Moderated by Omar Gallaga, Austin American-Statesman journalist, tech culture writer, and a funny, funny man, panelists included:
- Chelsea Stark, web producer, Twitter lead for KEYE and video game champ
- Robert Quigley, Internet editor and the Twitter face for the Austin American-Statesman and a super nice guy
- Elise Hu, political reporter and blogger for KVUE and fellow dog-lover
- Elizabeth Stoddard, news editor for the Austinist who doesn't want her mother to follow her on Twitter
There were several questions they were hoping to answer:
- Some outlets are doing better jobs than others at adapting to the social media shift, particularly some in Austin, but is there still more they can do?
- What changes do mass media outlets need to make to survive, and what can they bring to the table that bloggers can't?
- How are members of the new guard getting changes made to their newsrooms, and what kind of resistance are they meeting?
- Are journalism schools preparing graduates to deal with the many forms of online journalism, or are they losing some relevance?
As Omar asked these and many other questions to the rest of the panel, a couple of key words emerged: agility and adaptability.
"Trying to evolve as social media grows" is key, said Elise. And the rest of the panel agreed. Newspaper readers and television viewers aren't going away. Social media just gives these news outlets a new mode of communication for reaching them. If they'll embrace it.
Statesman editors witnessed the power of social media during Hurricane Ike in September 2008. Robert created a Twitter account specifically for tracking the hurricane, an account that also pointed followers to the Statesman's coverage of the storm online, generating more than 300,000 hits from Twitter alone. Robert joked that those numbers got him a "play-on-Twitter-free pass" with his bosses. Since then, Robert has used Twitter to engage with followers and readers to create real-time weather maps and cute-dog galleries and to work directly with the community on breaking news stories.
Why the success?
"It's because I'm listening," Robert says. Getting involved in social media is not just about throwing your information out there; it's about conversation, and it works best if the conversation is a two-way street.
The folks on the panel – and most of us in the room – understand that. And for old media to truly rise from the grave, they'll need to grasp the concept as well.
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