An introduction to social newsgathering

@ajreid | firstdraftnews.com | @firstdraftnews | #ONA16
AN INTRODUCTION TO:
SOCIAL NEWSGATHERING

@ajreid | firstdraftnews.com | @firstdraftnews
ORGANISING YOUR TEAM
In breaking news, confusion spreads quickly - ensure you organise your team into
roles quickly and regroup regularly
Where possible, delegate responsibilities to your team
Assign platforms to speciﬁc journalists
For a three person team - lead person on Twitter/Tweetdeck, one person on
Facebook/Instagram, one person on YouTube/Reddit/local liveblog
Do not get into a situation where two or more journalists are doing the same thing
Credit: Joe Galvin

TWEETDECK
Tweetdeck columns
- Twitter lists of relevant sources
- Keyword searches
- Location searches

TWITTER LISTS
Follow established lists Search for lists
Look at source ‘memberships’ Search Twitter bios
site:twitter.com/*/lists/Paris

TWITTER LISTS
Copy and merge Twitter lists
Twitter List Copy tool

TWITTER
Credit: Joe Galvin
Use filter for any of these within a curated Twitter list
Example string for Shenandoah National Park wildfires:
“rocky mount fire” OR “rockymountfire” OR “shenandoah” OR
“skyline drive”
In a Tweetdeck search, isolate:
๏ related vocabulary
๏ hashtags
๏ place names (multilingual)
๏ names of people involved
๏ geolocated tweet by placename or lat/long
Can filter for Tweets with videos - Tweets with images etc.

TWITTER
Related vocabulary
Keywords
Most people relating a personal experience — good sources —
will use ﬁrst person language.
Most people observing from afar — useless sources — won’t.
How do people talk IRL?
I, me, my, shock, live, see, seeing, saw, can’t believe, watch, witness(ed), just,
now, shock, damn, dude, crazy, scared, fuck, fucking, shit, omg, wow, breaking
Credit: Ruben Bouwmeester and Julia Bayer

TWITTER
Related vocabulary
Keywords
Human disasters: Terrorist attacks, shootings,
explosions, war, conﬂict, train collisions
explosion, terror, attack, horror, OMG, OMGGGG, WTF, fuck, holy, shit, crash, shot, shots, shooting, terrible, shocking,
WOW, people, run, running, someone, police, bus, car, plane, train, killed.

TWITTER
Related vocabulary
Keywords
Natural disasters?
house, world, street, evacuation, hit, shaking, aftershock, safe, disaster, evacuate(d), earthquake, tsunami, ﬂooding,
volcano, eruption, massive, killed, people running, damage(d), destroyed.

TWITTER
Related vocabulary
Keywords
Political news?
enough, occupy, coup, demonstration, protests, protesters, corruption, active, embassy, government, our

TWITTER
Geolocation
Right click on
a location in
Google maps
and select
“What’s Here”

TWITTER
Geolocation
It will give you
the co-ordinates

TWITTER
Geolocation
Search “near:39.742268,-104.996656”
Copy them
into a
Tweetdeck
column with
“near:”, taking
out the space
in the middle,
for tweets
from that
location

FACEBOOK
Signal
Signal, the
Facebook
search tool for
journalists, is
useful but not
perfect

FACEBOOK
Interest Lists
Interest lists on Facebook work like Twitter lists

INSTAGRAM
Signal
You can
search
Instagram by
location with
Signal

INSTAGRAM
Photodesk ($)
Search
hashtags and
maps, as well
as managing
accounts, with
Photodesk

INSTAGRAM
Photodesk

YOUTUBE
montage.Storyful.com
•Powerful search
•Build lists of
videos and
collaborate
Montage is a
multi-purpose
tool for YouTube

REDDIT & LIVEBLOGS
Be extra vigilant with information shared on Reddit
Local liveblogs often a key source of content, contacts and
information in real-time
e.g Le Soir liveblog on day of Belgian attacks
Videos frequently sent directly to local media, and then
shared on liveblogs
“Megathreads” often on Reddit during breaking news
situations
Unveriﬁed information, but potentially useful tips, often
links to original content
Credit: Joe Galvin

OTHER FREE TOOLS
Credit: Joe Galvin
Feedly
Use to monitor streams of YouTube accounts
A continuous stream of self-updating content that is
viewable and playable within the tool
Storyful Multisearch
Simple Chrome extension that allows searching of multiple
platforms with one click
Ban.jo
A paid for service, but also useful free service at ban.jo/trending

APPROACHING SOURCES
The digital door-knock

APPROACHING SOURCES
The digital door-knock
- Be mindful of a source’s circumstances, they may be in shock or still in danger
- Check comments and replies for answers to your questions
- Think whether there is a realistic chance of an answer
- No need for permission when embedding – but be wary of exposing individuals to
unnecessary attention
- Talk in private where possible: email or telephone
- Be careful not to encourage anyone to take risks
- Getting this wrong can damage your organisation’s brand
Credit: Fergus Bell

APPROACHING SOURCES
Audiences react badly in active situations

APPROACHING SOURCES
Don’t double up on contacting sources
• Always think: Will you realistically get something?
…and at what cost?
• By amplifying someone’s social media presence, will
there be consequences?
Credit: Fergus Bell

APPROACHING SOURCES
Read their other comments
- also a good way to see if people think it is a hoax
Has somebody else already got the answer?
- e.g. another reporter or interested person
Can you get the same information in another way?
- e.g. did they post their contact details?
Co-ordinate your operation
- only one person should reach out
Credit: Fergus Bell

APPROACHING SOURCES
Credit: Tom Trewinnard
bit.ly/UGCtemplate
• Share the sheet (and this workflow) with anyone who might touch
eyewitness media in your organization or network
• When a story breaks duplicate the sheet
• When you find some eyewitness media you want to verify or seek
permissions for, take a second to copy and paste the URL to the
sheet in the “URL” column. It only takes a second.
• If someone’s already added that link – it’ll flash red and say
“Duplicate!” in the adjacent cell (both on your cell and on the
previous entry of that URL)
• If it doesn’t flash red then add your name under “Point of Contact”,
the time you’re adding the link under “Time”, and update the row
when you’ve verified and reached out for permission or interview

APPROACHING SOURCES
•Set up a #ugc-requests channel
•Whenever you’re about to start working on a
piece of content (either verifying, or
contacting for permissions) – search the URL
in Slack’s search bar
•If a result is returned and shows the link has
been added to #ugc-requests, then move on.
Don’t contact that source.
•If no result is returned, then add your URL to
the #ugc-requests and contact the source.

APPROACHING SOURCES
•If already set up with Checkdesk, soon to be
called just ‘Check’, the platform will
automatically scan for duplicate links

firstdraftnews.com | @firstdraftnews | #ONA16
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An introduction to social newsgathering

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