Don’t Knock TikTok

TSV Opinions Editor Calixto Reyes knows what’s what.

Since the beginning of this school year, I’ve been quasi-tormenting my students, asking them first, “Are you on TikTok?” and then menancingly telling them, “Oh, you will be.” They insist it’s for middle schoolers, a reincarnation of Musical.ly. (They’re not wrong.)

Now, I’m no sponsor of TikTok; in fact, I’m plenty worried about their privacy practices. But like other things before it (read: Snapchat), if it’s gaining this much popularity, there is an opportunity for journalists to engage their audiences where they are, rather than where they hope or wish they were. And, yeah, Snapchat ended up being a bit trickier for journalists than initially hoped for. I was pretty gung ho at first, but I have teenage daughters and I could tell pretty early on that there was no way they were going to use Snapchat for anything other than as a messaging app. (That’s not to say there is not point. German journalists, for example, are using Snapchat to educate teens about the Holocaust.)

So, who knows how successful journalists will be on TikTok? But with 800 million active monthly users, you’d be foolish to ignore it. In fact, I’m siding with the Washington Post, Now This, and the Today Show. One of those, at least, reps hardcore journalism. And yet, they recognize that their audience can’t just be those of us over 40 who may or may not still get a daily newspaper thrown on our doorstep.

I’m not above mocking gently nudging the staff of The Skyline View to consider the ways they might engage their audience through TikTok.  I’ve been giving thought to how to help them envision this. (Of course, they retain complete control over content decisions. My job is to train them, and that, in my mind, includes training them on all social channels.)

Here are my thoughts so far:

• TikTok has a robust trending page. One look at the top hashtags is enough to inspire ideas. Recent trending hashtags: #how to adult, #collegehacks, and #travelbucketlist. Challenge your students to consider how to create content for these.
• I know. I know. You’re never going to be on TikTok, my good advice be damned. Scoop up that name anyway. I’d hate to end up like the New York Times on this one. A search of @nytimes, @thenytimes, @nytimestiktok and more show that they’ve gotten to this platform, if at all, several steps too late. That didn’t stop them from creating this cool interactive though.
• This one I got from the always trend-setting Amara Aguilar: You can do moving and serious videos on this platform too. Here’s one from her students at a Kobe Bryant memorial.
• One of the things that can be jarring to old-schoolers is that TikTok is music based. That layer is key to its humor and emotion. Our audience is changing; our approach–while still maintaining journalistic integrity and a keen awareness of which platforms call for which kinds of material–needs to change too.

So, I may not be #TeamTikTok, but I’m definitely #TeamLet’sTryTikTok. Oh, and you better believe I scooped up @skylinejour. See you there!

Social Media and Verification Tools

It should be obvious from this blog that I’ve been learning right alongside my students. I’ve had fun chronicling my failures and successes with teaching digital journalism. One thing I’m feeling like I can put into the (moderate) success column: I just added a section on verification.

Let me back up a moment. For the past several years, my students have built social media stories in Storify. They’ve also used or identified how to use social media to find sources and stories. But one thing I had not yet deliberately built into the process was verification. Sure, we’ve talked about the basics of making sure sources are credible–after all, these are my more advanced students–but we haven’t talked about specific methodologies for making sure particular tweets, photos or videos are authentic. Even just typing that sentence, it feels so obvious that that needs to be explicitly taught, but, well, perhaps I’m late to the party.

The realization that I needed to do this came after I had already completed this semester’s schedule. Nonetheless, I found a way to designate two class sessions to this. Was that enough? Probably not. But at least they have an introduction to the subject.

On the first day, I had them identify what prior knowledge they brought to the topic. They easily identified the strengths (we’ve covered this before) and the weaknesses of using social media. I was pleased that they innately knew the risks of relying on social media information. But what especially made me happy was that they were able to brainstorm several solid ways to verify information on social media.

I followed this up with readings from the following:

• Steve Buttry’s How to verify information from tweets: Check it out
• International Journalists’ Network’s A journalist’s guide to verifying news tips on Twitter
• European Journalism Centre’s Verification Handbook

Once the students had done the reading, I uploaded different social media posts to an online class forum and had the students analyze the posts and figure out how they would go about verifying each.

So, again, I put this in the “success” column. Perhaps this will work itself into a larger unit at some point, but for now, I’m happy to have initiated some training on this. How are you teaching or doing verification of social media postings?

Update on April 30, 2015: This article by Anthony De Rosa is also a worthwhile read: How to Be a Good Internet Citizen During Breaking News.

Using Twitter Chats to Build Your Network

Although I am not teaching Journalism 121: Advanced Writing and Reporting this semester, which means I am not teaching the class that has spurred many of my blog posts, I’m still incorporating the same types of strategies, tools and journalism fundamentals into my other classes. Because not to would be foolhardy.

One such tool skill fundamental I’ve been hitting hard in our basic writing and reporting class is social media, specifically Twitter. To increase my own skills, I just completed the Knight Center for Journalism in the America’s MOOC on social media. (And by the way, I am not at all a naysayer of MOOCs, at least the ones the Knight Center does.) What I’ve found is that although my students use social media anyway, most of them are on Instagram or Facebook, instead of Twitter, and few of them understand how to use Twitter to report, build a network or communicate with an intended audience.

To get these beginning students up to speed, I’ve required a Twitter component to the class which involves tweeting a minimum number of tweets about things newsworthy to our campus.  So far, so good.  Well, sort of.  Many of them frequently forget–they just aren’t in the habit of using Twitter.  (The ones who use Twitter for personal reasons tend to be better at this part.) To remedy that (mildly), I have taken to conducting Drop Everything and Tweet sessions.  Despite this, they still don’t see the full reach and power in their tweets. I’m also having them participate in the #JRLWeb scavenger hunt. This will connect them to other schools (mostly universities, another element I want to expose my community college students to).

However, what I really want is for them to build their personal (and professional) learning networks and understand how Twitter has the power to connect them to people to whom they would not normally have access. As I thought about how to do this, I thought about my own experiences with Twitter. And what I came to is that engaging in a Twitter chat is one effective way to connect with and expand your community.  So, I had them participate in @PBSMediaShift‘s #edshift chat last week.  Although the chaotic nature of the Twitter chat was disorienting for many of them, I think it also gave them a sense of Twitter’s equalizing quality: Media professionals and educators wanted to know what they thought.  In the end, several of my students’ comments made it into the Storify.

That’s the beauty of Twitter chats: Everyone’s welcome.  I’ve felt that on the other chats I’ve participated in, even not being a “regular.” Want to get your students (or yourself) into the discussion? You can.  Twitter chats exists every day on a variety of topics, giving us all a chance to build our professional and personal networks, while truly being “heard” in the process.  It’s a win-win for all involved.  And if you can’t find one that’s a good fit, moderate your own.

A Sampling of Twitter Chats for Journalists and Journalism Educators:

Web Journalist #wjchat: Wednesdays at 5 p.m. PT

PBS Ed Shift #edshift:  1st and 3rd Fridays of the month at 1 p.m. ET

Digital First Media #dfmchat: Wednesdays at noon ET

#JournChat: Mondays at 8 p.m. ET

Can’t keep all these chats in your head? Try following a Twitter account like @ChatSalad for chat reminders. And if you really want to get in deep (read: spend all your time on Twitter chats instead of doing things like, say, feeding your cat, cooking dinner or putting your children to bed), try this 2012 list of chats for journalists. Just check to make sure the hashtags, times, etc. still exist.