Isn’t it amazing how you accept certain levels of reality about how the world changes? Then, while you are not crazy about those changes, you know they are here to stay so you might as well go along with them.
However, just out of spite, you are only willing to go so far and you resist.
During my last two years in the newspaper industry, I became that way with social media, specifically Twitter. I like having a Facebook account because it has allowed me to reconnect with people from pockets of my life that I lost contact. However, Twitter has fundamentally changed how journalists do their jobs, and not for the better — because it has fed the instant gratification monster that has poisoned our society. As much as I dislike Twitter, I believe it can be useful as far as driving people to the finished product. The problem is, too many powers that be in news organizations encourage it to replace the finished product.
For those on the sports desk, where breaking news, photo finishes and down-to-the-wire games are a routine occurrence, reporting via Twitter and following what others are saying has become essential.
Quite simply, you now have to tweet your beat. For journalists who post a concentrated number of tweets in a short time span, follower growth rate is about 50 percent more than average.
I started a Twitter handle of @upvalleysports before the fall sports season of 2013. Since I am out of the newspaper industry as of about five months ago, I only use it sparingly.
Initially it was meant to give updates during football games but I continued to use it for other sports as well.
I have seen reporters tweet run-of-the-mill plays like “Johnson 5-yard gain” or “defense holds, forces punt.”
Personally, I just can’t wrap my head around doing that because too much Twitter posting while covering the game compromises your reporting in that you risk not seeing a meaningful occurrence.
However, social media is part of journalism for the foreseeable future, so I had to embrace it on some level but I was only willing to go so far. I guess that is an example of remembering the industry a certain way (pre social media) when I first started so I feel the need to hold on to certain ways of doing things that I recall.
With that being said, I was amenable to using Twitter for the following: a) posting final scores, b) teasing feature stories that are slated to appear in print, c) posting something meaningful that takes place before or during a game and d) posting a rescheduling of a game.
However, I can’t bring myself to tweeting every scoring play.
In the “B” category, one example would be catching up to Calistoga High athletic director D.J. Hein and football head coach Paul Harrell about the NCL II realigning for football. Another example would be catching up to St. Helena High graduate Maddy Densberger. Both posts had a tone of “stay tuned look for the story in next week’s paper.”
In the “C” category, one example would be Calistoga High inviting 1987 graduate Corey Beck back to be an honorary captain. Another example would be the inaugural athletic Hall of Fame class being honored at halftime of a football game. Point being, if I’m going to tweet anything other than a final score, it’s got to be meaningful.
Though I was enormously reluctant when I first established a Twitter account, having people appreciate the updates made me see the value of it. For example, I have had people tell me, “Vince, I couldn’t go to the game but thanks for the update,” and they are totally OK with the final score and nothing more.
Two things made me resistant to excessive use of social media in conjunction with reporting: a) Napa Valley Publishing management pounding it down the editorial staff’s throat and b) I remember one person (who shall remain nameless) in the “powers that be” category saying that people are text messaging each other during games so why not make that part of our jobs? My counter argument to that is, “If that’s the case, why am I wasting my time covering the game?”
What is also even more laughable about the twitter craze is that you would think everyone prefers it but I can prove where that is not true. My Twitter and Facebook accounts are linked, meaning any update I did with the former would appear with the latter. Since St. Helena and Calistoga often played road games in remote locations, some people could not attend the game. I got numerous comments to the effect of, “Vince, thanks for keeping us updated.” My response was, “If you only knew my views on Twitter?” They almost universally replied with, “Hey, we’re fine only giving the score, we know you’re busy covering the game.”
My goodness, it is refreshing to hear people that talk sense.
I could never be a twit that tweets too much.
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