The Ideal Journalist-Audience Relationship should be a 2-Way street
Modern-day journalism is at a unique moment where both the audience and journalists have access to as much information as they have ever had before, but where reporters and other members of the media separate themselves is with the in-depth research and behind-the-scenes access they can provide.
While anyone can suddenly start recording if something noteworthy occurs and then post it on social media, journalists are the ones who are still tasked with providing the extra information and context for events.
If two people suddenly start brawling in the middle of a busy highway, and things escalate quickly, a recording of it will spread like wildfire on Twitter, but a news reporter is still the one who finds out key details like the reason for the altercation and the aftermath of it.
The big difference for journalists now than in the past, however, is that the audience plays a significant role in what reporters get sent out to cover.
Anthony Ardonato’s “Mobile and Social Media Journalism” book points out that a lot of what media outlets give the most coverage to are things that already have some buzz, especially on social media.
What this has caused journalists to do, is to have to build a strong relationship with their followers and listen to what the big story is, rather than determining it for them, which wasn’t always the case.
While social media by itself brings both positives and negatives to the world of journalism, it is important that journalists manage their relationship with their core audience.
What that relationship should ideally look like, is a two-way street, in which the audience provides feedback and the journalists use it to report on stories that people care about.
Something that has risen in the age of social media is crowdsourcing, which is a perfect example of how a journalist and actively engage with its audience.
When a journalist is working on a story and wants to add first-hand accounts of a particular topic or circumstance that affects a large group of people, crowdsourcing is one way to get it.
As seen from The Guardian’s example, the outlet wanted to write a story on the commute of United Kingdom residents as public transportation slowly re-opens after coronavirus restrictions.
The tweet garnered numerous responses from individuals ranging from witty gifs to short comments, but the link also includes a more in-depth form where people can provide more serious answers in a less public way.
I personally have used crowdsourcing on several occasions when working on a story that directly affects the audience I write for.
However, there are drawbacks to relying on your audience too much. While crowdsourcing is a good tool to use, it is sometimes easy to fall back on those first-hand accounts. Journalists should always try to get different viewpoints and do their individual research as well.
Accuracy should always be the No. 1 priority, and sometimes people have ulterior motives or a set way of thinking that could land the journalist in trouble if not fact-checked.
Overall, however, 2020 journalists must be aware of their audience’s interests to be successful. Every person enjoys being listened to, and now more than ever, media companies need their followers to tune in to their stories.
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