Jim MacMillan interview
From 1984 through 2008, Jim MacMillan worked as a full-time newspaper and wire service photojournalist, primarily in Boston and Philadelphia, and briefly in Iraq. In 2005 his work was part of the AP staff portfolio which won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.
Now, his efforts are focused more broadly across independent social media reporting, journalism education, the study of trauma journalism, multimedia reporting, entrepreneurialism and the development of sustainable economic models for the future of journalism.
This year, he is advising the students who report and produce War News Radio at Swarthmore College, teaching graduate multimedia reporting courses at the Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, leading journalism innovation seminars for the Philadelphia Initiative for Journalistic Innovation at Temple University, and consulting for Webbmedia Group.
When did you start using Twitter?
I got an account after attending Blog World Expo in 2007 but I was still confused about monitoring replies, because this was way back when only the web interface was available. I got much more active after I left my newspaper job in 2008, having this sense that there had to be a better way, and that social media tools would be the key to individual empowerment.
Do you use other social media to connect with readers?
I once subscribed to 40 social media networks in a day, but I am mostly active on Facebook and Twitter now. I still strive to adopt something new every day; maybe a site or an app or even an occasional device, and this leads to dipping my toe into just about every new network. I check-in with Foursquare frequently, but I don’t get a lot of engagement. I look at it as an appendage to my Twitter relationships.
Do you have separate Twitter identities for your personal and professional activities? If you have just one Twitter ID, roughly what proportion of your tweets each day are related to your beat, and what proportion are personal/fun/quirky?
Before Twitter “lists” came along, I maintained several different personal accounts for the different communities and spaces where I spend time, but I eventually shut them down.
I also contribute heavily to @warnewsradio - which accompanies http://warnewsradio.org, where I am the journalist-in-residence for War News Radio at Swarthmore College.
I also recently launched @phijiorg to accompany http://phiji.org, the companion site to the Philadelphia Initiative for Journalism Innovation, a speaker series that I coordinate at Temple University.
Does your news organization — or the outlet you write for most often — have a social media policy or any kind of formal guidelines about what you can and can’t do on Twitter?
I mostly teach now, and self-publish a lot; so, there isn’t a news org to please anymore.
If you write a regular column or produce a podcast, do you announce each release on Twitter with a link?
I promote everything I do across every platform I manage, whether it is a finished report, a work in progress, student work I have been involved with, or something as simple as a check-in. I look at reporting as a spectrum, and I think most platforms can be used for a combination of reporting, promoting and other communications.
If you appear as a guest on TV or radio, do you tweet details of your appearance ahead of time? Do you ever tweet during the break while you’re on air?
I try to remember to tweet before appearances, and later tweet links to online content if available. I don’t have an old-media show, but I tweet in advance of live-streaming the events that I manage. Sometimes I live-stream during lectures.
Do you announce your exclusives with a link? Do you re-tweet exclusives by colleagues at your news org?
I don’t work for a news org anymore, but I tweet links to my own original content and also frequently tweet anything special done by friends and colleagues, including exclusives.
Have you ever used Twitter to break a story before you had a version to link to?
I tweeted something like “airliner in the Hudson” at the very second I saw the live video pop up on CNN, and some followers told me mine was first, but I never confirmed it. While I think it’s important to be timely of course, I’m not sure there is anything more than novelty to being first.
I tweet things I witness - some of which might occasionally qualify as news - on the spot, before any linkable content could possibly exist. Or I might post words, audio, video or photos from the scene, and link to those. I guess the tweet/twitpic combination is the fastest so far.
Has there been an example of a story recently that you know you have covered differently because of Twitter?
I think it’s a mistake to talk about the traditional story. I have conversed openly with participants in stories during events, like with passengers stranded on a train after an accident. I was reporting links and asking them questions. They were reporting their observations, and any followers could monitor us live.
And has there been a story that you have advanced or amended the same day because of reader feedback on Twitter?
I blogged after an insider tweeted on a major business story, but his superiors had a different point of view which he eventually supported, and I reported the process as they updated. It’s really nothing like the old-fashioned, freestanding story that was delivered like a parcel.
For journalists, what do you think are the most and least beneficial aspects of being on Twitter?
It’s a powerful tool for news gathering, distribution, research, building relationships, communications and online identity management.
It’s a bit of a time sink, and if revenue is your metric for success, it’s hard to draw a clear return-on-investment for most of what I do.
Finally, who are two or three of the most entertaining / informative people – not necessarily other journalists – that you follow?
There are lots of places to find information and entertainment online, but I monitor Twitter as an ecosystem. I can’t suggest users to follow as much as I think it’s important to monitor the network.
