In China, because Google is banned to use, people always use the Baidu as a search engine. When I search “缪冬妮“ which is my Chinese name, because there is only a few people named “缪冬妮” in China, I found almost all the pages show the information about me. In the first page of my results, I feel so lucky that my name is unique. When others want to know something about me, the information they get online is almost all about me. The first two results were my profile information of social media (Renren, Weibo).
The first one coming is my Renren account, it is a social media which is like the Facebook in United States. I have 818 friends in Renren. Because my account is public, everyone can be available to see my information and posts. I changed my account from private to public last year because I want to be journalist in the future, change my account to public will be more easily for others to know more about me.
The second on is my Weibo account. Weibo is a social media like Twitter. I can create a nick name and post everything I want to say. However, I don’t think Weibo is a good way to know someone, because everyone can use the nick name. It is difficult for others to search you and know what you are looking at and what you are posting. But there are still many people use their real name on Weibo, especially the stars, editors, bosses of the companies. I am luckily that I have 831 followers and I am happy to share my story and opinion of what happen everyday.
When I scrolling down, I found there were two reports were written by me. On 2012, I got an opportunity to work as an intern for a newspaper, named Jiangyin Daily Newspaper. During this period, the editor of Jiangyin Daily Newspaper, Weihong Cheng taught me how to write the news and how to interview others to get the useful information. It was my first step to be a journalist in the future, I am happy that this information was shown on the first page. It will be a good standard to evaluate my journalism skill when I apply for the job in the future.
Although there are many information about me online, I would still rate my online reputation as “poor”, the most important reason is there is no image about me when I used Baidu as the search engine. I think the reason of no image of me online is I blocked all my albums online which means only my friends can see photos. To be honest, my digital footprint reflects poorly on me, because almost all the information is got from the social media, I think I need more information to show my journalism professional skills.
After finishing my intern in the Newspaper, I found I need to post the things and image properly online. As a journalist, seek the truth and report the truth is the most important thing for me. I need to concern every problems and everything happen around me objectively. The chance is equal for everyone, if I make a mistake, then anyone else can have the chance to replace me. For me, to be a honest person and be energetic, passionate forever is very important.
Engaging your audience
“We live in an ever more challenging and complex world. Holding government, corporations and institutions accountable is increasingly vital. A working democracy relies on fair, accurate and thorough information that is distributed widely, consumed widely and respected for its credibility. ”
As a journalist, it is important to let audience trust us. The world become more complex because of the web, social medias. People can post everything online what they want to say, however, what people say is not always the truth. How to get the credibility from audiences is a difficult problem journalists need to face. As Richard Gingras & Sally Lehrman mentioned in their trust project Online Chaos Demands Radical Action by Journalism to Earn Trust,Media credibility has been a challenge for decades and is far more so today.
In my opinion, the most important thing to engage your audience is to let your audience know you well. As many journalists do in their Facebook, Twitter accounts, put a clear photo, post the published work and put the true contact information, it is a good way to show audience and let them feel very know you, it will let your audience feel you are believable. Because the job of journalists is to seek the truth and report it, to introduce yourself with true details will help you to win the credibility from your audiences.
Besides, If I can write the report as a journalist, I will pay more attention on my citations and corrections. According to the article,“Citations and more specific links would allow audiences to assess their effort and accuracy. An effective system would also allow audiences to alert editors to perceived inaccuracies, as the Report an Error Alliance has proposed, and follow corrections.“When audiences are allowed to asses their effort and accuracy, the credibility you may get from your audiences.
Now, Journalists are expected to be conversation leaders and moderators, and not just “broadcasters” of information, actually, i am comfortable about this new role. As a journalist, I hope my articles can influence others, and attract more audiences.