The third day of International Journalism Festival showed the highest level of user engagement in web conversations: 3768 users produced 12,776 tweets, half of them as retweets and 7.5% as replies. Thirty-three percent of conversations were in English. National online mainstream sources diffused 67% of the news. A peak in conversation on Twitter took place at 4.15 p.m. with 399 tweets every 15 minutes.
A discussion was sparked about the participation of individuals, encouraged by the web. The focus switched to online communities that bring value to the actions of individuals. For those who create and manage media communities, community engagement, rather than sheer number of community members, makes the difference. Community engagement comes from information.
.@LauraNorton: “An informed community is an engaged community” #ijf14 pic.twitter.com/F6BSrQjBlK
— journalism festival (@journalismfest) 2 Maggio 2014
Ognuno ha la community che si merita (ma è sempre possibile lavorarci 😉 #ijf14 — mafe (@mafedebaggis) 2 Maggio 2014
However, the question arose: are online communities a true form of active participation?
I comportamenti sono oggi più democratici perché decisi dalle masse @om una botta di eccessivo ottimismo a #alldigital #ijf14— Gio. Boccia Artieri (@gba_mm) 2 Maggio 2014
The community sometimes builds its identity based on places or events. This is the case with “Lands of Fires”, the topic of a dedicated panel discussion. Journalism here has a difficult but essential role: to fill the gap between institutions and citizens, to serve a community.
#terradeifuochi #ijf14 Il vero nodo è il cortocircuito tra Istituzioni e cittadini… lì c’è la risoluzione del problema. — Antonio Dinetti (@AntonioDinetti) 2 Maggio 2014
E un grazie di cuore ancora una volta ad @_arianna per aver portato la #Terradeifuochi e l’informazione al servizio dei cittadini a #ijf14 — Rosy Battaglia (@rosybattaglia) 2 Maggio 2014
Regardless of technological innovation, journalism has to maintain its mission: to make sense of events, including through new storytelling methods, as explained by Domenico Quirico.
Quirico: il reportage non è un problema di tecnologia. Passione, curiosità, paura. Bisogna andare a vedere. Questo è il #giornalismo. #ijf14 — Daniele Banfi (@danielebanfi83) 2 Maggio 2014
In the evening, Gazebo Live attracted the highest level of interest in terms of web conversation, as can be seen in a tag cloud of tweets.
All details about Web conversation on the third day of #ijf14 can be found on the platform Buzzdetector: Buzzflow.