Reportear en redes sociales

Al periodismo en internet se le han dado muchas miradas, especialmente cuando se discute su nuevo rol como emisor en un mundo sin propietarios y sin protocolos. Lo interesante es comenzar a mirar qué utilidad tienen, para los periodistas, los sitios de User Generated Content (UGC) y los que administran redes solciales. Según un estudio de Oppenheimer (The Digital Consumer: Examining Trends in Digital Media) sitios como Facebook y My Space se convirtieron en un atractivo fetiche para la industria de la entretención. Y también para los medios. Las redes sociales se multiplican y han abierto la puerta a contenidos que para los periodistas muchas veces estuvieron ocultos o en casilleros muy complejos de destrabar. La capacidad de llegar a nuevas fuentes, nuevas historias y nuevos contenidos están directamente determinados por sitios como Facebook. El siguiente artículo ejemplifica esta nueva manera de reportear y de conseguir una buena historia.

Por Jason Spencer

ajr.org.article

Blogs and blurbs, pics and posts--the contents of a single MySpace page can offer many glimpses into someone's life. These aren't just venues for hormone-driven kids or garage bands waiting to be discovered. All kinds of people--millions of potential news sources--are corralled into their own corner of the Web.

That's why journalists are finding that checking out MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites can pay big dividends.

Such sites allow people to post their likes, dislikes and heroes, their favorite books, movies and music, and journal-like blog entries about their lives. Users agree to acquire and be acquired as friends, instantly connecting to one another's networks. MySpace, which had more than 60 million unique visitors in August, has traditionally been the site of choice for high school students. Facebook (19 million unique visitors), which began at Harvard, has been the favorite of college students, although usage patterns may be changing.

As the popularity of these sites grows, so does their potential as virtual backgrounding tools. News researchers figure that if employers and police can use the sites to help do their jobs, why can't reporters?

Many journalists use such sites to track local men and women stationed in Iraq, although the Defense Department's decision earlier this year to restrict troops' access to MySpace and similar sites could hinder that in the future. But family and friends can (and do) maintain pages about their loved ones.