"Social media is one small part of the whole thing," Phillips said.
Phillips put up a slide showing what should be in a journalists backpack. Journalists should have a camera, pen, notepad, camera as well as a computer or phone to engage in social media. Phillips explained that social media is important but so are all the other parts of journalism.
Another interesting part of Phillips' presentation was a counting she had to show how many people join facebook or Twitter, make a comment or post. The numbers were insane.
"There are over 500 million active users on facebook," Phillips said.
Phillips showed the teachers how to use Twitter to search for story ideas or to search for a topic. Using hashtags, journalists can see what topics are trending. One of her examples was the fires in Arizona. She searched for certain words using search.twitter.com and found how many people were talking about the fire.
"Journalists can find who is talking about the subject and use them as sources," Phillips said.
Phillips concluded her session with "The Rules" by Robert Hernandez.
"Journalism first. Technology second and remember, social media does not replace in-person interviews."
Kat Gurganus
Keller High School
Keller, Texas
My kids always ask me to email teachers and ask them questions and I always say "No! Go out and talk to them!" I also have other kids that go to Facebook because they say they can get nice, long quotes. I think there is something very important about face-to-face interviewing. The personal skills they learn - eye contact, politeness - these are all very important. They need to be able to talk to a person, to hold a conversation. Sure, in a pinch emailing and Facebooking a question or two is alright but I think the majority of interviews need to be done in person. I think that if the source they need is in the school building than they should interview them face-to-face.
ReplyDeleteEmily Miller
Arlington High School
Arlington, Texas
I agree, Emily. A very brilliant student that I taught for three years told me that the most important thing he learned in my class had nothing to do with writing or reporting. He said the most important thing he learned was how to speak to adults without feeling shy or intimidated. You don't learn that by emailing someone questions. You learn that only by face-to-face interviewing.
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