{"id":1863,"date":"2014-09-25T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T20:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/newsroom14\/?p=149"},"modified":"2021-06-22T18:41:47","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:41:47","slug":"covering-ferguson-one-tweet-as-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/2014\/09\/25\/covering-ferguson-one-tweet-as-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Covering Ferguson, One Tweet at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wesley<\/a>
Wesley Lowery, Washington Post, at Thursday opening plenary. (Akash Ghai)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photos and videos tweeted by journalists and residents after the shooting death of Michael Brown gave the public a close-up, minute-by-minute look at how protests were unfolding.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post\u2019s Wesley Lowery followed developments on Twitter before heading to Ferguson, Missouri, to cover what he thought would be a three-day story. While erroneous information was posted, Lowery said he tweeted\u00a0only information he could verify.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to confirm things. I think the mistake a lot of people fall into on Twitter is that they say things that their reporting can\u2019t back up,\u201d Lowery said.<\/p>\n

Blessing and Curse<\/h5>\n

Lowery participated Thursday in an ONA panel with other reporters on how they covered the aftermath of the Aug. 9 death of the unarmed teenager.<\/p>\n

Twitter, Instagram and Vine can be a blessing or a curse for journalists \u2014 a curse if they accidentally post incorrect information, given that posts can be easily screenshot, retweeted and shared to thousands of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you tweet something wrong, you have to tweet an updated correction, but don\u2019t delete the mistake,\u201d Lowery advised in an interview after the panel.<\/p>\n

During the violent clashes between residents and the police, Trymaine Lee, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and MSNBC reporter,\u00a0\u00a0 live-tweeted the altercations to his 6,000 followers. He quickly gained followers and now has more than 21,000.<\/p>\n

Images Can Tell Story<\/h5>\n

\u201cAs a journalist, you have to be careful because people trust your word,” he said after the panel. \u201cI was very careful about what I tweeted, retweeted and favorited.\u201d<\/p>\n

With only 140 characters, Lee said, writing succinctly for Twitter was a challenge, but he took advantage of embedding pictures and videos while staying true to the story. \u201cThere was a pressure to be concise, but one thing that I’ve learned is that images tell a thousand words,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s fast-paced digital age, Lowery said, aspiring journalists should know how to use different social media platforms in ways they can use for reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know when you’re going to be dropped into a situation like Ferguson,” he said. “There\u2019s no on-the-job training as a reporter. You either show up knowing how to do something or show up not knowing how to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonnie Newman Davis, an assistant journalism professor at North Carolina A&T State University, echoed Lowery\u2019s recommendation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media has played an instrumental role to spread the word quickly about that was happening in Ferguson,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThis is something I stressed (to my students) and have them incorporate in what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photos and videos tweeted by journalists and residents after the shooting death of Michael Brown gave the public a close-up, minute-by-minute look at how protests were unfolding. The Washington Post\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[563],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-industry","tag-ona14"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5Q1c-u3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4368,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions\/4368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}