Tag

cbs19

Fostering Community Conversations in Education and with Media

By Communications, Media, Social Media

It was a really exciting week for the Jaggers Communications team. On Tuesday, we hosted area leaders in education communications in a roundtable discussion that was so inspiring and gratifying. We’re big fans of education and fostering good digital citizenship so it’s exciting to be part of the evolution of our community adopting social media from students to parents to faculty and administration.

Last night we held a tweetup — a public gathering of folks who know one another from social platforms (mainly Twitter) but have not necessarily met “in real life.”

The purpose of the tweetup was to introduce members of the Charlottesville media to those in the social media community and generate discussion about the intersection of social and traditional media. As members of the community who depend on news organizations and who often represent or help generate news ourselves, it’s important to foster healthy discussion about transparency, timeliness, and how evolving technology affects our ability to both consume and produce news.

Our panelists, from left to right included (that’s me, in the purple, moderating): Brian Wheeler from Charlottesville Tomorrow, our co-host for the event, Rick Sincere, columnist at Examiner.com, Graelyn Brashear, news reporter for C’ville Weekly, Amanda Williams, executive producer, NBC29, Travis Koshko, chief meteorologist, the Newsplex, Carter Johnson, anchor/reporter at the Newsplex and Nate Delesline of Work it, Cville, the Charlottesville Business Journal and Daily Progress.

We had such great feedback from both events this week and are excited about planning future conversations.

Tweetup with the C’ville Media — Tonight! #Meetthecvillemedia

By Communications, Media, Social Media

Tonight at 5pm, we’ll be gathering at CitySpace http://charlottesvillearts.org/cityspace/ for a fun and informative Tweetup — a Tweetup with a purpose. For those of you playing the at home game, you know we tried to hold this even a month ago and there was a power outage that forced us to cancel it at the last minute. That makes me even MORE excited to be finally hosting tonight’s event. Here’s the skinny:

Meet the faces behind the Twitter handles at this free, casual event hosted by Charlottesville Tomorrow and Jaggers Communications!

Charlottesville Tomorrow  and Jaggers Communications are bringing people in our community together to inform and engage in this unique event. Tweet-up with members of the media and the local Twitter community. 5pm — 7pm Thursday, July 12 at CitySpace. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
We will be moderating a short panel discussion about the intersection of traditional media and social media; how news is delivered and travels in our community. Joining us for the discussion will be:
Join us for some fun discussion, interesting people and a little food and beverages. See you at 5pm! If you can’t make it, follow along virtually with #meetthecvillemedia on Twitter.

Meet the Media, C’ville ***POSTPONED***

By Media

***DUE TO A POWER OUTAGE AT CITYSPACE IN DOWNTOWN CHARLOTTESVILLE, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED ****

The members of the media in Charlottesville are really curious: who are these local people using Twitter  to follow them? Who are the Facebook fans of local TV, newspaper, radio and other news sources? Why do they engage with the media and one another using social platforms?

At the same time, members of the community seem to enjoy engaging with members of the media online (either on Twitter or Facebook) so much, that it seems only natural to move that conversation from the online space to “In Real Life.”

So we’re taking the conversation to CitySpace! Along with our friends from Charlottesville Tomorrow, Jaggers Communications is conducting an experiment:

  1. What happens when you put members of the media in the room with their fans and followers?
  2. What kind of discussion ensues when the online conversation goes offline?
  3. What would the community say to media, and the local media say, when addressing the community, about how social media is used in Charlottesville?

Let us know if you plan to come, and invite others here: http://twtvite.com/meetthecvillemedia

Maintaining a Social Presence as a News Professional

By Media, Social Media

 I had the great pleasure of returning to my old stomping grounds at the Newsplex, today. For more than a year I was the social media correspondent and blogging segment guest on-air on CBS-19. Great fun, that, but my time on TV has been very limited in the last couple of years.

In addition to being included with the “talent,” (ha!) I did some consulting behind-the-scenes to help the news and sales staff with their social strategy. I returned this week, to both provide a refresher and update for the more seasoned staff members and social media orientation for the new folks.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/schuttedan/status/182560714345549826″]

News professionals, whether in broadcast or print, all seem to have the same issues:

  1. Creating definition and separation between their personal and professional personas and online lives.
  2. A lack of comfort in sharing what’s personal (not private) online.
  3. How blogging, generally thought of as a venue for opinion, can be done as an objective journalist.
  4. How to deal with the really nasty and downright rude comments left by viewers/readers.

A couple of approaches shared today include the concept that there is a CLEAR difference between what is considered private and being personal (and personable) online. Never mistake one for the other. Your comfort level in engaging online is important — watch how someone else you admire conducts themselves online and let that be a guide to your own behavior.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/carterjohnson/status/182483092517294081″]

Blogging as a journalist is commonplace. If you’re telling the story behind the story, you’re providing another perspective for the audience. It should enhance the experience, not replace it. Bloggers do not have to share opinions (being a blogger and being opinionated are only coincidentally common). Bloggers are, like journalists, expected to tell the truth. What would happen if a journalist who blogged didn’t blog about their beat or the news they cover, but blogged about their life as a journalist, or their personal interests?

Whoa, right?

Trolls, or the nasty mean people who leave anonymous (or even named, public) comments on blogs, websites and Facebook pages, are really awful. No one likes to read that kind of unfiltered, sometimes WAY over the top criticism. It’s hard to simply thank them for their feedback and walk away. Establish a policy (as the Newsplex has done) that you will delete obscene and inappropriate comments. Make sure you’re showing up and entering the conversation regularly. Turns out that even trolls are more polite when they know you’re in the room.

I encouraged the team members to keep an eye on their Klout scores and set some personal goals for influence and engagement. I think it’s great to see a local news team so genuinely interested in professional development and community engagement.

You can find the Twitter handles of all the on-air staff as well as News, Weather and Sports on the group’s website.