First, Twitter provides a constantly updating trove of interesting people and personalities. Whether connecting (following) people in media organizations you respect or aspire to work for, building a brand within the platform’s extensive journalist/writers communities, or ensuring exposure to a vast swath of material to motivate interested story ideas of your own, Twitter can ensure that you stay more connected in a variety of ways.

Second, recognizing and harnessing the power of LinkedIn can be a critical asset for any journalist (or particularly journalism student.) If properly prepared, LinkedIn can provide a platform to promote yourself, your education and your experience in aand connect you to many professionals and colleagues that can be critical as you seek employment. A service like LinkedIn also allows you to retain contacts as you move between positions over time.

Third, Facebook can be harnessed for a more intentioned way. While useful to remain connected to friends and family, it is also becoming more important for potential employers and followers of your work. It is critical to curating a public profile that reflects the qualities, interests and tastes specific to you, while minimizing content that could be risky for interested potential employers. However, Facebook remains another engine for the creative process: establishing connections with interesting people doing interesting work, is fodder for original ideas. These are only some of the advantages for journalists who effectively harness todays’ social media.

Over a one-week period, you might send out dozens of tweets. Please cut and paste a representative sample of 10 tweets you actually sent out any time after Thursday, Aug. 4. These should reflect the kind of tweets you send on a regular basis.

Tornado uproots eight trees on Grand Street and FDR Drive. Story to follow @CUJIreneWatch website. #Irene http://yfrog.com/gytt1hwdj

New photos are up @CUJIreneWatch: On the Ground: Battery Park and Ground Zero http://wp.me/p1NMZS-J

@lexinyt covering #Irene through the night with @ErinCauchi on @CUJIreneWatch. Would you like extra footage?

For my UofT anthropology folks. Only a year ago… @mpoppel: At least 12 dead after ferry sinks in east. Indonesia http://dlvr.it/j3fX2

Read @erincauchi/@hellerjake) via @taylor_owen: unbelievably misguided RT @daeaves: Quickest way to corrupt the media RT http://bit.ly/mRGJIi

Great interview with #CBC High Risk Deployment Manager re: journalists in conflict. Informative and honest.

Let’s do this!! @hellerjake: @adammccauley still in? RT @ClintonGlobal Journalists: Join us at #CGI2011 http://bit.ly/pressreg2011

Read #cuj12 (via @taylor_owen) @futureJproject: 10 things every journalism student should know: http://bit.ly/qIjPud (via @journalismnews)

Great aggregation discussion by @amichel. If social agg is dangerous (reduces exposure to types of news) can robust agg. be the solution?

Amen @Quotes4Writers: “The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone.” Martin Amis (Born 1949) Novelist

 

Please identify five journalists’ Twitter accounts that you have started following after Thursday, Aug. 4.  List each handle and describe, in a sentence why you are following that person.

 Jim Roberts, Assisting Managing Editor of The New York Times

@nytjim

Added to my Twitter community as his position offers a unique look at the editorial community at the New York Times; particularly when he flags good examples journalism in the field today.

Philip Gourevitch, Staff Writer at The New Yorker
@pgourevitch

Long-time fan of his reportage – particularly the accounts published in his book We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. He writes primarily long-form investigative pieces and does now what I hope to do in the industry.

C.J Chivers, Senior Writer at The New York Times
@cjchivers

Chivers is a foreign correspondent, reporting primarily from conflict zones (the latest in Libya). His descriptive and prolific writing – both for the Times and on his personal blog – stands as an example worthy of emulation for anyone trying to break into the news industry.

Ashley Gilbertson, Photojournalist with VII Network
@ashgilbertson

I am currently writing a piece on photojournalists in war and connected with him through a Facebook friend. Extremely well connected and experienced, Gilbertson’s tweets provide steady updates of his work and the talented photojournalists in VII’s community and beyond.

Matthew Chance, Senior International Correspondent for CNN
@mchancecnn

During his detainment in Libya, Chance tweeted extensive updates about the situation on the ground and the conditions for the detainees (fellow journalists and crew).

Name some ways your use of Facebook might change now that you are in J-school (no more than 150 words).

Facebook has typically been an amorphous social media resource sink for me personally. While it does keep friends and acquaintances connected, if properly curated, it can be a more efficient tool to publish to, read about, and converse with others in the industry. For example, using lists allows you to better organize the extensive amount of information filtered through Facebook each day. This has become a new and helpful tool personally.

More importantly, Facebook should be recognized as yet another aspect of a digital – and personal – footprint. What is listed on your pages, what trends on your profile and how you interact with your contacts, will either strengthen or weaken your brand. This is not to say that social media should be flat or conservative, but that it should – at all times – be a reflection of the person you are and want to be.