19 April 2015
Millennials. Generation Me. People, who can’t imagine their life without social media. At the International Journalism Festival in Perugia typical members of the digital generation explained how to build career on Twitter, what Pinterest has to do with journalism, and why it is important to make your life visible for everyone in the world.
Social media is not just about sharing pictures of food anymore, as the participants of the discussion “Media-making millennials: #werunthis” pointed out.
“Social media activity is a blend of interactivity, journalism and self marketing, – says a blogger Giorgia Popermhem. – “Millennials are a new breed of global citizens, generation of self expression. Our activities in social media has been already defined as produsage – production and usage of the content at the same time. What does it mean for journalists? On the one hand, there is a constant negotiations between professionals and users. On the other hand, social media make it much easier to create and spread false information”.
22 years old Carolina Are has practically built her career in social media: “It started with a blog that I launched before moving to London from Italy. I have gained a big number of followers, and soon I was interviewed by Italian community media in the UK. I am also very active on Twitter and LinkedIn. This is how I was noticed by experts and employers, who was looking for a social media manager”.
Millennials point out that all social media can be also effectively used by professional journalists: tools like Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube offer many possibilities for creative storytellers. For example, they make it possible to tell the story behind the story and get closer to the audience.
However, journalists have to be ready to face certain difficulties, when it comes to creation of multimedia projects in social media, warns Costanza Maio, a young documentary film-maker: “Such projects are usually time consuming and quite expensive, and they are very different from traditional journalism”.
Participants agreed that any social media tool can be used by different people in very different ways: they can share pictures of food or build a successful career in journalism. But it is no more possible to ignore social media in the modern world: “You have to be present online – that is how you show who you are”, says Costanza Maio.
Adilya Zaripova