(iverson's) currentbuzz

Building community isn’t automatic, nor easy.

By Doug Fisher, University of South Carolina

I recently got an e-mail inviting me to enroll in a seminar to teach me the “secrets of social networking” for news organizations. Let me save you the money and time: it’s hard work. There’s no real secret, but it takes lots of time and a mindset sharply shifted from that of the traditional news organization and journalist.

A lot has been learned from Hartsville Today [1], created by the University of South Carolina journalism school more than three years ago in partnership with a twice-weekly newspaper and with a New Voices grant from J-Lab. The site now has about 1,600 registered members in a market area of about 20,000, and far more people in the area visit the site regularly, based on our IP address logs.

We’ve settled our share of online fights, watched proudly when a person’s posting about a local problem grew into a solution, been dismayed when someone left saying the site was “too negative,” and helped the newspaper start learning how to use digital media to interact with and reach its community.

“Social media” now is morphing into the even broader concept of “user experience,” or “UX,” Cindy Royal wrote after the recent South by Southwest interactive conference [2]. It’s an outgrowth of the idea that news is a conversation, and that, as Royal writes, “News is as much about what your friends are doing right now as it is about the latest national or international story.”

So, a few of those money-saving “secrets”:

It takes time and patience: Lots of it. This may be a hurdle for those used to doing today’s story and moving on to tomorrow’s, or for those focused on this quarter’s profits. For instance, YourHub, the Denver-based “citizen-journalism” site that at one time rolled out to numerous E.W. Scripps papers, suffered in some cities because managers thought they could just turn it on and let it run, former editor Travis Henry told the American Copy Editors Society last year.

Hartsville Today, where I am the principle investigator, started with two stringers whose job was not only to seek out items the newspaper couldn’t get to, but also to encourage others to join and participate. We have been fortunate that one in particular, Jana, still heavily contributes stories and photos and helps answer others’ questions. Without a Jana, you’re going to have to create one, as Northwest Voice, one of the first of the “citizen journalism” efforts, found out early on [3].

In short, patience, promotion, and help – and don’t expect that to change no matter how old or big your community gets.

One size does not fit all: Hartsville Today is built on “community news” posted by members and feedback from others, but that’s just one model. Facebook and MySpace are the most famous social interaction models, blogs can be social media sites if comments are allowed and the author responds, and even the venerable discussion board has a role. Using Ning, [4] almost anyone can instantly create an online community. Twitter is the social media topic of the month. Rachel Happe, who writes “The Social Organization” site, recently listed 20 social media tools she uses [5]. Yes, she calls it “insanity” and notes that most people will simply use Facebook or a Google account because it is simpler. But that doesn’t mean those are the best solutions for the community you want to form.

Is every community in your city the same? Then why should the cookie-cutter approach work online, where community might be geographic or just as easily a community of interest? This gets back to the manufacturing mentality in most newsrooms – stamping out largely identical newspapers or newscasts day after day.

It’s no longer a command and control world: The mode of most news organizations is the kiss of death in online communities.

The journalist’s first instinct might be to pull down the post that is insensitive, or off-color. Discover that a local politician has created “sock puppets” (pseudonymous accounts that reference each other to create support for a person or idea, for instance), and the journalist is likely to want to expose the miscreant and maybe issue a stern admonition.

But in most online communities, you are not dealing with journalists. Imagine the result if the microphone were snatched away from someone at a public meeting just because a person in authority did not like what they were saying. Do it once and there may be murmurs of dissatisfaction, but keep doing it and the crowd may well end up on the antagonist’s side.

The reaction is likely to be even swifter online where shutting someone down reminds everyone else you can do it to him or her, too. Instead, you might have to start with a back-door warning, and if it continues, let the community know there is a problem, all without naming the person or taking down the posts. Finally, if that doesn’t work, you might resort to the nuclear option.

In some hours, you might be a coach. In others, you might be soothing bruised feelings. In a few, you actually can be an editor. Community building takes skills sometimes in short supply in media organizations. Developing them may not be easy; two years later, the news staff at the Hartsville Messenger was still struggling with how to effectively use Hartsville Today [5 (PDF)].

The Web is malleable: No longer is it put in the assembly line (the press) and make everything adapt to it. Now, it’s listen and adjust. It doesn’t mean you have to pander, but it does mean a lot of people in your community – physical or digital – know as much, if not more, than you do. And, more of them now expect a way to have their say. You can help them have it, or you can probably watch them go somewhere else.

[1] www.hvtd.com
[2] Cindy Royal (May 13, 2009). “Making media social: news as user experience.” Online Journalism Review. Accessed May 15, 2009, at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/croyal/200905/1723/
[3] “Northwest Voice: Behind the Scenes.” (July 16, 2004) Accessed May 15, 2009, at http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/001487.php
[4] http://www.ning.com
[5] Rachel Happe. (March 8, 2009). “The future of the social web.” Accessed May 18, 2009, at http://www.thesocialorganization.com/2009/03/the-future-of-the-social-web.html
[6] Douglas J. Fisher. (September 2008). “Building community online: A twice-weekly’s experience extending its reach with the Hartsville Today citizen-based news site.” Presented at the 14th annual Newspapers and Community Building Symposium. Available at Grassroots Editor, http://www.mssu.edu/iswne/grpdfs/winter08.pdf

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