As journalism has evolved throughout history, so have the ways in which audiences engage with the news. Through a few clicks, tweets, likes, and scrolls, it is now easier than ever for individuals to connect with the material that is reported and the person who reported it. With this comes a great opportunity to make human connections and listen to the voices in your audience to build community, find spaces for discussion, and tell stories that your audience values. With engagement playing a bigger role than ever before in journalism, join me as I explore different methods of engagement and practice the multimedia skills that I have learned throughout this semester.
THE RSJ PODCAST
In the RSJ Year One Podcast, our instructors Nicole Blanchett and Sally Goldberg Powell tackled the topic of engagement and methods to make engagement more effective. Take a listen to the audio excerpt of the podcast below where Nicole discusses the importance of loyal readers.
While analytics are important to figuring out who is in your audience, as Nicole describes, it is about distinguishing between who found your articles on social media and who is a loyal reader that comes back for content constantly. Making unique content plays a huge role in transforming occasional readers into your long-term audience. Creating a strong relationship with your audience is one part of how audience engagement can make for better journalism.
NEWS OUTLETS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
With people constantly on social media, news outlets are broadening their approach by having more of a presence on social media’s most popular apps like Twitter and Instagram. To find out more about how news outlets are using social media for engagement, I followed the Vox Twitter account to see what they post throughout the day and how that could affect how their audience engages with them. Vox tweeted consistently throughout the day, so check out three examples of what they posted on Dec. 8 below.
Vox uses a variety of types of Tweets to promote audience engagement by tweeting about a diverse number of topics from the news in Congress to how to keep your houseplants alive, as well as by promoting their own content. They are not only very active on Twitter and often retweet comments or tweets from their journalists, but also appeal to different audiences through the content they are tweeting about.
As you’ll notice above, the tweets I am using as examples are all very different. In the first tweet, Vox posts a cheeky tweet about getting a hobby during winter and links that to a news article (with an equally silly headline) published by Vox. This shows a more casual side of Vox that can appeal to readers, while still appearing professional. In the second tweet, they are promoting a new podcast created by Vox about the new Biden administration, which they link to in the thread. Then finally in the third tweet, they link to a Vox article about the first people to get the COVID vaccine. These tweets not only promote Vox’s publications but also appeal to different audiences due to their casual, yet informative approach.
According to the Vox website, the news organization has the main goal to “explain the news” to its readers. The tweets above correlate with this message by using simple, casual language that would make viewers more likely to click on their articles and continue going back to Vox to read the news. Twitter leaves opportunities for audiences to comment, like, retweet, and click on links which all serve to engage the Vox audience.
HOW EFFECTIVE ARE INSTAGRAM STORIES?
Instagram stories are also a great way to engage with your audience and promote your work. Check out an Instagram story mock-up I created based on my photojournalism story below:
Image One: Toronto streetcar with a blurry image of a street in the background.
Image Two: Backshot of a woman walking into front doors of an empty subway station on a rainy day.
Image Three: Disembodied hand holding a phone with a blank screen.
In these images, I tried using a variety of tools for engagement, as well as choosing images that would appeal to my audience and relate to what I am promoting. In the first graphic, I asked my audience to think about their experiences by asking a yes or no question and paired that with an appealing image of a TTC streetcar. In the second graphic, I give an example of what my story includes and link to my story in the post. In the final graphic, I use the space to link to my Twitter account and the homepage of my blog. By doing this, I created multiple opportunities for audience engagement and promoting my work by asking a question that the audience can actually answer, linking to the story while also giving a sample of what the story is like, and leaving opportunities for the audience to reach out to me through social media.
Through methods like these, Instagram stories can allow you to get your audience thinking by asking questions, while also leaving opportunities for them to reach out to you and check out your work, which is key in building trust with readers. Instagram stories are one great way that social media can help you build a connection with your audience.
OTHER METHODS
Through research, I was also able to discover a variety of other ways to involve your audience without just using social media. One way that came up in multiple articles such as in News Literacy 2018’s New Strategies for Reader Engagement, is the platform Hearken which is now a widely used platform for engagement. According to the article, Hearken aims to promote reader engagement by involving the audience in reporting and story pitches, as well as gathering information about who the audience is through votes, polls, and reader-generated stories. This is just one way to gain insight into the metrics of the audience, as well as building a relationship with the audience.
Another great method for engagement is showing the “behind the scenes” of journalism. According to the International Journalists’ Network’s Five ways journalists can engage their audiences in storytelling, by showing audiences what journalism is actually like, they are more likely to understand why paying for news is necessary to create quality journalism. A recent Reuters study found that most people are not willing to pay for their news, so by showing audiences the work that goes into creating a news story, journalism institutions are more likely to build a transparent and loyal relationship with their readers.
Journalists can use a variety of tools, from social media to metrics, to gain more insight into audience engagement. The Conversation’s Journalism needs an audience to survive but isn’t sure how to gain its loyalty details just this conundrum. While some newsrooms are using digital metrics to learn more about their readers (such as what they like and dislike) and which stories got the most reads, other newsrooms are getting in touch with the audience by holding discussions with journalists and the public about what stories they want to hear. Some newsrooms are taking opposite approaches to engage with audiences, but there is no clear “right” method to use. While there are many different ways to engage with the audience, I found one clear similarity between the articles: ultimately, audience engagement means creating a strong and transparent relationship with the public.
SO JUST HOW IMPORTANT IS AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT?
Overall, researching this article has taught me that audience engagement plays a major role in journalism. One of the most important takeaways is to create a loyal relationship with your audience to keep them coming back for your content. By looking at how a news organization uses social media, creating my own Instagram story, doing research, and learning about engagement in the RSJ podcast, I learned just how important audience engagement really is. You can learn so much about your audience through engagement, and not just through analytics. Social media is a great way to engage with your audience and promote your work, such as through Instagram stories which I explored by making my own. Even more unique methods include using platforms like Hearken to host discussions and show the “behind the scenes” of journalism. There is no doubt that audience engagement makes for better journalism and you can find your own unique way to do so.