Journalism Professor Addresses Changes in Social Media and Why It Matters
By Michael Ranellone

Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs at Columbia Journalism School, spoke to ESWA members during its pre-holiday meeting, on Dec. 17, at the Copperfield Inn, North Creek, near Gore Mountain, N.Y.

Photo by Peter Hines

Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs at Columbia Journalism School, emphasizes a point.

Sreenivasan, an expert in social media interaction, stressed the importance of integrating technology with traditional forms of expression. “Tradigital is the future of journalism,” he said. It’s about finding the right technology for the right moment, he added.

Through examples using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, Sreenivasan walked the group through the necessary steps to establishing a useful cyber identity. A successful presence on the Internet can build a journalist’s credibility with his or her readers, he explained, increasing interaction and promoting conversation.

Credibility is perhaps the most significant aspect of any social media interaction, Sreenivasan said. The idea that anyone can post unfiltered, perhaps libelous, or otherwise uncouth statements, through social media outlets is a major concern for journalists accustomed to a tradition of purposeful, reliable, fact-checked publications. Sreenivasan offered reassurance, however, in the reminder that where common sense prevails in the print world, and in everyday life, it remains essential for cyber-interaction. He acknowledged that, although a rumor may start and spread quickly via an engine like Twitter, it is also likely to die quickly when audience members recognize a lack of credibility in the source.

According to Sreenivasan, social media creates a new dimension for interaction. Listening has become as important as broadcasting. On pages that are “no longer flat,” people can take in information, consider it, and converse about it, retaining more of the original message while contributing new perspectives. In an age when people are incessantly bombarded with information, says Sreenivasan, the scarcest resource is attention. Careful use of social media can enlarge the sliver of attention any single writer or topic receives from the public.

Though the benefits of social media are clear, the integration process is far from easy. Even Sreenivasan admits that he doesn’t have all the answers. The key to success, he argues, is in finding correlations between different groups as audiences. Social media makes it easier to figure out who wants what on which platform, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for careful analysis and informed foresight.

Sreenivasan’s audience of ESWA writers and business partners may have approached social media with skepticism in the past, but members are now armed with the information necessary to take advantage of this new and exciting technological shift.

“I walked away from the seminar with a lot of ideas and inspiration,” commented ESWA member Janet Franz. “I think it was a very enlightening and worthwhile event.”

As Sreenivasan told the group, writers need not feel that their world is being taken over by new media against their will. They can embrace outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as legitimate vehicles for reaching larger groups of people and for sparking deeper conversation on important topics.

[Mike Ranellone, a journalism student at St. Lawrence University, is this year’s ESWA Student Intern.]