While Chat Republic does an excellent job in identifying every tree in the social media forest, it falls short in describing how the trees interact in creating a total social media landscape. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
Newsroom Ink and its storytelling brand journalism are featured in a book by Angelo Fernando, Chat Republic. The book explores the tools of social media and how corporations, publications, activists and citizen journalists use them to convey their messages.
The research Angelo Fernando has done on the history of the young, chat republic is incredible. Photo: Angelo Fernando
Chat Republic is an in-depth description of every tree in the social media forest.
Fernando divides the book into three, distinct sections:
- Push-2-Talk – the friction that came into existence with the Internet
- Link Love – forging relations with a few clicks
- Chatter Boxes – tools used to hold conversations and tell stories.
To illustrate each section, the Arizona author uses examples of how the Internet and social media have changed lives around the world. From the “Occupy Wall Street” movement to uprisings in Iran and Egypt, from Wikipedia to podcasts, from Twitter to online newsrooms… the book documents the infancy and rise of the new voices in the chat republic.
The book addresses social media’s use both inside and outside of the corporate world, and how internal and exterior communications often are intertwined and drawn together.
As more and more corporations today embrace all types of social media, it is important that their efforts be in sync with all aspects of the business.
In Chat Repubic, Springfield Lewis, Newsroom Ink’s vice president of strategic communications, explains: “People need a business narrative that advances the story.” All social media communications, from Twitter to corporate newsrooms, “must be hardwired and aligned to the business agenda.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
In the book, Springfield Lewis, Newsroom Ink’s vice president of strategic communications, explains: “People need a business narrative that advances the story.” All social media communications, from Twitter to corporate newsrooms, “must be hardwired and aligned to the business agenda.”
As this occurs, traditional forms of communications, such as news or press releases, lose their relevance. According to Fernando, “The press release is on life support.” As a result, companies and PR agencies are exploring new options to replace it.
“Press releases are created by committees, edited by lawyers, and then sent out at great expense through Business Wire or PR Newswire to reach the digital and physical trash bins of tens of thousands of journalists,” said Tom Foremski of the Silicon Valley Watcher.
New tools such as the social media release and the online newsrooms are rapidly gaining acceptance by companies and traditional media. Storytelling, as done through brand journalism, is replacing the press or news release.
Bill Calder, executive editor at Intel’s online newsroom Free Press, in the book explains “he expects his writers – geeks with journalistic integrity, as he puts it – to look for the overlook stories and “weave in tidbits and facts that are interesting, without falling into the trap of marketing or PR-speak.”
Bill Calder, executive editor at Intel’s online newsroom Free Press, explains “he expects his writers to look for the overlook stories and “weave in tidbits and facts that are interesting.” Photo: Bill Calder/Intel
Lewis believes “digital storytelling is often obsessed with delivery mechanisms. It is easy to become too distracted by the tools of spreading a message and not the quality of what is being written, videoed or shared.”
A former reporter for The Cincinnati Post and Rocky Mountain News, Lewis does take exception to one point in Chat Republic, which is traditional media no longer want complete stories.
“We have found that traditional media desire well-written, interesting and accurate newsroom stories crafted in a storytelling/brand journalism format,” he said.
“Almost every story Newsroom Ink does for LouisianaSeafoodNews.com, the newsroom for the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, is used as inspiration or is picked up as written by traditional media.”
While Chat Republic does an excellent job in identifying every tree in the social media forest, it falls short in describing how the trees interact in creating a total social media landscape.
That said, the research Fernando has done on the history of the young, chat republic is incredible. Despite a few flaws, the book is an important milestone in understanding where the conversation started, where it is now, and how it will evolve into the future.
