Social Media & Digital Tools

What has been the effect of social media on traditional media companies?

• Social media have changed the way people consume news.

• Social media allow you to break news in real time.

• Social media allow a two-way conversation between readers and journalists.

• All of the above.

Answer explanation

Feedback: Social media has changed the way readers find and consume news. This change has created new channels for news distribution and promotion and created a new opportunity for conversations between journalists and readers.

How can journalists use social media?

• To find more Facebook friends.

• As a reporting tool to find witnesses, sources and images

• To meet new people

• To keep up with what’s going on at the office

Answer explanation

Feedback: Social media can provide you with notice of real-time events and access to potential sources and images. But, as with any news tip, the information always must be verified.

Which social media service should you use?

• a. Facebook; it’s the biggest

• b. Twitter; it does news best.

• c. Instagram; it has the best photos

• d. The social media service that is used by your audience

Answer explanation

Feedback: All three are important social media channels, but you want to focus your efforts on the services that your audience is using.

4. Which of these Facebook features is NOT an advantage for journalists?

• a. Facebook is the largest English language social media company in the world

• b. Facebook’s personalized news feed tailors the stories users see

• c. Facebook’s design allows for longer stories

• d. Facebook tools allow you to embed photos and video easily

Answer explanation

Feedback: Unlike other services, Facebook’s news feed customizes which stories a user will see. This means that not every story you share will be seen by all of your followers.

5. Why should journalists use Twitter?

• a. Because of Twitter’s ease of use, it has become the place to share breaking news

• b. Because Twitter posts are so short they are like headlines

• c. Because Twitter is shorter, your tweets won’t get lost

• d. Because Twitter is free

Answer explanation

Feedback: Twitter has become the go-to place for breaking news. Its ease of use, worldwide user base and search-ability make Twitter the ideal tool to follow breaking news.

6. You can trust what you read on Twitter because so many journalists use it.

• True

• b. False

Answer explanation

Feedback: All social media posts should be treated as a news tip that must be verified before it is used.

7. What are Hootsuite and Tweetdeck?

• a. Social media services in Europe

• b. Twitter card games

• c. Twitter management tools

• d. None of the above

Answer explanation

Feedback: Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are Twitter management tools that allow users to track, organize and schedule social media posts.

8. You and your classmates want to find a good tool to communicate in real-time about the progress of projects you’re working on. Which productivity tool is likely to be the most useful?

• Slack

• Trello

• Google Sheets

• Tik Tok

Answer explanation

Feedback: Slack is a real-time chat tool that allows for file sharing. Trello has many of the same features, but doesn’t not have a chat function like Slack does. Google Sheets might be useful as a collaborative spreadsheet, but it doesn’t allow for effective chatting. And, Tik Tok is a social media platform.

9. Budget cuts have befallen your school district, and the superintendent says you need to move your student newspaper into an online-only publication. Which of the following programs should you choose to publish a digital version of your paper?

• Twitter

• Instagram

• WordPress

• Slack

Answer explanation

Feedback: Your best choice is WordPress. While first intended for use as a blogging tool, WordPress powers websites all around the world, including many news websites in the U.S. Twitter and Instagram are great places to publish one-offs, single posts, but they’re not a good solution to replace a print publication that you control. And, as you learned, Slack is an internal communication tool. People outside your organization won’t be able to see what you share there.

10. True or false: Blogger is sometimes seen as a superior product because of its easy integration with other Google products.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Feedback: Blogger is owned by Google, which means you can easily integrate multimedia using YouTube and files saved to your Google Drive. It also means you can get audience usage data for free through Google Analytics.