Inside the mind of a Deputy Social Media Editor

Matthew Keys, Deputy Social Media Editor at Reuters in New York  kindly responded to my Twitter request for a chat. Here he shares some musings on emerging social media tools, audience engagement and the ever-changing face of journalism.

Could you describe your average day as Deputy Social Media Editor at Reuters?

From the time I wake up in the morning to the time I go to sleep, my mind’s on the news. When I get into the newsroom I turn on TweetDeck, where I have several Twitter lists set up to monitor news brands and other journalists, and Eikon (Thomson Reuters’ proprietary terminal program, which is how we read our wire). I post some of our top news stories to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Google Plus throughout the day, while monitoring the wire for any breaking news. When news breaks, I move it from the wire to our social accounts as fast as possible. If I notice an interesting or breaking news story from an eyewitness or another news organization, I send a tip to the editor in our newsroom so they can investigate the story further.

What social media tools let you engage and connect the best with your audience?

For Twitter, I’ve found TweetDeck to be really valuable for monitoring and publishing on Twitter. I didn’t use TweetDeck before I joined Reuters because I felt it would be a bit overwhelming, but after making the switch, I feel I wouldn’t be able to do my job without it. We post directly to Facebook, Google Plus and Tumblr, publishing content and engaging with our audience when it’s appropriate.

Do you consider your role in social media as journalism?

I have two roles as a social media editor: the first is to act as a broadcaster of information from our newsroom to our social platforms, and the second is to act as a receiver of news and information from the various social platforms, which I turn around to our editors and other newsroom staff for possible stories. I’m a middle man between our newsroom and the social platforms.

I think I play one role in the journalism process, but I don’t think it’d be fair to say it’s the whole package. Journalism, to me, is the finished product. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think a tweet is journalism. A TV news story is journalism, an article is journalism, a radio broadcast is journalism, but a tweet is part of the journalism process. Maybe, as the social platforms evolve, it will become the whole package, but I don’t think we’re there yet.

What are the main challenges facing you in your role?

Twitter, Facebook and the other social platforms are great conduits of information, but occasionally they can also be great conduits of misinformation. It’s important to come up with a game plan for verifying the information and content, like photos and videos, that comes down those pipes, and it’s equally important to keep that strategy of verifying legitimate content fresh- as journalists get smarter, so will the pranksters. As an industry, we’ll never solve the problem 100%- journalists have been duped before, they will be duped in the future. There’s no way to completely eradicate false information, but at the very least we can try to prevent legitimizing it.

What career path did you take to reach your current role?

I was a blogger for several years in Sacramento, California. A reporter at a local television station would read my blog for story ideas. One day, he invited me to take a tour of their newsroom, where I met several people on their news staff, including the reporter’s executive producer. A year later, that executive producer became the news director of another television station. I was his first hire- as a web producer for Sacramento’s FOX affiliate.

After two years, I was laid off, but during my period of unemployment I leveraged Twitter and Tumblr to report on my own- driving to the scene of breaking news stories in my area, paying out of pocket for software, writing fourteen to sixteen hours a day. During that time, I caught the eye of a guy who worked at Reuters and a few months later, I wound up at the ABC television affiliate in San Francisco, again working as a web producer. A position opened up at Reuters, and the guy who had been following my work offered to hire me. After a year in San Francisco, I ended up in New York.

How large is Reuters’ social media and community management team and is it expanding?

There are two people in New York who work exclusively on the social product- my boss Anthony De Rosa, and myself. Anthony and I are the main people working on the editorial social media presence for Reuters. Our parent company, Thomson Reuters, has a few social media people as well who are focused mainly on promotion of our company and its products. We also have staff in London, UK and Bangalore, India who contribute to our social products when Anthony and I are off-shift (read: asleep).

How do you think the relationships between news publications/agencies and their audiences will change in the near future and what impact do you think this will have?

Social media platforms will help journalism get back to its roots, where journalists aren’t celebrities but instead conduits of information. The relationship between the general public and newsrooms will be re-defined- the wall that’s existed for the past 100 years or so between the public and newsrooms will come down.

Celebrity journalists will cease to exist when readers look at our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds and see that we’re just people too (yes, we watch cat videos and play ‘Words with Friends’ at work too, even if we’re on deadline).When that humanizing effect starts to happen, I think you’ll see fewer journalists wearing suits and ties in an attempt to impress the viewing audience, and more reporters wearing jeans and sneakers. I think a stronger trust will develop between the audience and the newsroom. People have always gravitated more toward human beings, and pushed away from robots (this is why none of us like those robotic menus when we’re on the phone), and I think the more ‘real’ journalists act on these new platforms, the more they will attract people.

Opinions given are Matthew’s own and not those of Reuters.

Interview by Jess Denham.

Jess Denham

Website

Interactive Journalism MA student at City University London. Blogs at jessdenham.net and tweets @jess_denham.

This author does not have any more posts.