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Social media has become one of the go-to locations for Americans to find their news. Though it behooves every newsroom to have a presence on one or more of the popular social platforms, treading those waters once they’ve dived in remains tricky.
Vic Micolucci
“It is so hostile right now,” said Vic Micolucci, reporter for WJKT, a Graham-owned station in Jacksonville, Fl. “You have to really think about what you post, double-check it, triple-check it and sometimes go by somebody else sitting next to you in the newsroom and say, ‘Hey, read this for me.’ ”
Micolucci spoke during a Friday panel discussion, Standing Out on Social in a Historic Year, part of this year’s NewsTECHForum and moderated by TVNewsCheck editor Michael Depp. He later observed that simply executing the job of reporter can set off a whirlwind of vitriol on social, no matter how unjustified.
Oftentimes, it doesn’t even take that much.
Mike Woods
“Something as simple as wearing a red sweater can really fire people up, and they’ll think that you’re automatically choosing a [political] side,” said Mike Woods, a meteorologist at Fox O&O WNYW New York. “And I’m like, ‘How did I get here?’ I have no intention of being political at all.”
Woods remarked that sometimes on social he’ll see aggressive commentary, often slinged directly at him, and feel an impulse to go
