The question seasoned journalists asked most often about social media — which single tool should a reporter learn and add to the kit next? — was the wrong question, however good the instinct behind it. Adding a tool is not the same as rethinking how reporting stays compelling, relevant and impactful.
That month’s Carnival of Journalism had asked how anyone decides to give time to a new tool, platform or gadget, how to persuade colleagues to go through the same process, and how to keep a tool in use once the novelty has worn off. The answer proposed here was to start with the public rather than the technology, borrowing Forrester Research’s POST framework: People — who is the intended audience and what do they already use; Objectives — what the tool is meant to achieve, whether reaching new audiences, deepening existing relationships or opening new ways to engage; Strategy — what will actually be different if it works; and only then Technology.
Forrester’s own diagnosis was that most organisations do this backwards, adopting a technology first and looking for a purpose afterwards. Newsrooms did exactly that. In February 2010 the BBC’s director of Global News, Peter Horrocks, told journalists they should be using social media — the right instruction, but one that left the strategic work undone.