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Using Semantic Technologies For Story Development & Reader Engagement
This is an updated re-post from the Next Newsroom Ning site.
http://www.nextnewsroom.com/forum/topics/using-semantic-technologies
Question: Are newsrooms using semantic technologies for story development and reader engagement?
One idea for the newsroom would be to use some of the social media mining tools developed for corporations to determine the stories that are of most interest to a community. The press would use monitoring tools to quickly discover stories that are developing, and what stories are most relevant and important to a community. Relevancy and importance may be measured by off page references, links and comments.
News stories that quickly pick up steam will give journalists the incentive to investigate in greater detail. Knowing a story has legs because a community is continuing the discussion will help newsrooms focus in on a story that is worthwhile investigating. Reporters can compete with bloggers and other social media creators by spending more time investigating a story, yet they cannot compete on the immediacy of publishing the news because of the number of publishers now on the web. Newsrooms need to know what stories are most important to a community, most stories will be obvious, but not all, social media monitoring tools will give newsrooms the ability to monitor the community, compete with bloggers, and focus on what they do best, reporting the facts of the story.
The monitoring tools used to determine a story has life will also give the reporter quick access to the best people to interview and all angles on a story. Secondly, a newsroom can use the monitoring tools to watch the discussion unfold in social media after a story has been published. Determine what impact the paper's story had on the community? Is it worth following up on? And lastly those monitoring tools when integrated into a reader response management system will give newsrooms the ability to engage their readership and influentials on a story off the website. Giving good information as to who to engage with, and if a follow up is needed.
The press is already being influenced by the issues that are highlighted in social media; the use of monitoring tools that integrate into reader response management systems would give the media the ability to recognize what stories are important to the community within social media at an earlier stage.
My article on intermedia agenda setting gives an example of a Boston Globe reporter writing a story based on social media discussion.
http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2008/11/making-sense-of-int...
and my article on News Gathering Tools Enable Journalists To Compete With Blogging Br... gives an overview of use of the tools.
Lastly, is your newsroom adopting such technologies?
http://www.nextnewsroom.com/forum/topics/using-semantic-technologies
Question: Are newsrooms using semantic technologies for story development and reader engagement?
One idea for the newsroom would be to use some of the social media mining tools developed for corporations to determine the stories that are of most interest to a community. The press would use monitoring tools to quickly discover stories that are developing, and what stories are most relevant and important to a community. Relevancy and importance may be measured by off page references, links and comments.
News stories that quickly pick up steam will give journalists the incentive to investigate in greater detail. Knowing a story has legs because a community is continuing the discussion will help newsrooms focus in on a story that is worthwhile investigating. Reporters can compete with bloggers and other social media creators by spending more time investigating a story, yet they cannot compete on the immediacy of publishing the news because of the number of publishers now on the web. Newsrooms need to know what stories are most important to a community, most stories will be obvious, but not all, social media monitoring tools will give newsrooms the ability to monitor the community, compete with bloggers, and focus on what they do best, reporting the facts of the story.
The monitoring tools used to determine a story has life will also give the reporter quick access to the best people to interview and all angles on a story. Secondly, a newsroom can use the monitoring tools to watch the discussion unfold in social media after a story has been published. Determine what impact the paper's story had on the community? Is it worth following up on? And lastly those monitoring tools when integrated into a reader response management system will give newsrooms the ability to engage their readership and influentials on a story off the website. Giving good information as to who to engage with, and if a follow up is needed.
The press is already being influenced by the issues that are highlighted in social media; the use of monitoring tools that integrate into reader response management systems would give the media the ability to recognize what stories are important to the community within social media at an earlier stage.
My article on intermedia agenda setting gives an example of a Boston Globe reporter writing a story based on social media discussion.
http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2008/11/making-sense-of-int...
and my article on News Gathering Tools Enable Journalists To Compete With Blogging Br... gives an overview of use of the tools.
Lastly, is your newsroom adopting such technologies?
Add a Comment
4 Comments
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Comment by John Cass on March 16, 2009 at 11:34pm
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Hi Joseph, thanks for your question. Reader engagement is the process of a journalist answering questions and comments on a website where they post articles, but also conducting outreach to readers and other community members on topics they typically write about. In a case study on adweek for the business blogging success study with backbone media and Northeastern university I highlighted how adrants blogging outreach strategy enabled the blog to keep ahead of their competitor at adfreaks.
http://www.scoutblogging.com/success_study/blogger_interviews/adweek_cathy_taylor.html
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- Thanks Kevin, if you hear of any newsrooms using semantic tools for story development I'd be interested to learn about them. I'd like to develop a test program with a few schools of journalism to test out this idea. I am thinking we'd need a partnership with a few tool vendors and some funding for the colleges.
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Comment by Kevin Sablan on February 15, 2009 at 1:19pm -
Your idea to use monitoring tools to "quickly discover stories that are developing" is something we should all be doing now. Microblogging and picture/video sharing sites often contain great stories hidden between small, seemingly unrelated, bits of information. Journalists can pull those bits together into a great blog post or article.
I also like the concept of "monitoring tools that integrate into reader response management systems." It is so important for news organizations to "engage" with readers outside of their own web sites. Conversations about the stories we create sprout up in every corner of the web, and a tool like the one you describe would make it possible for more journalists to find those conversation, add clarity when possible, and LISTEN.
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Comment by Zac Echola on January 25, 2009 at 1:47am
- This is in an interesting concept. I've researched a bit about using semantic technologies to build more thorough databases, but this has a much more practical application for actual news gathering. Thanks for sharing.
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