Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web

by Scott Karp · July 27th, 2009 · 68 Comments

Today we’re announcing a new Publish2 feature that helps journalists curate the real-time and social web — a HUGE value creation opportunity.

We call this “Social Journalism.”

What’s Social Journalism? It’s what you do when you gather information in social media channels and then report it to your readers. Watching a Twitter #hashtag for posts related to a critical local issue or big event, then publishing them in a roundup or sidebar on your news site? That’s Social Journalism. Scanning YouTube for the latest video from a protest, county fair, or city council meeting? That’s Social Journalism.

Why is Social Journalism a huge opportunity for journalists and news orgs?

As watershed events like #iranelection have demonstrated, Twitter, YouTube and other social media are now a tremendous source of on-the-scene reporting and real-time information, but there is also a tremendous amount of noise obscuring the signal.

As Ivor Tossell put it in The Globe & Mail ($):

We’ve seen this show before. Gonzo information on the Internet, film at 11. It’s a classic case of too much noise and too little filter. Nor is it incurable: various people and organizations have stepped into the breach to act as aggregators: bloggers like Andrew Sullivan and the staff of Global Voices Online spring to mind, as well as the New York Times and the Guardian, both of which have used running blogs to cobble the story together from its constituent parts and provide the context to make sense of it all.

Here are some examples of Social Journalism on the Iran Election (click on images to see posts):

New York Times Lede blog

Andrew Sullivan

The opportunity to curate the real-time web isn’t just for watershed international events. At the local level, people are using Twitter and other social media to bear witness and share information for events in their communities.

For example, earlier this month there was a huge fire at an apartment complex in Renton, Washington. PNWlocalnews.com used Publish2 to round up coverage of the fire, including photos posted on local blogs.

But there was also a a lot information that people on or near the scene were sharing on Twitter:

It would have been great to add tweets like this to the coverage round up of the fire. And now with Publish2’s Social Journalism features, you can do just that.

Simply view the tweet on the web (click the tweet timestamp on Twitter.com and in most Twitter clients), and then click the Link with Publish2 Bookmarklet:

(Click image to see larger.)

Publish2 saves the full text of the Tweet and the Twitter username. Short URLs, usernames, and hashtags are automagically converted to links. As with anything saved to Publish2, you can add a comment and tags, and also add to a newsgroup.

And… you can also share the tweet on Twitter, using Twitter’s native sharing mechanism: retweet. The tweet will automatically be formatted for retweet, and you can edit down the characters before saving and sending to Twitter.

You can then publish curated tweets using a widget or feeds. See an example in the sidebar to the right and on the Publishing 2.0 blog: What We’re Reading on Twitter

So now you can share retweets not just with Twitter followers but also with blog and site readers.

Social Journalism has clear value for breaking news, to curate what’s already being shared on the real-time web. But social media savvy news orgs are also prompting their communities to share their experiences with local events on Twitter.

The recent opening of a light rail system in Seattle prompted this on Seattle Times:

And sure enough, Seattle residents shared their experience with the lightrail opening on Twitter using the #ltrailday1 hashtag:

Another cool feature: Tweets with hashtags are automagically converted to Publish2 tags, making it easy to manage taxonomy (I’ve added some additional tags here):

(Click image to see larger.)

Here’s a roundup of interesting Tweets that I saved to Publish2:

Here’s a widget preview using Publish2’s widget creator (Tweets can be styled separately from comments):

Anyone can post a raw feed of a hashtag (or follow it themselves as a saved search), but that’s essentially pointing the fire hose at your readers. The real value is in helping your readers sip from that fire hose.

In addition to Twitter, our first release of Social Journalism also includes support for YouTube. Here’s a video ride along on Seattle’s light rail:

Which now plays on Publish2:

Twitter and YouTube links are saved along with your other Publish2 links, but you can easily filter them:

We’ve got lots more cool Social Journalism features in the works. Please give it a try and let us know what you think.

Who’s going to be first to curate the real-time web? Ping us on Twitter and we’ll shower you with attention.

UPDATE:

The first use of Publish2’s Social Journalism tools in the wild came out of the currently sweltering Pacific Northwest, where Paul Balcerak and the team at Sound Publishing put together this great page to aggregate both links and tweets about the heat wave:

ALSO: Be sure to check out this screencast to see Social Journalism in action.

Are you ready to curate the real-time web with Publish2?

UPDATE: WANT VIDEO IN YOUR WIDGETS? DONE.

You can now embed saved YouTube videos in Publish2 widgets:

Customize the width of the videos to fit the news site, sidebar, or story page where you embed your Publish2 widget.

Categories: Announcements

1 Comment 47 Tweets 5 Other Comments

68 responses so far ↓

1 Publish2 Blog: Introducing ’social journalism’ tools to Publish2 | Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog // Jul 28, 2009 at 3:39 am

[...] Full post at this link… [...]
2 Paul Balcerak // Jul 28, 2009 at 12:35 pm

This is absolutely great, Scott. I’m going to start experimenting with it today (I’ll post later once I get something going).
3 Paul Balcerak // Jul 28, 2009 at 1:54 pm

We’ve got a (possibly/probably) record-breaking heatwave happening over here in Western Washington. We’re running two Publish 2 widgets on one page—one to aggregate headlines and the other to curate Twitter updates. New stuff’s working great so far.
4 Old Forest, New Trees » Blog Archive » The four kinds of non-catastrophic breaking news, and why social media aren’t changing them // Jul 28, 2009 at 2:55 pm

[...] example of how Twitter, etc., is theoretically changing journalism seems to rely on extremely unusual tragedies, disasters or [...]
5 links for 2009-07-28 « Sarah Hartley // Jul 28, 2009 at 3:02 pm

[...] Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web » Publish2 Blog What’s Social Journalism? It’s what you do when you gather information in social media channels and then report it to your readers. Watching a Twitter #hashtag for posts related to a critical local issue or big event, then publishing them in a roundup or sidebar on your news site? That’s Social Journalism. Scanning YouTube for the latest video from a protest, county fair, or city council meeting? That’s Social Journalism. (tags: journalism tools socialmedia iran publish2 aggregation) [...]
6 links for 2009-07-28 | Joanna Geary // Jul 28, 2009 at 5:06 pm

[...] Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web » Publish2 Blog "What’s Social Journalism? It’s what you do when you gather information in social media channels and then report it to your readers." (tags: journalism) [...]
7 Ujjwal Acharya // Jul 29, 2009 at 5:44 am

Interesting. I am quite interested to see how far this goes to help journalists.
8 Connected via Social Media : The Radiant Star // Jul 29, 2009 at 7:47 am

[...] How journalists can use all these connections effectively? That many are looking the answer for and some technology to facilitate. The use of social media connections to aid journalistic works – coined by Publish2 – is social journalism. [...]
9 Screencast: Curate the Real-Time Web with Social Journalism from Publish2 » Publish2 Blog // Jul 29, 2009 at 3:37 pm

[...] Ready to curate the Real-Time Web with the new Social Journalism features from Publish2? [...]
10 Publish2 incorpora herramientas de “periodismo social” | Periodismo Ciudadano // Jul 29, 2009 at 7:21 pm

[...] con lo que han venido a llamar “Social Journalism”, la plataforma avanza en las capacidades de interacción entre el periodismo y los medios sociales, [...]
11 Friday Dose of social media: Curate the real-time Web | BeatBlogging.Org // Jul 31, 2009 at 11:26 am

[...] Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web — Publish2 released new tools to allow users to curate the real-time Web: What’s Social Journalism? It’s what you do when you gather information in social media channels and then report it to your readers. Watching a Twitter #hashtag for posts related to a critical local issue or big event, then publishing them in a roundup or sidebar on your news site? That’s Social Journalism. Scanning YouTube for the latest video from a protest, county fair, or city council meeting? That’s Social Journalism. [...]
12 links for 2009-08-03 « Glenna DeRoy // Aug 3, 2009 at 11:07 pm

[...] Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web » Publish2 Blog (tags: onlinejournalism socialmedia tools) [...]
13 Bookmarks for July 27th through August 6th by andydickinson.net // Aug 6, 2009 at 4:04 am

[...] Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web – "What’s Social Journalism? It’s what you do when you gather information in social media channels and then report it to your readers" – Journo link tool Publish2 announce more focused social media aggregation for their site. They call it a "HUGE value creation opportunity." [...]
14 The Briefing: Start at Y Combinator, finish at EveryBlock - Publishing 2.0 // Aug 17, 2009 at 4:56 pm

[...] with ease using Publish2, thanks especially to Social Journalism [...]
15 New Support for Social Journalism: Embed Saved Videos in Publish2 Widgets, Blog Posts, and WordPress Widgets and Pages » Publish2 Blog // Aug 20, 2009 at 10:40 am

[...] excited to announce new support for Publish2’s Social Journalism features. You can now embed saved videos in Publish2’s javascript widget and in WordPress posts, [...]
16 the rise of sort-and-report ii « the cloud and me // Nov 11, 2009 at 8:21 pm

[...] like this definition on the publish2 blog from the end of July this [...]
17 Ryan Sholin // Jul 28, 2009 at 7:58 am

We’ll be talking a lot more about this later today, but here’s a quick note for those of you that read these things over your coffee: We’ve launched a new feature in the Publish2 system to help you curate a stream of tweets, save them as a link, retweet some of them, and republish them in a widget. For those of you that hand-pick tweets about a given topic or breaking news story to run on your news site or blog, this should be wildly useful.

This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed
18 scottkarp // Jul 28, 2009 at 1:35 pm

Publishing a raw Twitter feed is pointing the fire hose at your readers. Real value is in helping them sip: http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
19 MarkMayhew // Jul 28, 2009 at 1:37 pm

reading a post by @publish2 “social journalism and curating the real time web” http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
20 brendanhodgson // Jul 28, 2009 at 1:38 pm

RT @scottkarp: Publishing a raw Twitter feed is pointing the fire hose at your readers. Real value is helping them sip: http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
21 paulbalcerak // Jul 28, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Testing out new @publish2 features (http://tr.im/urSv)—see “Twitter updates” column http://tr.im/urSa

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
22 trudywschuett // Jul 28, 2009 at 2:14 pm

@publish2 is becoming an indispensable tool for journalistic Web curation, check out their latest: http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
23 scottkarp // Jul 28, 2009 at 2:18 pm

RT @paulbalcerak Testing out new @publish2 features (http://tr.im/urSv)—see “Twitter updates” column http://tr.im/urSa

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
24 aaaliens // Jul 28, 2009 at 3:36 pm

Publish 2 : after Link Journalism, the social Journalism (curators) – blog Publish2 07/2009 ** : http://bit.ly/7HVl5

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
25 lyneka // Jul 28, 2009 at 5:05 pm

RT @moorehn Social journalism: an opp. for journos to do even lazier work by scanning Twitter for “reporting” purposes. http://bit.ly/anJ5E

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
26 nathanwrann // Jul 28, 2009 at 5:45 pm

@valleyindy did you see this? Might be useful. http://tr.im/upMZ

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
27 kensands // Jul 28, 2009 at 5:50 pm

I like what the @Publish2 guys are doing with Social Journalism tools. http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
28 palpitt // Jul 28, 2009 at 7:22 pm

RT @publish2 Introducing Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web with Publish2 – http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
29 RTjournalism // Jul 28, 2009 at 7:23 pm

RT @palpitt rt @publish2 introducing social journalism: curate the real-time web with publish2 – http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
30 earleyedition // Jul 28, 2009 at 9:15 pm

From @ryansholin’s @publish2 announcing new features.Social Journalism:Curating the Real-Time Web http://su.pr/2HtU9P

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
31 JulianneMiranda // Jul 28, 2009 at 9:35 pm

Interesting thoughts on Social Journalism http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
32 meliremo // Jul 28, 2009 at 10:12 pm

@scottkarp Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web http://bit.ly/dtiGv

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
33 UjjwalAcharya // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Social Journalism! Using twitter, youtube and other social media [for journalists] http://tinyurl.com/l955n6

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
34 NewsFromNepal // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:24 pm

RT @UjjwalAcharyaSocial Journalism! Using twitter, youtube and other social media [for journalists] http://tinyurl.com/l955n6

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
35 NewsFromNepal // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:25 pm

RT @UjjwalAcharya Social Journalism! Using twitter, youtube and other social media [for journalists] http://tinyurl.com/l955n6

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
36 JonasSandberg // Jul 29, 2009 at 3:25 am

Någon som prövat Publish2? NY Times kör det på sin teknikblogg Bits. Idag lanserar de stolt Social Journalism: http://tinyurl.com/mtjvrl

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
37 JohnEi // Jul 29, 2009 at 4:15 am

Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web – from @publish2 http://ow.ly/isLC I think this should be a useful tool to test for newsrooms

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
38 untergeekDE // Jul 29, 2009 at 5:31 am

Social Journalism (Netz-Neues in Echtzeit): Der Journalisten-Spezial-Bookmarkdienst publish2 liefert die Tools. http://bit.ly/fd1ru

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
39 webCH // Jul 29, 2009 at 8:23 am

Social Journalism – http://snurl.com/o7m1e

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
40 umairh // Jul 29, 2009 at 8:34 am

commentage awesomeness from scott karp http://bit.ly/7HVl5

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
41 mikeeisenberg // Jul 29, 2009 at 8:50 am

RT @umairh: commentage awesomeness from scott karp http://bit.ly/7HVl5. Agreed. a glimpse of the future of journalism

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
42 duivestein // Jul 29, 2009 at 8:54 am

Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web » Publish2 Blog http://ff.im/-5SuPn

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
43 scottkarp // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:33 am

RT @umairh commentage awesomeness from scott karp http://bit.ly/7HVl5 See Umair on nichepapers, commentage, and more: http://bit.ly/IaiPW

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
44 SameerPatel // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:43 am

Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web » Publish2 Blog http://ff.im/-5SCLX

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
45 georgedearing // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:45 am

Liked “Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web » Publish2 Blog” http://ff.im/-5SCLX

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
46 gioias // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:48 am

RT @GeorgeDearing: Liked “Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web » Publish2 Blog” http://ff.im/-5SCLX

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
47 brainopera // Jul 29, 2009 at 10:43 am

Scott Karp’s “Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web” http://bit.ly/anJ5E [Easier for journalists? No, more work to authenticate news]

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
48 cksample // Jul 29, 2009 at 11:01 am

sites (like this:http://bit.ly/WJepI) keep popping up with “new” social journalism, but it’s not new (ex:blogs & Netscape metajournalism)

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
49 kyle1point0 // Jul 29, 2009 at 5:11 pm

RT @Scott Karp’s “Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web” http://bit.ly/anJ5E (Could see a lot of benefits w/ this)

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
50 mathemagie // Jul 30, 2009 at 11:41 am

[reading] Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web > http://bit.ly/13kdrX #filtre #journalisme

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
51 JustinKownacki // Jul 30, 2009 at 4:25 pm

@RealTweeter Try http://bit.ly/W8gJy or http://convotrack.com/ or http://socialmention.com/

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
52 Jamie Favreau // Jul 30, 2009 at 11:29 pm

http://www.uemp.com
is another start up out of Detroit which is looking for collaboration as a way of doing journalism.

http://detroit.fwix.com is a website which aggregates blogs to form the latest news.

This comment was originally posted on Journalism 2.0
53 LLiu // Jul 31, 2009 at 3:02 pm

Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web http://bit.ly/3NPcUZ + http://bit.ly/aj7Zr = http://bit.ly/3gSrai (i.e. News 2.0)

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
54 Graham Osteen // Jul 31, 2009 at 8:16 pm

Good newspapers will continue to lead the way as the primary and most trusted providers of information if in the midst of this chaotic information revolution, we remain accountable, sensitive and responsive to the people of our communities.
I think of it as “viral buzz” on your television, computer or cell phone versus talking with people in person and reporting on the daily life of a community under the local newspaper’s trusted brand name – in print and online.
The (Sumter, S.C.) Item, for example, maintains a public trust that has been in existence for 115 years. We take that seriously, as have many generations of readers. Information is cheaper and more plentiful than ever, but a newspaper’s relationship with a community is built through the mutual experience of good times and bad. Like a family.
At the same time, we must understand how more people – not all people – are getting information in new and different ways. We as journalists don’t have to be experts on it all, but we must know what questions to ask in order to satisfy the growing expectations of existing readers and to gain new readers.
Good writing is at the heart of any successful publication, be it a newspaper, a novel, a blog or a screenplay. People will always respond to compelling stories and ideas.

This comment was originally posted on Journalism 2.0
55 Jamie Favreau // Jul 31, 2009 at 11:45 pm

I meant http://www.uwemp.com

I do agree… Quality content, from valid sources, will always over ride horrible content.

There just needs to be a meeting point. Where all can survive.

This comment was originally posted on Journalism 2.0
56 JojoPai // Aug 4, 2009 at 5:40 am

Reading…http://bit.ly/anJ5E #SocialJournalism

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
57 charlescade // Aug 4, 2009 at 7:43 am

Social Journalism http://bit.ly/7HVl5

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
58 pedrox // Aug 4, 2009 at 7:48 am

RT: @charlescade: Social Journalism http://bit.ly/7HVl5

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
59 SimaoC // Aug 4, 2009 at 8:13 am

@PauloQuerido RT @charlescade: Social Journalism http://bit.ly/7HVl5

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
60 pollner // Aug 6, 2009 at 4:19 am

Social Journalism: Curate the Real-Time Web >> Publish2 Blog http://ow.ly/jfgP

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
61 publish2 // Aug 8, 2009 at 1:58 pm

@robbmontgomery Start here: http://blog.publish2.com/examples or http://bit.ly/curate or http://bitly/p2wordpress for more answers. ^RS

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
62 publish2 // Aug 13, 2009 at 5:40 pm

Looking to curate video with Publish2’s Social Journalism tools? We’ve got your back: http://bit.ly/curatevideo

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
63 ryansholin // Aug 13, 2009 at 5:41 pm

RT @publish2: Looking to curate video with Publish2’s Social Journalism tools? We’ve got your back: http://bit.ly/curatevideo

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
64 paulbalcerak // Aug 13, 2009 at 5:42 pm

Awesome: Videos now embedded in @publish2 widgets http://bit.ly/3RCBj I started using @publish2 FT last week…it keeps getting better.

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
65 ryansholin // Aug 14, 2009 at 9:54 am

@mathewi @niemanlab Done and done. Use Publish2 to select your choice of tweets to embed in a widget. http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
66 lavrusik // Aug 14, 2009 at 10:00 am

RT@ryansholin @mathewi @niemanlab Done and done. Use Publish2 to select your choice of tweets to embed in a widget http://bit.ly/curate

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
67 huang // Aug 16, 2009 at 7:11 am

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This comment was originally posted on Publishing 2.0
68 daustralala // Aug 16, 2009 at 11:08 am

Social Journalism http://bit.ly/7HVl5

This comment was originally posted on Twitter