It’s every journalist’s desire to tell a great story, but traditional newsgathering can be a lengthy process and can slow down momentum when every minute counts. When there’s a looming deadline, a journalist is under tremendous pressure to craft the right angle, content and context that meets the expectations of their audience. And with breaking developments traveling at lightning speed on social media, it’s more important than ever to have the right newsroom tools to streamline the process for a job well done.
It all starts with the ability to uncover breaking events as soon as possible, gifting a journalist with extra time to dedicate to verifying information, reaching out to sources, and crafting a compelling story.
Real-time alerts like those from Dataminr surface events the instant they are reported on Twitter. They’re delivered through email, mobile phone, desktop or Slack and replace the manual process of conducting hashtag searches and continually monitoring the vast information being shared on social media.
Once a reporter is squarely on top of a breaking event, new developments are sure to arise at a moment’s notice. Good reporting often entails threading together multiple corroborative reports to ensure that the coverage is complete, accurate and revealing. Tracking a story is easy with Dataminr, which provides a steady stream of related alerts with additional perspectives and context, helping add breadth and depth to storytelling. A journalist is likely to uncover angles they would never have considered and see patterns that other journalists may miss.
Storytelling in the age of social media is also characterized by visual content, including imagery that conveys the urgency and emotion of a situation. Dataminr’s alerts deliver the most immediate images or video clips being surfaced from eyewitness Tweets, adding a rich visual fabric to unfolding events.
When an event is developing, reporters must follow up with eyewitnesses or local authorities to verify news accounts, especially for local news stories. Dataminr expands a team’s investigative reach, providing a wealth of perspectives and means to identify people at the heart of those accounts. The earlier and more thoroughly one can hone in on the right sources, the more time there will be to gather the personal stories that will enhance storytelling.
In the end, Dataminr quickly unearths the events journalists want to cover, giving them the extra time they need to craft the best story. Journalists who use Dataminr have the satisfaction of knowing that they’re optimizing their time and resources and that they’re adding the journalistic value that will inform and please their audiences.
