Lessons learned from social media about news engagement

How to build safe community spaces that turn readers into doers

Our tech landscape, which has an outsized effect on how journalism and the business of news are evolving, is (to keep it PG-rated)… a cluster. But, those who work at the intersection of tech (especially AI) and journalism can learn from the chaos unfolding, namely social media. 

DigInThere is watching and listening to better serve newsrooms who seek to leverage the best parts of social media and the people who use it.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Some social media platforms have become cesspools of hate, misogyny and discrimination as companies’ agendas seep into who can say what and how. In reference to Twitter after its sale to Elon Musk, Ed Saperia, dean of the London College of Political Technology told The Guardian last year, “What we’ve seen is controversial content drives engagement. Extreme content drives engagement.” Toxicity and misinformation have had real-world consequences that have incited users to violence against others. 

The trend towards tolerating hate speech is nothing new, but it took a turn for the worse weeks ago when Meta announced it would no longer employ independent fact-checkers to flag content that violated terms of use on Facebook and Instagram. Instead, they’d be replaced with “community notes” that emulate X, that rely on users to comment on the accuracy of posts’ content. According to a 2024 Pew Research Center report,“Digital sources have become an important part of Americans’ news diets – with social media playing a crucial role, particularly for younger adults. Overall, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years.”

Accuracy and verification are cornerstones of quality journalism, and a healthy information ecosystem overall. If these tenets are shed in spaces where a majority of Americans get their news, what’s to come? (Probably nothing good.) What do we know? Americans enjoy the convenience, speed and ability to customize news info catering to their interests on social media. However, data shows they are increasingly concerned about inaccuracies in the social media spaces they consume news, eroding trust in journalism and journalists.

TikTok, whose future remains uncertain as of this article’s publication, has proven to be a haven for more progressive ideas, voices from marginalized communities like LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent people (though there have been algorithmic attempts to silence them) and civil civic engagement, within the sea of viral challenges and dance videos. This is one example of “social” media being just that: a place that builds community. 

Casey Fiesler is an associate professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She studies technology ethics and policy, and is a content creator. As @professorcasey on TikTok, she shares videos on AI and social media with her more than 100,000 followers.

“This algorithm is also creating communities. It can help you find a community that you didn’t even necessarily know you needed.”

CU Boulder Today spoke to Fiesler as TikTok’s fate looms. “Apps like TikTok come with a lot of risks. But millions of people around the world have also turned to TikTok to find community—and maybe even learn something,” according to their report. (Though criticized for being a public aesthetic for attention, #BookTok has reshaped how we read, and how books are marketed and sold.)

“Someone could be scrolling through cat videos or dance videos, and then, suddenly, there’s me explaining how algorithms work,” Fiesler said. “To me, that’s magical.”

We also can’t forget that many of these content producers, who rely on app-generated revenue as part of their livelihood, are the model for some national news outlets’ brands’ new strategies. People and personalities can more easily earn trust and build relationships than a cold, faceless company, C-suite leadership says. The Washington Post, among others, is pivoting to leverage the same ideas of community and personal identity that underpin social media platforms like TikTok to regain revenue ($77 million lost in 2023); and rebuild trust amid controversy (owner blocked endorsement of a presidential candidate) leading to a mass exodus of subscribers (250,000 or about 10% of total subscribers); and layoffs (about 4% of total staff). 

“We have identified that our journalists and personalities are one of our best assets,” read a Post memo. “The talent management practice will focus on a sophisticated plan to build our personalities’ profiles, external presence and engagement across multiple media platforms in pursuit of magnifying our journalism even more.”

DigInThere leverages the best of social media

Tech can be great for the symbiosis of journalism as an industry, for journalists as trusted voices, as well as for news consumers who rely on both. But, in order to build community and trust, we have to capture audiences’ attention long enough for them to see and hear us.

A key takeaway from how social media users consume news is this: We are a society of skimmers with short (and shrinking) attention spans. We swipe left when someone doesn’t suit us. We swipe up when we get bored and want to see something else. We have about 8 seconds (some estimate less) to get people’s attention.

We developed DigInThere to help newsrooms obtain and retain the attention of their audiences through news quizzes that foster deeper engagement and features that help build loyalty and community. 

In return for their time and attention, readers have the opportunity to earn rewards, “perks” like access to events, merch, etc., that strengthen brand loyalty and engagement. Quiz participants who consistently demonstrate understanding (based on standards set by news publishers) can gain access to an exclusive community of like-minded, engaged individuals. (We are experimenting with Slack and Discord. Some early beta testers who have found success using closed Facebook groups hope to integrate this approach while piloting DigInThere.) 

This community-building approach is designed to turn readers into active contributors within their communities, all while staying grounded in the trusted news content they rely on. Private communities also allow publishers to have comments exchanged away from their main news site and moderate in a less public way leaving them more in control of their space. 

By letting only the most committed audience members participate in their private communities, news outlets can buy themselves a much-needed sense of sanity instead of fighting a futile battle with hate speech or filtering through flagged content in real time. We hope that members of these private communities will 1) be more likely to be civil overall, and 2) will help us flag and remove any discriminatory content swiftly.

DigInThere demos and beta testers

More than a dozen newsrooms have already expressed interest in attending a demo session for DigInThere. If you’d like to be part of a session, please fill out this short form in which you’ll choose a date and time to attend. We are trying our best to offer sessions that accommodate both U.S. and international time zones. 

We are also in the process of creating a walkthrough demo video recording to be posted on DigInThere.com. 

We are still able to accept a few more beta test newsrooms. If you’re interested, please email to info@diginthere.com with your name, publication and the best way to reach you.

Cite this article

Csernatony, Zoli; and Amihere, Dana (2024, Jan. 23). Lessons learned from social media about news engagement. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/lessons-learned-from-social-media-about-news-engagement/