Overview
- Short write on crowdsourcing
- Today: We will review online articles that provide tips on social media for journalists, PR, and advertising careers.
- Review Blog Post 6 Live Tweeting Assignment.
- For Friday [Zoom]: Guest Lecturer, Anna Rader, Digital Media Manager at Wyoming Public Media
- Next Week:
- MW. Self-Paced Classes: Live tweeting practice on a speech on YouTube + Social media management in-class assignment
- Fri. Zoom Class: Information Visualization
✨In-class activity: short-write on crowdsourcing
🎉Today, we are moving onto the unit of Social Media for Journalism and Strategic Communication. After reading Ch.2 & Ch.3, hope you are ready to engage a few questions about crowdsourcing. Let’s get started with a short-write.
🚩How to participate: Go to Wyocourses 👉 Scroll down a little and find the module “In-Class Activities” 👉Find the assignment page “4/8 Short Write on Crowdsourcing“
🚩Questions:
- What is the difference between crowdsourcing and open-source reporting?
- How could you use crowd-powered collaborations in your future media job?
- What is the value of open-source reporting?
💡How Social Media is Used by the Big Three Media Fields
Social media is for you. The aspiring journalist, sports writer, marketing executive, advertising director, or public relations manager, all of these fields rely on social media now.
You can use social media:
- To help you create a presence and voice
- To promote your stories or your products
- To search for story ideas and sources
- To network with others in your field
- To engage with your audience, start a conversation
No doubt, social media is changing our media world.
🚩Now, let’s read this report about the role of social media sites and what the public thinks about social media (Pew Research Center). Click HERE.
- Note that this is relevant to journalists and strategic communicators because it shows what the public thinks about various social media platforms for information.
✒️In-Class Activity: Peer Discussion (via Wyocourses)

During this activity, you will share thoughts with like-minded peers about the tips of working with social media in different media fields.
🚩What to do:
- Review as many links in your chosen section as possible. Choose one section (journalism, PR, or advertising sections below) to review carefully.
- Share 3 things that you’d like to share with the peers about what you learned from reading these articles in your section.
🚩How to participate:
- Go to Wyocourses 👉 Scroll down a little and find the module “In-Class Activities” 👉 Click the page “4/8 Peer Discussion about Social Media“
- Self sign-up one of three discussion groups (Journalism & Social Media; Public Relations & Social Media; Advertising & Social Media) according to the section you have chosen to review earlier.
- Submit 3 INDIVIDUAL posts on the discussion page you just self sign-up. In each post, write down one thing about what you learned from reading the articles in your section.
- Like three posts. Use the “Liking” button to find the most popular things in your discussion group. This is why it is important to post your 3 things as 3 individual posts in the last step. If there aren’t enough posts to like, you can finish this step at a later point today.
- Check back the page before Friday’s class and see the ranking result.
As you read, keep in mind: your desired career path (i.e., what companies you may want to work for) and your desired content field (e.g., agriculture, entertainment, politics, etc.). How can you directly relate this advice to your own goals? –> Doing this simple exercise will help make solid connections and lessons that will stick beyond this class.
✨Journalism
- Facebook for Journalists and Digital Courses for Journalists: Tips from Facebook about how to use Facebook effectively as a journalist
- Twitter for Journalists: Tips from Twitter about how journalists can use the platform
- Snapchat for Journalists: A beginner’s guide to Snapchat for journalism
- Instagram for Journalists: Tips from the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit leader in journalism education
- Instagram Stories Tips: Tips from the International Journalists’ Network about how to use Instagram Stories to share and promote content
- When journalists delete tweets, they may be erasing the first draft of history: This story discusses the ethics questions, “Should journalists delete their tweets? Should news organizations be archiving and documenting their journalists’ social media use?”
✨Public Relations (See Advertising below for more related content)
- 7 of the Best Social Media Campaigns (And What You Can Learn From Them)
- 12 under-the-radar Instagram writing tips brands should use
- The NBA’s China crisis is another reminder of the dangers of Twitter for corporate leaders: How does this story’s lessons translate to a more local or regional company and its social media use?
- Three Ways Social Media Works for Public Relations
✨Advertising (See PR above for more related content)
- Facebook’s Getting Started with Campaign Planner: Familiarize yourself with how to create an ad campaign on Facebook
- 5 Successful Social Media Campaigns You Can Learn From: Provides examples of ad campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and why they were successful
- Report: Just under 400 brands ran video ads on Snapchat Discover channels in past 3 months: Discusses what brands are advertising on Snapchat and why
- Snapchat video ads outperform other social media platforms: Discover why Snapchat video ads are more effective
Social Media is for Everyone

Even if you don’t personally enjoy social media, social media will (likely) inevitably be something your future employer expects of you — and maybe even relies upon you — to manage.
In this field of media, it is your responsible to keep up-to-date on the latest methods of collecting information, distributing information, and conversing with audiences about information.
Remember that you aren’t alone. There are many free resources online that you can use to improve your digital media literacy skills. Here are just a few:
- Google News Lab
- Facebook and Instagram for Business and Marketing
- Facebook for Journalists
- Poynter’s News University (Free and Reasonably Priced Online Courses for Journalists)
If there’s one lesson to take from this class, let it be: Don’t let technology intimidate you. You can do this. It’s trial and error for nearly everyone in the media industry. Seek out help and resources from others, online and offline.
👓Review Blog Post 6 Live Tweeting Assignment
Now, please download and review the document “Blog Post 6 – Live Tweeting Project” through Wyocourses.
I changed many things about this assignment to adapt to our current learning and societal situation. Even though some of the content in the instruction may no longer sound very relevant, it is still largely useful for learning about live tweeting.
Please read through the document and let me know if you have any questions. You should start thinking about what “live event” you want to report on in this week.
💡Next Time (4/10 Friday):
- Although this time, for Friday, we don’t need to submit discussion questions beforehand for the guest speaker, I’d like to encourage you to think about the relationship between journalism/media and public crisis, especially considering these ongoing difficult times.