#bbcsms: Charting a course for social media research for journalism

Social media is transforming professional journalism. And the speed of the real-time revolution raises significant challenges and opportunities for journalists and their publishers.

But it also necessitates a rigorous academic research agenda. The issues confronting journalism in the social media space include fundamental shifts in the practice of verification, the merger of private lives and professional practice, and the new journalistic role of community engagement.

These themes will be central to the BBC Social Media Summit (#bbcsms) organised in London this week by the BBC College of Journalism.

Social media training for journalists no longer discretionary

BBC Head of Global News Peter Horrocks said - way back - in February 2010 that social media practice for journalists was no longer discretionary. He was right. But this means that the professional training of journalists in social media theory and practice is also essential.

And fundamental to teaching and training journalists in this new form of 'social journalism' should be cutting-edge academic research; relevant to industry; in the field of journalism studies.

Setting a collaborative academic social media research agenda for journalism

One of the objectives of the BBC Social Media Summit will be to identify key areas for research in the field which can assist journalists and media organisations as they adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the social media age.

The process of charting a course for research into journalism and social media at #bbcsms will be collaborative - with researchers in the field (me included) seeking to co-ordinate an approach that draws on industry expertise and responds to needs identified by the journalists and editors in attendance.

Journalism research should be informed by journalistic practice and have a professionally relevant purpose. The Summit is committed to feeding back its research findings to the broader community for input; in keeping with social media ethos and the belief in practically applicable research.

'Twitterisation' 

I'm writing a PhD on the 'Twitterisation' of journalism, exploring the transformative impact of journalistic engagement with the headline-stealing platform. My research has so far highlighted the effect of engagement with sources and Jay Rosen's 'people formerly known as audiences'; the way professional practice is being reshaped by escalating speed through real-time reporting; increased transparency achieved through reflective practice; and the conflation of private and professional lives.

As I've identified in the course of my research (some elements of which I've previously explored at Mediashift), there are many rich and important research questions emerging in the field - almost at the speed of tweets!

Key research themes

Here are some of my contributions to framing a social media research agenda for journalism:

Verification

- How is social media changing the practices and processes of verification?

- What new methods of verification are emerging? How effective are they?

- What is the impact of changing verification practices - including crowdsourcing verification - on accuracy in reporting and journalistic credibility?

- How do journalists experience the effects of these challenges, and what tools/guidance do they need to assist them?

- How do 'audiences' regard the shift in verification processes/standards, and how do these changes affect journalists' standing in their eyes?

Clash of the professional and private

- What is the impact of the clash/merger of journalists' personal/private lives and their professional/public lives on social media sites?

- Should journalists or their employers attempt to separate private/professional public communication, and what are the potential benefits and risks of such an approach?

- How do 'audiences' react to the blurring of personal/professional lives by journalists? What impact does it have on their view of journalists who use social media 'socially'? Are they more or less likely to collaborate with such journalists?

Engagement

- How do journalists' interactions with the 'people formerly known as audiences' impact on their research, reporting and commentary on issues (including framing, source selection, objectivity and verification)?

- How do these interactions affect journalists' perceptions of 'audiences' and citizenry?

- How do these interactions affect 'audiences'' perceptions of journalists and journalism?

- What is the correlation between engagement and building communities of interest around journalism/quality content?

- What 'rules of engagement' do journalists bring to social media interaction? With what success and effect?

Conflict and complaints

What are journalists' experiences of being confronted with criticism or complaints about their work from colleagues, competitors and audiences on social media sites?

- What views have media organisations formed about the role of individual journalists in complaints-handling via social media? What processes and guidelines are being or need to be developed?

- How are audiences responding? Are they choosing to 'go direct' to journalists? If so, why? And with what effect on their regard for the journalist, their work and the media organisation?

Industrial/logistical issues

What are the impacts on journalists' workload, productivity and wellbeing of 24/7 real-time social media practice and engagement?

- What systems and procedures are media employers putting in place to address the issues of workload, time management and risk associated with social media?

- What systems/procedures should be implemented to address the above?

- How can social media practice be best folded into convergent journalism practice and story-assignment procedures?

- What systems/processes/technologies are being employed in newsrooms to achieve the above?

Networking, professional development and globalisation

- Explore the role and impact of cross-cultural and trans-national communication via social media on journalists and their subjects

- Explore mentoring, networking and employment patterns among professional journalists through social media.

Rounds and beats

- Develop case studies of best practice approaches to social media strategies in reporting rounds such as health, education, courts, emergencies, politics

- Exploring the role of social media in public journalism projects.

Journalism education

- How should social media be incorporated into university and professional training courses?

- Measure outcomes/impacts of training

- How do student journalists - 'social journalism natives'? - best develop social media skills and learn to navigate/critique the ethical/professional issues arising?

Technology

Explore cross-disciplinary approaches to problem-solving, involving computer scientists, journalists/journalism researchers (et al) in the development of industry-applicable resources and programs applicable to aiding reporting via social media, measuring social media impacts, verification etc.

Platform-specific research - for example, how is Facebook changing journalism?

Legal/regulatory issues

- How are courts and governments around the world responding to the challenges posed to publishing laws presented by real-time 'masses' media'?

- How are journalistic standards and the professional and quasi-government organisations that monitor and regulate them adapting to the emergence of social media?

- Is it feasible to control or regulate social media, and what are the professional implications of doing so or not?

- Who owns a journalist's social media presence? The journalist? Their publisher/employer?

- How and why are journalists' unions and professional bodies around the world responding to these issues? With what effect?

- What are the implications for media freedom/freedom of expression of attempts to regulate the social web?

Research methodologies and practice

- Case studies

- Collaborative projects with journalists, industry and media consumers - 'Public Research'

- Detailed content analysis/critical discourse analysis

- Application of technology to the research process

- Commitment to transparent research processes and widespread dissemination

- Commitment to collaborating with industry in responding to findings - for example, through the development of targeted training and resources.

Share your ideas, help frame the research agenda and get involved

So, that's my contribution to framing the research discussion at #bbcsms.

What ideas would you like to throw into the mix? And what research approaches would you suggest?

There are two ways you can get involved:

1) You can contribute your ideas directly underneath this blog post (or others here), or

2) You can participate in the open conference remotely on Friday 20 May by contributing to the discussion curated under the #bbcsms hashtag.

We look forward to hearing your ideas and working together to chart the future of journalism research in the field of social media.

Julie Posetti is a journalist and journalism academic from Canberra, Australia. After a TV and radio career, with experience in politics, documentaries and social justice issues, she now teaches radio and television journalism at the University of Canberra.