There's an awful lot of news out there today. Look at your news feed, phone, TV... Everywhere you look, there is more information than any reasonable person can possibly consume. Which makes me think we all need to ask ourselves if we're producing news or just adding to the noise. I think we can answer that question by looking into two topics - are we listening (a favorite old stump of mine) and do we have the proper delivery systems in place.
Listening
Too often, information sharing initiatives are driven by institutional needs and interests and not those of the individuals we are trying to connect with. In other words, it's all about us. Do the peope we're trying to reach really care? Does this new information make their lives any better? What comes next? How does this new information support the institutional narrative?
To get to this place, we need to get out and talk with people and understand how our institutional priorities align with their interests and needs. It's not as hard ad it may seem, once you understand who your publics are, how each one is different from another and how your institution is and can be relevant to them.
Systems
This is an area in which I think social media has confused things a bit. While there had been a relatively few number of "pipes" to get information to people (traditional media being the biggest), we now have a complext and highly customizable content sprinkler system at our finger tips. Problem is we often forget to hook it up to the spigot and opt for a hose instead.
We now have the ability to create a wide range of content and deliver it based on the interest/topic. Additionally, thanks to our good friend RSS, we can deliver it in a variety of formats. But are we? How many places are taking the time to build these systems rather than just plugging another hose into the wall and spraying the content out there? Too often, social media is treated as another outlet for our big content stream rather than a way to focus on pockets of people.
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