A few weeks ago, Dan Honigman, the Chicago Tribune’s social media guy, invited fellow Twitter users to tour the Tribune building and sit in on a morning news meeting. It was great to see the newsrooms, etc. and I’m very glad I went. However, I wasn’t sure what the point of the tour was and why local Twitter users had been targeted. After I asked, Dan shared that they hoped to give a more human face to the Trib and let us know what they were all about.
It took me a while to figure out what bothered me about the whole event, but I think it was the one-sidedness of it. The Trib wanted us to see them as human, but didn’t seem interested in us as people who actively use social media or as potential contributers. I felt that we were seen as traffic for their site, promoters of their content, and builders of their buzz. There wasn’t any interest in making the relationship two-way, and reciprocity is required for any relationship to be real. I really think it was a lost opportunity to talk to us about our thoughts of the Trib as an online presence and how citizen journalism could work in cooperation with their efforts.
They’re promoting a meet-up event through Twitter for mid-August, and I’m interested to see how they do or do not further a relationship with local people. It’s great that they’re exploring this space, but weak efforts like this tour won’t make me feel as though I have a relationship with my local paper.
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