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Journalism lecturer sees future in Facebook blogs

A lecturer in journalism is posting his blogs on Facebook for one month in the hope of finding a middle ground between blogging and Tweeting

Paul Bradshaw, an online journalist and blogger, will use the social networking site’s notes tool as a platform for his journalism-related blogs.

He aims to see if journalists can successfully use Facebook for their work and hopes to generate more users and feedback through it.

Paul, a reader in online journalism at Birmingham City University, and a Visiting Professor at City University’s School of Journalism in London, said: “I attended the social media summit at the BBC – a couple of people had raised the question of why people don’t use Facebook more often – I decided to explore the issue.

“My aim is to be more professional than Twitter but less personal than a Facebook profile. The posts are too long for Twitter and too short for a blog post.”

He added: “It seems to be getting more traffic than a stand-alone blog but I’m not sure how much of that is novelty value. I am writing much shorter posts because I don’t feel that pressure to write something as in depth.”

The blog, which started last Friday, has generated a lot of traffic so far. If it continues to attract hits he will continue the page  –  Paul Bradshaw’s online Journalism Blog on FB for one month – after the first month.

Journalists using Facebook has been much speculated about recently with the introduction of a journalist program manager for the social networking site. American Vadim Lavrusik has been writing about how Facebook can be used for journalism and has called it a ‘social newspaper.’

5 comments

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  • June 7, 2011 at 10:59 am
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    I am becoming mildly annoyed at the constant use of the word Journalism in connection with social media. Sites such as Facebook are entirely about PR. It is unmoderated and virtually unregulated. A blog is simply a column but without any kind of moderation. Citizen journalism is unreliable evidence from those with a reason to want you to believe something.
    Journalism is moderated, it requires a degree of validation and there is a degree of accountability. That is why brands such as The Guardian, the Financial Times and The Telegraph, amongst others, are a distinct entity from social networking.
    PR is paid for by its creator, one way or another, journalism is paid for by its consumer, again one way or another. Therefore I would argue that journalism should serve the interests of the consumer rather than the creator.

    regards

    John Murphy

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  • June 7, 2011 at 12:03 pm
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    Whatever next?

    They’ll be telling us they’ve invented the internal combustion engine next, and what will happen to all our horse-drawn carriages then?

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  • June 7, 2011 at 3:13 pm
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    is the middle ground between Blogging and tweeting bleeting?

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