Want to Work at a Newspaper? Better Brush Up on Your Twitter.
by Peter Kafka
Posted on July 8, 2009 at 6:10 AM PT
Want to work for the Minneapolis Star Tribune? Make sure you can demonstrate mastery of Facebook and Twitter. The daily is looking for a political reporter and insists that the new hire show up with Web 2.0 bona fides.
From the Strib’s posting on Journalism Jobs (via Minnpost): “Enthusiasm for communicating political news on many different platforms–from print to online to mobile to social networking media–is essential.”
First: Good to know that even bankrupt papers are still hiring. That’s my good news tidbit for the day.
Second: The social-networking part may sound like a novelty, but I think in the not-too-distant future, this is simply going to be a core requirement for any reporting job, like having a driver’s license.
Comments
I’m trying to figure out what you need to do to be called a Twitter master.
Posted by Edward Barrera at July 9th, 2009 at 6:46 amThe beauty of twitter is that there are many programs out there that mine the statistics. The tools won’t prove a competency with subject matter, but you CAN find out if a user is appropriately active in the twitter community, and to what extent. One of these is twitter.grader.com by hubspot, and in addition to running an individual’s profile, you can view twitterelite by region. Another useful tool that allows you know the extent of a user’s influence is found at twinfluence.com- a little more simple than hubspot’s, but it can be used to supplement what you find there. – @HeyAmaretto
Posted by Diane Guercio at July 11th, 2009 at 7:33 am