Social media has become extremely useful for news organizations in sharing news and opening up room for discussion. Fox 5 has uses social media to connect with its viewers. From the website’s homepage people can access links to the TV news station’s social media sites, mobile applications and RSS feeds.
Fox 5 uses Twitter to keep their audience up to date on breaking news along with stories covered by their reporters. They seem to tweet at least once every hour and always include links to the stories on myfoxdc.com. However, there is very little use of hash tags, which could be useful in their tweets, especially for trending topics. One example of a tweet that could have used a hash tag is one about Trayvon Martin’s parents coming to D.C. because it’s a hot topic.
The news station’s Facebook page is very easy to navigate through. At the top people can find links to their photos, latest headlines, Twitter and their number of likes. Links to stories are posted less often then they are on Twitter, but there tends to be a lot more discussion about the stories posted on Facebook. Open discussion is one of the elements of social media that makes it so useful.
Both Fox 5’s Twitter and Facebook pages have a large graphic that lists the times of their daily newscasts. This says a lot about what the organization is trying to emphasize. Fox 5 is a local TV news station, so getting the message out there about the station’s show times on their social media sites is a clever way of reminding viewers of the primary place to get the news.
Fox 5 makes the effort to be interactive with their audience through social media at a bare minimum. They use these tools to allow people on the website to share stories on Facebook and Twitter, post links to stories and most importantly, remind viewers of when to tune into their newscasts. Myfoxdc.com could use more than just the simple option to share stories on social media sites. Twitter feeds and other efforts would add interactive elements to the news Fox 5 is reporting on the websites and ultimately create a better experience for viewers.
Erica A. Mink 