has a social network, and uses social media tools to promote and distribute content to increase the readership of the article being shared.

2. Interviewing

Although personally being taught to not do this unless extremely necessary, email interviews are becoming a regular way of communication by news reporters. This same concept can be done through Facebook messages and chat. Another very useful tool is Skype.

A conducting interviews via Skype is being taught at the University of North Carolina and is believed that Skype allows journalists to interview international sources quite easily - and affordably, not to mention that it adds a visual element to the story.

3. News Gathering and Research

Real-time search provides journalists with up-to-the-second information with the latest news throughout the world.

Search engine sites allow for quick research on uncertain stories.

4. Crowdsourcing and Building a Source List

Thanks to social media sites it is easier to get into contact with those who are a great source. This is done by simply sending them a Facebook or Twitter message.

5. Publishing with Social Tools

It's important for students to practice publishing information on Facebook and Twitter to know how social media works. Students should know how to use basic tools such as Wordpress to know how to blog and site build, Twitter for instant updates, Facebook to share articles and videos, Delicious for bookmarking, Flickr for videos and pictures, and Youtube for video.

6. Blog and Website Integration

There is a site called CoveritLive that incorporates live blogging. This is a great tool to ask questions to an expert, reporter, or editor at a news organization.

7. Building Community and Rich Content

Create a community through engagement. It's all about building a network around issues that matter to the community. Social networks are the new editorial page because these have great ideas and opinions.

8. Get Yourself Out There

Social networks can to used to "sell" yourself in the job market and give yourself a personal "brand". A journalist is representing their organization and not necessarily their own name. A reader doesn't neccesarily follow the writer, but the organization because of it's credibility.

9. Ethics

Yet there are no hard rules for ethics in social media currently, but what you share or post reflects on the person's judgement so you should always be cautious. Always be aware of jobs lost because of personal profiles and things that should have been pondered more before posting.

10. Experiment!

If one social media site does not meet your needs, try another one. Find what works best for you. Experimenting with these sites can benefit you once you get out into the workforce.