AJR: Harnessing Social Media
American Journalism Review
News outlets are assigning staffers to focus on networking.
By Stephanie Gleason
Stephanie Gleason is an AJR editorial assistant.
Trending in journalism right now: #social media editors.
With more than 400 million active users, Facebook celebrated its sixth birthday in February. And while sites like NYTimes.com and CNN.com experienced a decline in the number of unique visitors last year, Twitter’s total increased by almost 300 percent. The future of journalism is uncertain, but clearly social networking is booming.
Social media’s prominence has led many news organizations to hire social media editors, full-time staff members–sometimes several full-time staff members–completely dedicated to the rapidly growing phenomenon.
