Keeping up with social journalism

COLUMBIA, Mo. _ At The Daily of the University of Washington, the UW's student newspaper, we have a policy on staff members commenting on stories: Don't do it. 

I think The Daily started the policy after a few writers got into arguments with commenters. After that, no writers were allowed to comment on their own stories or any stories on our website. The Missourian's Joy Mayer would not approve of that policy.

Mayer, The Missourian's director of community outreach, talked to the 2014 Sports Journalism Institute class Tuesday about being social with our audience, whether it's in the comments, out in the community or on social media. It was a perspective that I had little experience with, but one that I think is valuable. 

I appreciated how The Missourian used social journalism to help create a more diverse and interesting product for their publication by embedding tweets and photos from fans directly to their website. I think allowing readers to produce some work for a paper is an easy and effective way to engage the community, and it also gives journalists an idea of what matters to people outside of the newsroom.

The Daily sends out information, encourages comments and responses, but rarely responds to the comments. If The Daily does respond, it does so through emails or in-person meetings. We start the discussion, but we also kill it prematurely. 

So of Mayer’s four points on engaging in social journalism, the principle of talking, listening and responding is one I have found can be very difficult to obey. Sometimes responding to old stories can seem like an insignificant thing, because by that time, you’re likely working on a new story. But responding to comments and keeping the discussion going after publication is an important and necessary piece to establishing a relationship with the community you serve.

_ Thuc Nhi Nguyen