Social media: the theatre critic argument

It's now been a few days since the BBC Social Media Summit. As a social media trainer, I've been thinking about what tangible ideas and examples from it could be used in my courses.

I think one which came from Alan Rusbridger, Editor in Chief of Guardian Newspapers, could help reluctant journalists to 'get' the new social, online/offline world we now live in.

During the closing session, Rusbridger described the social media/online/collaborative world as an "open media" construct.

To illustrate how it makes sense, he gave the analogy of the theatre critic. He described how for years newspapers like his relied on one critic in an auditorium of, say, 700 people to produce a review on the opening night of a play. But if, he said, we assume that most of the other 699 are also likely to have interesting ideas and opinions, it would be absurd not to use their voices in storytelling if we could. And now we can.

"If we've established the principle that it would be an interesting way to cover a play to allow the other 700 people to have a say as well, then you've crossed a barrier. Then you think, actually, that it's rather odd that in an age when people can [contribute] you should still be covering theatre by having one person on one night and thinking that was an adequate way to write about that experience."

I believe this analogy will go a long way to help a dubious journalist to understand why it is now necessary to seriously consider the role of social media and also help him/her to understand how their role is going to change because of it.

Of course the question of how best to collaborate with audiences has yet to be answered - and I suspect that's where journalists and editors alike need to get their thinking caps on. But at least the Rusbridger argument makes the need to collaborate crystal clear.