Andy Carvin Talk on Using Social Media to Report Stories
Real State of TV News
Federal Communications Study on Information Needs of Communities


Andy Carvin, NPR senior strategist

He started using Twitter in 2007. "For a while I used it to chat with people."

Then he spotted report of the Bhutto assassination on Pakistani TV.

He’s tried to apply Twitter to NPR.

He has used it for fact checking on Twitter about a debate, using 150-200 volunteers. Some would just call the candidates names, a few pointed out errors such as backed up by data on Page Number of OMB documents. They also used text and voice. Three of the contacts wound up being in stories live that night.

Then came #sidbouzid from Tunisia

He saw a tweet from Muhammad Bouazizi, who was going down the local police station to burn himself because authorities had demanded a $40 license (bribe) fee, for him to sell on the street because he was operating without a license. He was tired ot it.

After the self-immolation, people started communicating and the climate was ripe for revolt. Then there were photos of injured or killed protesters.

There were 300 people in Tunisia on Twitter at the time, and 2 million on Facebook.

Word of the protest spread like wildfire.

The Tunisian protesters did everything with social media, such as identifying sniper’s nests to others, directing where to go.

Bouazizi had ignited the Arab Spring.

He never lived to see what he had caused. He died three weeks later and the revolution was completed in four weeks.

A Tweet went out to the effect: "OK, Arabs, you’ve seen how it is done in Tunisia. Tag you’re it."

Hashtabs started showing up in different Muslim countries.

An example of how the Twitter connection worked: a mortar shell was found with the Star of David on it in Libya. Of course, Israel was getting blamed. Carvin had researchers check it out. They found a NATO designation of a six-pointed star show it was a star shell. So Israel was not delivering weapons to Gaddafi

Then there was the Gay Girl in Damascus. She was supposed to be an activist in Syria who put her stuff out on Twitter and got an English paper to write about her. Suddenly one day messages were going out no one had seen the Gay Girl in Damascus. Tweets went out surmising she had been kidnapped by security forces or was killed.

But the gay community started saying that no one knew her.

Turned out to be an American male Tim McMasters in Scotland, who went under the pseudonym because he thought no one would listen to a white male. He duped the newspaper by setting up appointments with the reporter and then not showing, later saying they were onto her and she couldn’t meet. The photo was of some woman on the Web.

It is an ideal way of covering if you can’t rely on a source on the ground or can’t get there.

People who follow you on Twitter are your best asset, Carvin said.

The Arab activists were aware that the government could track them. But they felt they were either going to be arrested, tortured or killed or win. They wanted to be remembered.

Example of how he used Twitter: NPR reporters were stuck in Tripoli basically under house arrest and sources were in Mizrahi. He got them together.

These sources were trusted and back each other up with photos.

If you get someone you’ve never heard of or someone who has been on Twitter for two days, that’s not a good sign.

Twitter can discuss things, create a rapport with people.

Twitter is like a block party, where Facebook is more like a row of nightclubs

With a bouncer outside. Some let you in some don’t

REAL STATE OF TV NEWS

Bob Papper of Hofstra University

2010 was the best year for TV news since 2006, before the housing debacle.

750 jobs gained, erasing loss of 2009 and made a dent in the loss of 2008

What has happened to newspapers hasn’t happened to TV news. That doesn’t it won’t happen in the future.

5.18 hours of local news on TV per weekday, the third year of increase

Salaries rose 7.3 percent

Top 25 went up a lot, 25-100 went up and 100+ went down.

Over three years, news anchors moved from 5^th, to 4^th to 2^nd highest paid in the newsroom

But starting pay in the business is $24,300

60 percent of TV stations have a cooperative agreement with another medium.

Only 2 small stations in MidWest don’t have websites.

TECHNOLOGY: FEAST OR FAMINE

Barbara Cochran

Steve Waldman, senior adviser to the Federal Communications Commission chairman

FCC study The Information Needs of Communities, released in June.

Why study? The problem going on in journalism and economics. It had implications for democracy.

Best for government to understand how the markets work.

Much less intervention.

Left two groups disappointed about the need for increase in funding for Corporation for Public Broadcasting and not addressing holding licenses for stations not providing enough news.

Local news is struggling mightily. Consuming more media, but less informed.. Increase in outlets, number of platforms, but fewer reporters doing certain kinds of reporting and more reporters doing different tasks

The study opted for public inspection, making actions of stations transparent online

Universal broadband, getting everyone on line is a crucial priority

Internet is not replacing jobs that are being lost.

There was an opportunity for TV to step in to the gap of shrinking coverage by newspapers: for example many papers no longer have social services reporters.

Cheapening the productand lowering standards inot the way to climb out of the hole