Broadcast Newsrooms expand use of social media

RTNDA recently released part five of its annual Radio and TV News Staffing study - examining broadcasters' use of social media.

  The study suggests that social media is becoming an established and integral part of newsroom operations, with only 2% of newsrooms indicating they had no use of social media.  In contrast, 87% of newsrooms reported covering stories about or from social media, 87% reported incorporating social media into their storytelling, and 93% had social media integrated into their websites.
  The survey indicated that every station in their sample reported having a Facebook page, and about half had more than one page.  About half of stations said their newsroom use of Twitter was "constant", and another 30% indicated that their use was daily.

Quite a few stations are running at least some of the Facebook comments on various newscasts. Even more stations mentioned asking for viewer feedback via Facebook, and nearly as many news directors wrote about having a "conversation" or "interacting" with viewers. Lots of stations noted using social media for promotion, but much of the promotion was geared toward the station website rather than just on air. Quite a few stations run contests via Facebook and a lot of polling takes place via Facebook as well. Several news directors noted that they had hired social media producers or reporters. Stations had polls of the day, questions of the day, friends of the day and fans of the day. And although Facebook and Twitter were near universal mentions, they weren't alone. Other social media in use (in order of mention): Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Storify, Tumblr, Yelp, HootSuite, Googlet and Instagram.

About one in ten reported having plans for some form of "innovative" use of social media - gathering information about specific topics, running contests, supporting charity fund-raising efforts. 

"Then there's the effort at anchor-less news at KIAH-TV in Houston -- called "NewsFix."

  Radio newsrooms are also incorporating social media into their operations, but not to the same degree as TV newsrooms.  The study found that 42% of radio newsrooms covered social media, 31.1% incorporated social media into their storytelling, and 62% integrated social media into their websites - and 29.7% indicated that they did not use social media.  Very few radio newsrooms had their own Facebook page (14%), and more than half (51.8%) reported no use of Twitter. Interestingly, and a change from previous studies, non-commercial stations were more involved with social media than commercial stations.

Source - Part V: Social Media Expands on TV and Radio,  2012 RTNDA/Hofstra TV and Radio News Staffing and Profitability Study