Tips for navigating the changing landscape of social media


When I was tapped to be the Gather guest curator for September I knew social media would be my topic of choice. As The Intercept’s audience engagement producer, social media is primary to my role and this past year has introduced a whiplash of emotions as that landscape changes. We all remember how the infamous “pivot to video” shaped news organizations' content creation and business models. Less than a decade later, we’re still at the mercy of social media platforms and their disdain for news in favor of content creators and, unironically, video. With the changing landscape of social media and the emergence of platforms, news organizations are trying to figure out what works best for them and where to invest their resources. In this lightning chat, we heard how journalists are adapting their approaches to social media and engagement approaches. For this lightning chat, I brought in two journalists who were able to shed light on how newsrooms can adapt to this new era of social media on the local and national level.While Adriana and Beth left us with many gems on how to approach this era, there were four key takeaways that can be implemented as we tackle the changing platforms.In 2018, Vice reported that Facebook was moving away from catering to news publisher’s needs in order “to emphasize ‘meaningful interaction’ between friends and family.” “For the last few years, the articles much of the news industry publishes — and even the formats they publish in — have been dictated by the whims of a tech giant that seems to have more interest in experimenting with its algorithm than serving its own users, let alone the readers of third party media companies. As advertisers left traditional media companies for the promise of targeted ads on Facebook (and Google), news outlets were forced to align themselves closely with their biggest existential threat.