Learn how to mine social media to create a digital dossier, create crowdsourcing strategies to search for sources or story ideas, develop a plan for listening to your audience and producing engagement journalism, and use social media to understand audience trends. These slides, presented by Julie Patel Liss and Seth Liss at Fresno NewsTrain, are accompanied by a handout: Social-media reporting tools, by Sona Patel. Investigative reporter Julie Patel Liss heads the journalism program at California State University, Los Angeles. Seth Liss is the deputy director for audience at the Los Angeles Times. Sona Patel is director of community at The New York Times. For more information about the News Leaders Association's NewsTrain, please see https://www.newsleaders.org/newstrain.

1. Using Social Media as Powerful
Reporting Tools
● Julie Patel
Liss | Cal
State LA
● Seth Liss |
LA Times
● Sona Patel |
NYT
Using Social
Media
for Reporting

2. Seth co-manages the
audience engagement
team at the L.A. Times,
including newsletters,
Julie runs Cal State
LA’s journalism
program, produces
investigative
projects,
and
advises
student
media.
SEO,
and off-
platform
partner-
ships

3. How can
social media
help you tell
a story?

4. What you’ll learn today
1. Search social
media
2. Create a social
dossier
3. Listen on social
media
4. Crowdsource

5. 1. Search on social
media

6. How can
social media
help you tell
a story?

7. What
one word
should journalists add to Twitter
searches?

8. “Me”
“My” or “I”

9. Finding personal stories on Twitter

10. How to find personal stories on Twitter
● Hasidic
● Flight
● Sit
● Me (my)

11. Finding personal stories on Twitter
Me/Myself/I. That obviously must be
combined with other words. Like what?
● Injuries
● Damage
● Dead bodies
● Port-au-Prince
● Ambulance
● OMG/WTF

12. Finding personal stories on Twitter

13. Finding
personal
stories
on
Twitter

14. Finding personal stories on Twitter
The Metro North
train has derailed.
What words would
you search at
https://twitter.com/
search-advanced?

15. Finding personal stories on Twitter
Workplace event:
● “My works there”
‒ “My sister
works there.”
All catastrophes:
● “I’m safe”
● “I’m OK”
● “I’m okay”
● OMG/WTF

16. How have you used
social media to report?

17. What was Facebook Graph Search?
● Graph Search allowed anyone to search a wealth of
public data on the platform in specific ways
● Facebook’s new search feature returns far fewer
results.
● The smallest time frame you can search is a month

18. How to search
Facebook
● Need some who’s
been to a business?
Check a page’s
reviews/comments.
● Look at comments
on Fan page. Send
private messages
using Messenger. Or
send friend requests.
● Search handles on
other platforms, too.

19. Try a Google
search:
site:twitter.com
inurl:lists keyword
or “phrase”

20. Then, try a Twitter search:
twitter.com/search-advanced

21. Create Twitter lists of experts
● Search
Google for
others’ lists.
● Monitor
lists using
TweetDeck
or Hootsuite

22. Let’s
practice!
Search on Google for a
relevant Twitter list about
something you recently
reported on:
site:twitter.com inurl:lists
keyword or “phrase”
Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash

23. Get a list of a user’s tweets
● Allmytweets.net
gives you a
comprehensive list
of a user’s tweets
● Search quickly
without waiting for
tweets to load

24. How to use LinkedIn
● Advanced search: Find current and former employees
● Message anyone outside of your network using InMail
● Find employees to react to news (Ex. Starbucks unionizing)
● LinkedIn for Journalists training: 1-hour webinar for one free
year of Premium

25. IFTTT: for
extracting
and
saving
social
data

26. 2. Create a social dossier

27. Facebook chatter: 2017 Fort
Lauderdale airport shooting

28. Stalk someone you’re interested in!
Who are their friends and colleagues?
Where did they work? Where have they
lived?
One example:
facebook.com/danielvictor

29. 3. Listen on social media

30. How and where to listen
● Scroll through
your feeds.
Create a
dummy
account.
● Check Twitter
lists often.

31. How and where to listen
● Sign up for
subscriptions on
Google Trends
● Use Google Forms
to collect answers
● Try paid promotion

32. How and where to listen
● Scroll through your feeds.
Create a dummy account if
you don’t want people to
know you’re following them.
● Use Twitter lists. Check
them often.
● Monitor CrowdTangle
● Use Google Forms to collect
answers
● Paid promotion
● Google Trends (sign up for
daily alerts)

33. CrowdTangle

34. Newswhip (paid)

35. Dataminr (paid)

36. Let’s practice! To find a subreddit, use:
1. reddit.com search OR
2. Google search:
“[keyword] subreddit.”
Let’s
practice! Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash

37. 4. Crowdsource

38. Crowdsourcing for stories

39. Reader-submitted stories

40. Crowdsourcing for content

41. Reader-submitted stories

42. Engagement reporting

43. Reader-submitted ideas

44. Reader-submitted ideas

45. Engagement reporting

46. Callouts: don’t spread rumors

47. Callouts: skip general hashtags

48. Callouts
● Be specific about what you want
● Keep requests simple
● Explain how you will use contributions
● Give incentives
● Cast a wide net and often

49. Callouts: Google Forms work
● Everyone knows
how to use them.
● Get detailed info.
● People “opt in” to
become sources.

50. Feed your form into a map
mapalist.com

51. Let’s practice! 1. Pick a topic (or beat)
and create a callout
for it.
2. What are some
questions to ask?
Let’s
practice! Photo by Jonathan Chng on Unsplash

52. What do you
want to try
first?
Julie Patel Liss:
jliss@calstatela.edu
@juliepatel
@julievpatel
Seth Liss:
seth.liss@latimes.com
@sliss33
@sethliss
@sliss
How can we help?
Slides and handout:
bit.ly/fresnonewstrain