Is social media more important to magazines than a website?

Chris Mooney, the digital editor of TopGear.com, came into City today to give his expert opinion on the XCity and EastBound websites. In case you are not following the trials and tribulations of we journalism masters students (I understand there may be more pressing concerns) XCity and Eastbound are the magazines we have spent this term lovingly crafting.

Magazine production has been a feature of the magazine pathway at City for a long time but this year we were briefed on the importance of an active website to both promote the magazine and run its own exclusive content. The necessity of an active website for a media publication is a real sign of the times. Gone are the days when you could pour all creative energy into a printed beauty. Nowadays, reaching an audience means engaging current and would be readers over a plethora of different, consistently-branded platforms.

Our ears pricked up when Chris said that of these platforms, social media is beginning to be as important as a website. He complimented XCity’s use of Twitter and proceeded to tell us that Top Gear’s Facebook page has 8 million fans, a figure which increases by 20,000 daily.

For anyone  muttering “8 million” prepare to be excited. Chris Mooney has agreed to talk exclusively to us. So come back next week for tips on how to become a social media millionaire.

Twitter and Protests

We have already witnessed the role social networking has played in protests across Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Saturday’s anti-cuts march organised by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) gave citizens, journalists and citizen journalists an opportunity to harness the power of twitter here in the UK.

The march went from London’s Embankment  to Hyde Park drawing between 200,000  and 500,000 protesters over the course of the day (including a brass band). At 4p.m. the media spotlight fell upon Fortnum & Mason where the anti-tax evasion group UK Uncut were staging a peaceful bail-in. Later the media focused on Trafalgar Square where police-on-protester and protester-on-police violence took place as darkness fell.

One journalist who fully embraced Twitter both to communicate with those who were also present and to report for the wider public was the New Statesman‘s Laurie Penny, also known as Penny Red. Here is a link to her tweets.

The dark side of Twitter

Leonie Cooper, a 26-year-old music journalist who has been writing for NME since she was a teenager, will not be signing up for a Twitter account. She said although she sees the benefit of up-to-the-minute news some NME writers have received @ abuse from angry music fans who take issue with their reviews. Leonie’s reservations coincide with the aftermath of the Rebecca Black “Friday” drama. This week’s Charlie Brooker column comments on the extraordinary level of Twitter bullying the 13-year-old  American has suffered.