Teaching Social Media Skills to Journalism Students

Abstract

Social media is rapidly become deeply ingrained as part of the journalistic process, and in some cases is replacing traditional journalism as a means for distributing news. To effectively teach journalism at the university level, we must incorporate social media as both a learning tool and a subject for examination in our classes. This chapter looks at three areas that should be incorporated in teaching journalism. The first is media literacy and social media. The chapter examines the tools and critical thinking needed to distinguish reliable from unreliable information before it is passed on to a news audience. The second is the use of social media as a tool for gathering information. The chapter looks at how social media can be used to make and maintain contacts, dig for unique and impactful stories, and use your social media contacts to improve and enhance your reporting. The third is how to effectively use social media to distribute information, and the pitfalls that can occur when your personal use of social media conflicts with your professional life as a journalist. Each section of the chapter ends with exercises teachers can use with students to hone their social media skills.

Citation

Roth, G. (2011), "Teaching Social Media Skills to Journalism Students", Wankel, C. (Ed.) Teaching Arts and Science with the New Social Media (Cutting-Edge Technologies in Higher Education, Vol. 3), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 127-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-9968(2011)0000003010