Why Social Media And Journalism EJA 4710 Is The Most Important LSC Course EVER!

    Hey, LSC EJA students, registration for the spring semester starts soon! So here are a few questions and answers as to why EJA 4710 (Social media and Journalism) is the most important course of your career.

    Brett Whitmarsh
    by Brett Whitmarsh

    Community Contributor

    1. How does my social media profile affect my real-world hiring chances?

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    If you don't have a digital footprint, then you don't exist.

    2. How should newsrooms use Snapchat? Instagram?

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    Instagram and Snapchat are great tools for storytelling. Do you think we can use them right in the newsroom? How would you use them? We can do more than just selfies. A vast majority of our audience is there now. Our content there needs to tell a story.

    3. How deeply will a news director dig into my social media during a job application? (Hint- VERY)

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    A news director won't even think about emailing, or calling, you back without first checking out your social media profiles. What they see determines your future with them.

    4. When should I use Facebook Live and how much do I share before the newscast?

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    Every story has it's own life and context is king. We need to balance the online audience and the TV audience. We'll explore how.

    5. Why should a journalist care about social media analytics?

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    Yes, they sound VERY dull, but they tell us a lot about our audience and predict what will trend while helping us both grow our audience and connect with them. And how you use them helps with job security.

    6. What are the ethics behind a retweet?

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    Journalists have a responsibility to the public to verify information. Share the wrong information, or out of context, and you can cause panic.

    7. Finally, how do we verify something from social media?

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    “A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.”

    ― Terry Pratchett, The Truth

    This applies more than ever to today's social media and journalism. How we verify information matters and how we then report on it is crucial.

    8. We'll cover these topics (and more) this spring in Social Media and Journalism: EJA 4710

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    Register now for EJA:4710!

    We’d love for you to join us next semester. Still not sure? Tweet me your questions here: @BWhitmarsh