Читать книгу Feature Writing and Reporting - Jennifer Brannock Cox - Страница 27

In the age of social media, it seems hard to believe that information sharing was much more limited just 10 years ago. Before Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and numerous similar platforms, sharing news and information happened primarily in two ways: Readers shared the news they read informally through conversations with friends, family and co-workers, either in person or over the phone. But if the news was significant, more formal sharing methods were used, including town hall and community meetings scheduled to address issues.

News is still shared both formally and informally, but both approaches are much easier online. If readers want to share a story with a particular person, they can send it via email, text message or social media messenger. If they want to share the story with a whole community, they can post it publicly to social media, create a blog post referencing the story or communicate with others who are interested in the topic using online forums such as Reddit and Quora.

For reporters, the ease of sharing information brings good and bad news. It is easier to distribute news to larger audiences, but it can be harder to make an impact. Online competition comes not just from other media outlets but from friends, family and millions of strangers posting their own versions of events every day. Again, this is where feature writing and reporting has an edge. In-depth and interesting storytelling used in feature reporting can help journalists distinguish their work and make a lasting impression on audiences.