A Relationship Between a Journalist and the Audience
Social media has made it easier for journalist to be able to interact with their audience. With people being glued to their mobile devices and social media, they look to journalist as their main news source. The information that is delivered helps with the engagement between the journalist and the audience.
When it comes to the audience, they aren’t just looking for the journalist to just deliver the news. That type of a relationship isn’t ideal. Instead, an ideal relationship between a journalist and the audience is one where the journalist adds their own insight and engages with the audience.
Anthony Adornato explains in his book “Mobile and Social Media Journalism: A Practical Guide,” That you should think about your social media feed as a faucet of information. You provide drips of information throughout the day and that all those drips help the audience engage with you.
Being able to build a relationship with the audience as a journalist is vital. Knowing what type of news catches your audiences attention and also making sure what you put out is true is important. It allows the audience to gain trust in the journalist making them a go-to source.
Jacob L. Nelson, the Assistant Professor of digital audience engagement at Arizona State University, talks about different strategies used by journalist to target their audience and build relationships with them in his article “Journalism needs an audience to survive, but isn’t sure how to earn its loyalty”
Mina Kimes who is a NFL analyst at ESPN displays a great example of engagement with her audience as shown in this tweet that she posted about after one of her episodes of NFL Live had aired.
She even engages with some of her fans in the comments who have shared their input on her tweet.
Being able to engage with your audience as a journalist will not only help you create that ideal relationship, but also help you build your brand and credibility.
