The Advantage of Social Media

The social media we have today is awesome. These tools allow news producers to get news from Facebook and Twitter, rather than relying on the wires or CNS. It’s a powerful tool that can use for many things. How I use my Facebook on my day-of-air shift is to see if any of my friends post anything huge happening on campus. Whether it is a bomb threat or a car accident, more likely the post on Facebook will be up first before any newscast at that time. So, I know where to send out one of our multimedia journalists to cover the story before anyone else. It is also useful to contact people for interviews.

Twitter is also another powerful social media tool I use to get stories around the USC area. Same thing with Facebook, if anyone I follow tweets about something huge happening around campus, I will send out a multimedia journalist to cover it. On top of that, I use Twitter to get stories happening around the nation and the world before they hit the wires.

As producers this day and age, we have an advantage. The social media tools that are available today enable us to get news and find interviews instantly. We have to make use what we have today and go forth on reporting the news.