EVHaste9h ago

It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”.

Meanwhile I’m having a *great* experience here, because I use it to— I dunno— actually talk to people and form relationships?

I reject the premise that mastodon isn’t useful for reporters. I think it’s more accurate that modern news orgs use social media in purely extractive ways.

You might get more reporters that way, but you won’t like them.

Show threadEVHaste9h ago
And I mean, is that really want you want? Or is it just what you’re used to?
Show threadEVHaste9h ago

I think if we’re honest with ourselves, the “service” most reporters provide on social media is entirely self-serving. A one-way firehose of signal boosting and self promotion.

“Look at me! I wrote this story. Click on it!”
And then you ask them a question, or have a correction, and nobody reads it, because Wired doesn’t care about building a community, just reaching a consumer. It’s fire and forget.

We already have a tool for that, it’s RSS. What value does reposting a link here provide?

Show threadBadri4h ago
@Haste makes a lot of sense! And I think this is a good place for reporters too, but not reporters as *reporters* but reporters as *people* if you know what I mean. Just the same way people from any other profession is welcome

Leave the promotion behind on the other places where it (as fate would have it belongs) and come here when you want to engage with people
Show threadclew

Hoping for a different difference— this should be good for reporters doing reporting, ie listening to what’s going on; but not for journalists building clout or pundits ~shaping national opinion~.

@badri @Haste

6:41pmWeb