chrismwoods:

Originally posted at Hanover Dispatch Box | Rise of the Social Media Editor.

When Sky News unveiled Ruth Barnett as its Twitter Correspondent in 2009, much fun was poked their way. ‘Bets on how long it lasts, people?’ wrote on The Guardian’s Jemima Kiss.

Since then, many of other serious news organisations have jumped on trend of having a journalist whose main role is to seek out and share news on social media. 

Reuters’ social media editor and prolific tweeter is Anthony De Rosa; Eric Carvin is at its rival, AP; the New York Times has Lexi Mainland manning Tweetdeck; the BBC’s second such editor (after Alex Gubbay) is Chris Hamilton; Neal Mann of the Wall Street Journal recently showed the importance of reporting via social media on-location with a trip to the London Olympics; and earlier this month, AFP not wanting to miss a beat appointed its former Beijing bureau deputy editor Marianne Barriaux as its first social media editor.

They aren’t just the newsroom’s ‘Twitter guy’ but similar to their commercial counterparts – social media managers and heads of digital – they are responsible for training their colleagues around the world on how to use the social web effectively to both source stories and promote their own and colleagues’ reporting. Journalism schools are also getting in on the act – going beyond social media training and considering how devices such as iPhones can help with news gathering. 

As social media increasingly fuels conversations and helps to meet business objectives around the world, it will increasingly be taken seriously – and those who are quickly adapting their career towards it or are digital natives by age or interest, will themselves increase in influence.