Too (Much) Social (Media)

I grew up without social media, and I'm glad I did. Middle school was tough enough without having to worry about it spilling over to the World Wide Web. The extent of my "social media" involvement before graduating high school was an online blogging site called Xanga, AOL instant messenger and the occasional chat room.

I joined Facebook the summer before I went off to college. That was back when all the site had to offer was wall posts, private messages, pokes and limited photo albums. I created a MySpace profile during my freshman year; it is now nonexistent. I started blogging here my senior year, but didn't really get into it until I started working full-time. Also since I started working, I've started a Tumblr account (which is woefully neglected most of the time), have a LinkIn profile, joined Pinterest, started tweeting and just recently started using Instagram. And, of course, I have access to all of these social media outlets on my phone.

Looking at the list I just typed makes me feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of time I must be devoting to these websites. And I'm not alone. We're connected 24/7/365, especially teenagers and pre-teens.

According to Leverage:

• There are 70 million active users on Pinterest.
• Twitter's 560 million active users  sent 5,700 tweets per second.
• 1 billion active Facebook users share 2.5 billion pieces of content each day.
• Instagram has 150 million active users.
• Google+ boasts 400 million active users with 925,000 signing up every day.
• LinkedIn has 240 million active users. 79% of users on the professional social networking site are 35 or older.

I use social media to network, save recipes and home project ideas, reconnect with old friends, work and stay entertained. Kids, on the other hand, are using it in place of everyday interactions, choosing to text or Snapchat someone rather than carry on a face-to-face or even over-the-phone conversation. Not only are conversation skills deteriorating, but kids are also not learning how to deal with problems. Instead, of working things out in person, they resort to name-calling and bullying on social media.

An even-scarier trend has emerged recently. Kids are pre-arranging fights for the sole purpose of having them recorded and posted to YouTube. We did an investigative series on this alarming trend last month. You can watch them here, here and here.

This latest trend in cyberbullying makes me even more grateful to have grown up in a time without social media. Nowadays, kids don't get any breaks from bullies.

Back when I was in school, if you had a problem with someone you fought about it and then it was over. You didn't have to worry about someone sending you threatening text messages or posting all the details of your argument all over the internet. Nowadays you can't just get over your differences. They live forever online.

According to nobullying.com, 25% of teenagers say they've been bullied through their cell phone or over the internet. Fifty-two percent of young people say they've been cyberbullied. A third of those say they were threatened online. Even more disturbing, of the 55% of teens on social media who say they've seen cyberbullying, 95% say they ignore it.

I don't know about you guys, but those are scary statistics.

Learn more about cyberbullying and ways to prevent and/or report it at http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/

Branching Out

As the title of this post suggests, I'm branching out. Starting today, I will be blogging for my station.

The blog will be called "Lessons from the Newsroom." Seeing as how nobody knows what a producer is or does, I thought I could offer our viewers a unique "insider perspective" on daily happenings. The goal is to teach our viewers a little about the process that is news and share some of the things that happen behind the scenes.

I've provided a link to the blog on the left-hand side of this blog. You can also click through to it through the banner below.

Sh*t Crazy Newsroom Callers Say

Answering the phone at the station is always a gamble. You never know who's going to be on the other end, but sometimes you get lucky and the caller warns you of their impending complaints. I found myself in such a situation one day last week...

Me: Channel 4 News.
Caller: Who do I talk to about a complaint?
Me: Let me transfer you in to my news director.

The conversation that followed was pretty bizarre. This guy had a problem with our weekend meteorologist. Apparently he moves too much while giving his forecast.

Seriously?

(Not So) Basic Journalism Skills: Handling Critics

Viewers. One day they're your biggest fan; the next, they're your most vocal naysayer. In a word, they're fickle. And it's that fickleness JSchool just doesn't prepare your for, or how to deal with viewers at all really.

My viewers are extremely invested in our shows; they have a HUGE sense of ownership over what we do. That can be both good and bad, depending on the day.

In the first edition of this series, I talked about viewer phone calls and how to deal with them. But if you've ever worked in a newsroom,  you know that phone calls aren't the only way viewers contact you. They frequently take to social media - yours or their own - and are quick to send an email, especially if they're angry.

In this business, dealing with criticism should be second nature. Unfortunately, many of us enter our professional careers with no idea of how to respond to our critics or even if we should. Let's face it, the only criticism we received in college was from our professors and not personal. In the real world of journalism, viewers take every story personally.

Interacting with viewers is the hardest, most frustrating and challenging, and rarely sometimes can be the most rewarding part of my day. Chances are if you call my newsroom, I'm who you get on the other end of the line. If you interact with our social media sites, chances are pretty high I'm on the other side of the keyboard. I talk to irate, irrational and crazy people every day. It just comes with the job.

When you work in this business, one of the first things you have to realize - especially in a small/medium-sized market - is that you're always going to be in the cross-hairs. Once you realize that, the next step is to accept that you will never make everyone who watches/reads happy. It's a sad reality of life that there are some people among us who look for reasons to complain. As a member of the media, those complaints, though not always directed at you, will often land at your feet.

So how and when should you respond to these naysayers? Like I've said in nearly every part of this series, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, but I think I can offer up some tips from personal experience and advice from fellow journalists.

First things first, you do not always have to respond. Sometimes people are just looking for someone to rant to; no reply is necessary in those situations. Also, if someone is only reaching out to you to criticize how you dress, it's probably safe to ignore them. The best advice I can offer is to use your best judgment and evaluate each situation individually.

But what about those situations that do warrant a response? How should you go about it?

My first piece of advice is to be professional. If you sink to the viewer's level, you've accomplished nothing. My second piece of advice is to be honest. You don't have to be specific with people, and in most cases you don't have to defend your actions to them.

The way I handle Facebook posts/messages and emails is to thank them for watching. Then I tell them that we'll take their concerns into consideration as we move forward. If there is an explanation that can be given as to why we did or did not do something, I include that. I always try to be diplomatic, and if it's a situation I can't handle, I don't hesitate to pass them on to my supervisor.

I reached out to some of my colleagues on Facebook last week about the ways they handle critics. Here's what they had to say:


Martha: "Write a letter saying all the mean things back you want to say, but do not send it. It helps you move on."

Ben: "I would always write back the nicest letter possible. They all usually ended with something to the effect of "I'll pray for you". If they are e-mailing then they are usually pretty loyal... still full of garbage and hot air, but loyal."

Erica: "I agree with Ben. I start by thanking them for watching. I close by thanking them for reaching out to us with their concerns."

Stephen: "Just tell them the truth! And thank them for watching!"

Ki: "Privately! No on-air or publicly-posted retorts. It never makes anyone look good. I remember seeing an overweight meteorologist who tried to say that the question "are you worried about setting an unhealthy example by being overweight on camera?" was just bullying her...she came off defensive and whiny, while simultaneously ignoring the actual question (which I think is a fair one, even if it's maybe in poor taste)"

Muriel: "Always be nice."

As my news director says - "I hate you. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow." It's the perfect way to describe most of the people who reach out to newsrooms to complain.

What advice do you have to help up-and-coming journalists learn how to deal with the critics they'll never escape?