by Christina Pomoni

Created on: July 25, 2009   Last Updated: August 04, 2009

Maybe the most important quality of the interactive Web for journalists is the prospect to connect with their audiences through social networking websites. Journalists have begun to realize the immense potential of social networking as a reader-interaction, news-collection and information-dissemination tool. Today, all this is a new thing. In ten years from now, it will all be a routine and we will all be wondering how journalism had survived before without Facebook, Twitter or other social networking websites.

The job of journalism is to deliver globally while connecting locally, nationally, and internationally to help the information flow everywhere, to anyone, without the slightest setback. Facebook is a huge online community with over 250 million active users out of who 120 million log on at least once each day. The primary value of Facebook for journalists is gaining greater exposure and getting their message to a broader audience through social connections.

However, Facebook has also its pitfalls and a savvy journalist must be prepared to face possible embarassments.

The first step is setting up a profile. Many journalists use their personal profile to reach their readers, while others set up a business page to target their audiences. Both options work quite well. Besides, by setting up a business page, Facebook automatically links it to the personal profile, so readers can also see the person behind the professional. Including information about favorite music, movies, books, TV series and quotes provides an idea about the personal interests of the writer and possibly the character. Moreover, equally important is adding a link to the personal blog. In that way, readers who are interested in 'investigating' the personal profile will be able to visit a journalist's personal blog.

However, it often comes as no surprise that lots of online information is fake or incorrect. As, there is no way to double-check the information, the only way to verify it is to contact the journalist directly. Although the contact will also be online, people rarely lie if they are contacted directly because they feel honored. Besides, if the page has no inconsistencies and the writing is consistent to the age, education etc, then most probably information is correct.

Including a profile picture gives the chance to people to get an idea of the 'real' person. In fact, readers connect better if they see who the writer is. The looks, the expression, the posture, all reveal

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>