BBC News Staff Told Get With Social Media or Get Out
The CBC Digital Research Blog pointed me to this story in the Guardian about Peter Horrocks, the new director of BBC Global News.
BBC news journalists have been told to use social media as a primary source of information by Peter Horrocks, the new director of BBC Global News who took over last week. He said it was important for editorial staff to make better use of social media and become more collaborative in producing stories.
“This isn’t just a kind of fad from someone who’s an enthusiast of technology. I’m afraid you’re not doing your job if you can’t do those things. It’s not discretionary”, he is quoted as saying in the BBC in-house weekly Ariel.
For BBC news editors, Twitter and RSS readers are to become essential tools, says Horrocks. Aggregating and curating content with attribution should become part of a BBC journalist’s assignment; and BBC’s journalists have to integrate and listen to feedback for a better understanding of how the audience is relating to the BBC brand.
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Not much of a surprise there.
So, rumour ought to be prized more highly than fact. This is why mainstream media are dying. Trying to out-Twitter Twitter or out-Facebook Facebook will only lead to grief. In the past two days, alone, Canadian media have twice been embarrassed by perpetuating hoaxes, trying to confirm “facts” through social media.
By all means, embrace social media for what they are. But don’t elevate them to a status they do not deserve. “Primary source”? Why even bother with the mainstream media, if you could just check your Twitter account instead?
Hey, I heard that the reason Lloyd Robertson was going to retire was so he wouldn’t end up dead like Gordon Lightfoot. If I tweet that, does it come true?