Social media use to promote U_News at 4

By Kelsey Alumbaugh

Social media has become an important part of the news. Journalists are tweeting links to their work and posting videos and pictures to Facebook to reach a broader audience.

It goes even further at KOMU’s U_News @ 4. The show is a compilation of views and opinions based on trending topics at the local, national and international level to provide a fresh perspective to the daily news.

A social media desk follows comments online about what people are saying about a particular topic to get peoples viewpoints to include in the show.

“The conversation is all day long. We post things on Facebook and twitter and follow the conversation all day, not just during the newscast,” said Sarah Hill, anchor of U_News @4. “We’re tweeting with viewers during the day and during the news. We get viewers involved on Facebook, Twitter, Google hangouts and on our website.”

One example is the “Caption it” contest, where viewers submit photos and one is picked and posted early in the day. One or two photos are usually shared from viewers each day. Viewers then submit captions for the photo. Captions are what the viewers participate in most. They are aired during the 4 o’clock hour, and the one with the most likes gets a “thumbs up” during the U_News broadcast. The U_News team has a few photos saved up for a rainy day in case none are submitted. Here is a link to one of the more popular “Caption it” photos: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150400786447557&set=pu.5939952556&type=1&theater

But Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus aren’t the only social media outlets U_News is using.

“We try to expand outside the box, more than just Facebook and Twitter,” said Jonathon Ketz, a Missouri School of Journalism student who works on the show. “One cool thing we’re trying to start doing is Storify—picture slideshows interactive way to show what people are talking about online. Especially with Twitter, comments don’t go right below. You can find a person’s story online through Storify so that you can just put them together and not see all the other comments you don’t care about.”

For instance, U_News created a Storify package that combined online news and social media comments following the arrest of Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. http://storify.com/komunews/gary-pinkel-arrested-for-dwi

U_News also uses social media to bring in the viewers’ experiences and perspectives related to the news and world around them. One example of U_News asking for viewer participation was on the last day of November when anchor Sarah Hill had viewers shave their beards they had grown for Movember during the show. http://www.komu.com/news/u_news-in-review-11-30-11/

A lot of the shows “talkable” topics come from producer Nathan Higgins and others on the staff looking for interesting stories found on different social media sites.

“The two social media anchors sit at the social media desks and peruse social media to find out what people are talking about now because that’s the best way to drive the conversation,” Higgins said. “We’re always looking for social media we can incorporate because that’s the best way to get people involved and interact with the show. Sometimes our issues will come from local stories, for example the school redistricting. Reporters will go out and get the story and we’ll ask questions about their stuff. We always toss it back here to the social media desk to see what’s being said online.”