Ten key lessons from inspiring and terrifying Fleet Street Fox

Fleet Street Fox at Journalist Works

I always enjoy a talk from Fleet Street Fox aka Susie Boniface.

When I first came along to Journalist Works to hear her speak I was packing for my honeymoon, but was such a fan of her blog I had to hear what she said.

It inspired me to sell myself a better for online journalism sessions.

Rather than “I’ve been on the internet since 1995”, I led with a list of my exciting deeds.

Unlike Fleet Street Fox I have never driven a nuclear submarine but I covered Sir John Mills’ funeral and interviewed Rolf Harris (that’s a different blog post).

She always starts off with the hard truths of journalism.

People do think you’re going to turn every conversation you’ve ever had into a news story.

People will stop trusting you as soon as you say what you do for a living.

People will treat you like scum.

You will see and hear horrific things.

But it also is such great fun.

Me (right) Instagramming Fleet Street Fox for Journalist Works, Brighton. Picture by student William Axtell

Here are a ten key lessons for journalists from her talk today (February 19):

1. Want to work online? You’ll have a career in 20 years
2. Your objectivity is not enough, it is the reader and source who must believe your ethical objectivity
3. What you need is a level of enthusiasm bordering on mental illness
4. Scotch eggs are a complete meal in a ball when you’re waiting on a doorstep
5. You are not the story. Write for readers not for you
6. Reporters do not say what they think. If you think someone is a scumbag you can’t tell them
7. Understanding your analytics means knowing when people are reading. Target your tweets when your readers are online
8. You get a knee-jerk reaction on Twitter from the headline alone. Facebook readers tend to read the article before sharing and commenting.
9. Writing online is like writing for the regional press. Readers will tell you when you’ve messed up very quickly
10. Don’t be a twat

Reasons why no journalist should dismiss social media

Social media image by Jason Howie, licence by Creative Commons

Years ago colleagues used to say I was wasting my time joining discussions in the online forums for towns and villages in our patch.

Even when I tracked down someone who was evacuated from a building next to Buncefield Oil Depo as it exploded, they were still sceptical.

Time and technology move on. When I created My Space then Facebook and Twitter accounts for the Worthing Herald colleagues dismissed them as pointless.

I introduced Twitter in 2008. By the time I left the Herald in 2011 everyone in the newsroom asked my advice as they set up their own accounts.

Both Twitter and Facebook have proved useful tools for news gathering as well as distribution.

Facebook community pages and groups help reporters keep up with people’s concerns from cashpoint card cloning to inconsiderate parking and potential child abductions.

Twitter is a great way to keep track of politicians, community groups, local government and events.

Even though the internet isn’t a new thing and social media is an established tool.

Reporters of all ages and experience embrace or resist.

When I asked journalists how they would encourage resisters, there was an assumption the nay sayers were old.

I have taught online journalism skills to NCTJ students in 2009 and in every group I’ve had at least one person say, “I’m not interested in this”, “I don’t want to do online journalism”.

One student who didn’t turn up to my first class in 2009, but ended up working with later summed up the situation very well when I spoke with him at an event in 2013.

“You were the first person I knew talking about Twitter and bit.ly.

“You are right, we need to know this stuff, it’s essential for journalists.”

Below is a link to a Storify explaining why journalists should use social media.

[View the story “‘I’m not interested in social media'” on Storify]

links for 2011-05-24

• Future of Media: Curation, Verification and News as a Process: Tech News and Analysis «
  Examples of curation during the BBC Social Media Summit.
  (tags: journalism socialmedia twitter curation teaching)

links for 2011-05-23

• New tools in news gathering: Curation and verification in journalism | memeburn
  Looking at tools for journalists.
  (tags: curation teaching verification)
• My notes from the BBC Social Media Summit
  A summary of numerous speakers at the BBC Social Media Summit. An excellent analysis by Martin Belam
  (tags: socialmedia blog social_media bbc)
• The Media Blog: Journalism: Is it ever 'just a numbers game'?
  A look at what drives people to particular news sites as well as further discussion about social engagement. An analysis of Raju Narisetti's comments at BBC Social Media Summit
  (tags: bbcsms journalism metrics seo washingtonpost teaching)

links for 2011-05-20

• KMOV puts Facebook to work covering airport tornado – Lost Remote
  KMOV-TV in the US used social media to spread news about tornados and damage quickly via social media, particularly facebook.
  (tags: socialmedia facebook crowdsourcing journalism teaching)
• #bbcsms – Cultural Change – One Man and His Blog
  An interesting summary of the first session at #BBCSMS with examples of how to encourage journalists to use Twitter and get involved with their wider community.
  (tags: twitter socialmedia teaching community)

links for 2011-05-19

• Wikileaks Iraq war logs: every death mapped | World news | guardian.co.uk
  James Ball referred to this map during his visit to Brighton Future of News Group
  (tags: journalism data news map)
• 5 Rules for journalists using Storify – storify.com
  Staci Baird's piece gives great advice on how to use Storify well. She gives good examples of best practise.
  (tags: journalism socialmedia journalists tools curation)

links for 2011-05-18

• What Journalism Is Like Now – Working With 2,000 Sources – NYTimes.com
  Further to the Neal Mann article I linked to on Monday, Mathew Ingram of GigaOm expands on the original observations and includes National Public Radio's Andy Carvin in his discussion piece.
  Ingram points out the tools are available to everyone, but journalists are needed to filter and verify.
  (tags: socialmedia journalism teaching)

links for 2011-05-17

• BBC | BBC College of Journalism Blog – #bbcsms: Charting a course for social media research for journalism
  Julie Posetti points out that social media training is essential for journalists today, and I agree with her.
  The social media world is far more noisy than it used to be which means journalists need to have even greater understanding of how to use social media as a tool to reach an audience, develop contacts and source stories.
  (tags: journalism socialmedia research social_media teaching)
• Dear Journalists, This is The Title Search Engines Care About
  There is a great deal of pressure to get the SEO right and increase traffic to websites. A simple headline with useful key words does help, but as this post by Dominic Litten points out there is more to it than a "boring" headline. There are ways to keep the wit in a story if you have good site architecture, a good sitemap, internal links etc.
  (tags: journalism journalists seo headlines)
• Personal branding and the evolution of ‘innovative’ journalism | Joseph Stashko Personal branding and the evolution of ‘innovative’ journalism | Thoughts on the media
  An interesting post from Joseph Stashko as he looks at what would make a student journalist stand out. It has started quite a debate on his blog.
  (tags: journalism Brand personalbranding)

links for 2011-05-16

• Social media guidelines for journalists
  Mindy McAdams writes a great deal of common sense here about using social media as a journalist.
  For professional purposes I use Facebook as a page, it keeps things simple and protects my personal account with its high security settings.
  (tags: journalism socialmedia twitter facebook)
• BBC | BBC College of Journalism Blog – #bbcsms: The new journalism is working with 2,000 sources
  Neal Mann puts a strong case forward as to why journalists should be using social media. There are still people who resist, but it's not just a broadcasting tool, it's a way to find stories, interact with other professionals and learn a great deal.
  (tags: journalism socialmedia twitter teaching)
• #citylocal Sustaining Local Journalism conference | a storify | Wannabe Hacks
  This Storify created at the Sustaining Local Journalism conference at City University London, shows just how useful this tool is.
  (tags: local storify journalism socialmedia)

links for 2011-05-13

• Insite » Blog Archive » Making the most of RSS: readers reviewed
  There has been too much doom and gloom about RSS feeds and it's good to read something showing how useful and well used they are.
  I know I use feeds, either reading them on Google Reader, or feeding into Twitter and Facebook accounts.
  (tags: journalism RSS)