Newsgathering & Monitoring on the Social Web

1. Newsgathering
& Monitoring
The Social Web
By: Dina Ali

2. TABLE OF
CONTENTS
• REDDIT
• SNAPCHAT
• 4CHAN/8CHAN
• GAB
• BITCHUTE

3. “Regardless of your beat or
area of focus, understanding
how to use the social web to
discover, monitor, and
research stories is AN
ESSENTIAL SKILL”.
Carlotta Dotto, a research reporter

4. REDDIT
More than 430 million monthly active users
and over 100,000 active communities

5. REDDIT
⊙ It is composed of different subreddits pertaining to
particular topics.
⊙ To find content, you can use the search function in the
top navigation bar and looking for key terms

6. REDDIT
⊙ For example, I will give you the top communities or
subreddits/ posts that include Suez Canal.
A basic search on Reddit using the keywords “Suez Canal”.

7. REDDIT
⊙ You can specify and narrow your search results,
including Boolean operators.
⊙ If you wanted to look for posts with CNN content, you
could search site:cnn.com.
⊙ Also find particular subreddits by navigating to
https://www.reddit.com/subreddits/search.

8. REDDIT
⊙ You can set filters on your results, such as sorting the
content by certain time frames OR popularity
By time frame
By popularity

9. CrowdTangle
works for
Reddit
Once you
customized your
lists you can set
up alerts to get a
top posts from
the last 24 hours
build lists of
subreddits:
Such as
/r/progressive,
/r/conservative
P.S. TrackReddit.com17 tool make you monitor the whole of Reddit for
specific keywords.
**it is only free for the first two.

10. SNAPCHAT
⊙More than 200 million users

11. SNAPCHAT
⊙It allows users to send short texts or video clips
and post some clips publicly as ‘stories’ and
available to search.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/technology/snapchat-redesign-social-media.html

12. SNAPCHAT
⊙Snap Map
1) Displaying the locations of posted material in a heatmap,
but not showing who posted it.
2) Newsworthy footage is occasionally posted to the map,
although it is impossible to reach the uploader
https://bgr.com/2018/02/12/snapchat-snap-map-web-browser-new-feature/

13. 4CHAN/8CHAN
Message boards

14. 4CHAN/8CHAN
⊙Message boards are good places to monitor for newsworthy
stories.
⊙it has gained notoriety over the years for becoming a breeding
ground for extremism, violence and conspiracy theories.
⊙Divisive hashtags, messages and internet hoaxes often originate
on message board
⊙In early August 2019 8chan was taken down from the publicly
accessible web. Back again to a new new 8kun

15. GAB
100,000 (estimated active) 4 million
(total) as of March 2021

16. GAB
⊙Very close functionality to Twitter
⊙Gab markets itself as a vehicle for free speech and doesn't crack down
on posts that would be considered hateful or containing false information.
⊙Now, after Facebook and Twitter banned President Trump from their
platforms following the US Capitol siege, many on the right are flocking to
sites like Gab
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-gab-social-media-platform
-free-speech-first-amendment-2021-1
https://fortune.com/2017/08/18/uncensored-social-network-gab-raises-1-million-in-crowdfunding-campaign/

17. BITCHUTE
A video-hosting site akin in many
ways to YouTube

18. BITCHUTE
⊙ Created to avoid the kind of content regulation rules in place on other
platforms
⊙ Emphasizes “free-speech”
⊙BitChute is doing little to remove hateful content
⊙You can set Keywords and filters on your results by last trending news,
popular ones and also can subscribe certain channels
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/alternative-social-media-platforms/392932/#close

19. References
https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2020/overview-key-findings-
2020/
https://firstdraftnews.org/latest/10-discovery-and-verification-tools-for-
newsrooms-on-a-budget/
https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/16-newsgathering-tools-every-
journalist-should-know-about/s2/a553718/
https://firstdraftnews.org/wp-
content/uploads/2019/10/Newsgathering_and_Monitoring_Digital_AW
3.pdf?x79527
https://firstdraftnews.org/wp-
content/uploads/2019/10/Newsgathering_and_Monitoring_Digital_AW
3.pdf

20. Thanks for
your time!