Shannon Philpott-Sanders

Social Media Overload

I’ve spent the past few days immersed, overwhelmed, delighted, and frustrated with social media. As participants in the Associated Collegiate Press Summer Journalism Workshops in Minneapolis, Minn. four of my students and I have been bombarded with high-tech options for reinventing and improving the standards for student newspaper publishing.

 The workshops have been enlightening, the presenters have been patient and helpful, and the information has been well received. We’ve learned that the options for marketing the paper, promoting its existence, investigating leads and sources, and increasing the readership are clearly endless with social media.

 Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and FriendFinder – just a few social media options to keep us busy. One of the session presenters, Vadim Lavrusik, offers even more possibilities: “10 Ways Journalism Schools are Teaching Social Media.”

 However, without a plan of action and the manpower to maintain these tools, is it realistic for students juggling editing, layout, writing, photography, and class work to engage in these applications?

 The answer is yes, absolutely, for sure. Why? Because in order to stay competitive, relevant, and “newsworthy,” you have to embrace the technologies of the industry. You have to respond to the wants and needs of the readers to thrive. And most importantly, if students are training for careers in journalism, they must know the ins and outs of multiple social media tools to be considered for a job, much less an internship.

 So, even though we’re overwhelmed, frustrated, and bombarded at this point, it’s time to get over it and move forward. Why put so much work into the production of a quality newspaper without putting in just as much time to promote it? The reader is the first priority – give the readers what they want.

– Shannon Philpott
Blog Entry: July 25, 2009

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July 25, 2009 - Posted by sphilpott | Blog, Journalism, Teaching | college, facebook, journalism, social media, twitter