A reporter between jobs uses Twitter to find and cover news
By Lily Leung | twitter.com/LilyShumLeung
My incurable Twitter addiction paid tremendous reporting dividends Tuesday.
With ease, I used the social-media tool to guide me from a tweet announcing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s presence in San Diego to reporting the actual protest of his presence and divisive immigration policies.
Note: Here are two of her photos.
ORIGIN: My adventure began with a tweet that I received on my lovely Droid ERIS, powered by Verizon Wireless. Using his @RealSheriffJoe account, Arpaio on Monday sent a blast about a speech he was going to give the next day. The tweet read: “Just talked to Fox 5 in San Diego, they say over 200 will protest my speech there tomorrow. I will go anyway. Will be on Fox 5 tonight.”
CONTEXT: I just arrived to San Diego by way of Phoenix on Sunday. (I’m in the midst of a job transition.) Even though I’m not officially San Diego media yet, I figured what the hey, I could this report this protest as a citizen.
THE PROCESS: Arpaio’s tweet didn’t have much information, so on my Droid, I Googled something to the effect of “Arpaio and San Diego.” That pulled up a press release posted by Spanish media “La Prensa San Diego.” The release, sent out by the Escondido Human Rights Committee, listed details of the protest, its location, time and Arpaio’s speech. I was set.
WHILE THERE: I got to the scene pretty early on Tuesday, earlier than most of the protesters, so I chatted with the police, some early arrivals and folks in at The Country Club of Rancho Bernardo, where the function was hosted. I roamed with my Droid ERIS, snapping pictures, uploading them on Twitter (by way of the Twidroyd application) and adding captions for context. I also tweeted some color, i.e. what folks on both sides were chanting, conversation I overheard, etc.
WHAT WORKED: I like to use headers on my tweets. For example, since this was an immigration protest, I began my tweets on that feed with “IMMIGRATION | “ then added the message. To save time, I just copied that header and pasted it every time I was ready to tweet something new. That was a crucial time-saver and allowed me to still be organized for my followers.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK: I would have liked to take more pictures. But my battery life was inching toward the quarter mark, so I was shooting pictures more judiciously at the end. Also, I was hoping to listen in on Arpaio’s speech but only reporters with credentials and who were approved beforehand were allowed.
WRAP-UP: Overall, the experience was a success. One key to good tweeting as an on-field reporter with a smartphone is to take lots of pictures. One thing I learned is folks love pictures. A word of caution: Don’t forget to add context to photos you post. People also want crucial information, also known as the reporter’s basics: who, what, where, when and why. I made sure I mentioned I was in San Diego, for example, as to not mislead people I was in Arizona still. Without pictures and the context, tweets aren’t as interesting and also lack focus.
Lily Leung (@LilyShumLeung) is a former reporter at The Arizona Republic. She is joining the San Diego Union-Tribune’s watchdog team on Aug. 16.
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