Futures Lab update #29: Curating social media and adopting a startup mentality

This week explore ways newsrooms can curate social media content, and we get some advice on how to think like a tech startup.

PART 1: Social media curation

Online tools like RebelMouse, Storify and ScribbleLive can help turn social media fragments into useful journalism and enable newsrooms to connect and engage with their communities in new ways. We hear about the possibilities from Baltimore Sun Community Coordinator Michael Gold, Al Jazeera America Social Media Editor Jared Keller and FreePress.net Public Media Campaign Director Josh Stearns.

Reporting by Chelsea Stuart.

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A few examples:

Storify:

• FreePress.net tracked the arrests of journalists throughout the Occupy Wall Street protests around the country from 2011-2011.


• Al Jazeera uses Storify to collect material for its show The Stream.

RebelMouse:

• Time magazine used RebelMouse to track what their users had to say about their 2012 Person of the Year, President  Obama.


• ProPublica uses RebelMouse to showcase an ongoing collection of watchdog reporting.


• More examples of RebelMouse being used for specific stories like the East Coast blizzard and Fashion Week can be found in this piece from the Poynter Institute.

ScribbleLive:

• Margarita Noriega of Reuters kept a live blog throughout this year's raising of the Costa Concordia Italian cruise ship that capsized in 2012.


• Al Jazeera is using ScribbleLive to power ongoing reporting on places like Syria, Egypt, etc.

PART 2: Thinking like a startup

Reynolds Fellow Chris Shipley has covered the technology industry and as executive producer of the DEMO conference helped startups bring their products to market. She says journalists could make their work appeal more to their audiences by adopting the kind of consumer-focused mentality that drives many successful new ventures.

Reporting by Teddy Nykiel.

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For more information about Shipley's work as a Reynolds fellow, see this article.
 

Reuben Stern  
 
Director – New York Program

Reuben Stern is the Futures Lab’s deputy director. In addition to overseeing other projects, he hosts and co-produces the weekly Futures Lab video update.