Michael Coste

12-2-14
MSCM 343
Final Project

Journalism Plan: NBC News Ferguson Coverage

Introduction

After a black teenager named Michael Brown was fatally shot by police in

Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th, 2014, protests broke out across the city over the police

officers decision to shoot the unarmed man. NBC News first published a story on August

10th from the Associated Press about the riots, and has now posted 457 stories on the

subject since then. Each of these stories covers the violent protests and controversial

topics that have continued to escalate for three months due to the fact that the victim was

unarmed. Because of the prominence of this story across the nation, I plan on creating an

interactive webpage on NBCs website that curates user-generated content, encourages

reader engagement and presents the 457 stories in an organized way.

News Organization and Product

I will be working for NBC News, which is headquartered in New York City, New

York. According to the NBC News Digital website, this portion of the NBC Network

reaches 58 million unique visitors each month. In addition, these visitors generate 1.2

billion page views a month, along with 140 million online video streams.

This product will cover the ongoing stories and controversy about the death of

Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. As previously stated in the introduction, police

Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Brown on August 9th, 2014 after the teenager

allegedly taunted Wilson, according to the officers account of the story. This shooting,

because Brown was unarmed, has caused months of violent protests and controversy not

only in Ferguson, but across the country as well. While the protests around the country
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Final Project
havent been nearly as violent as they have been in Missouri, they represent the

widespread impact of this issue.

Since the first Ferguson story NBC News published on August 10th, the news

organization has since published 457 stories that cover the protests, the controversy, the

accounts of people involved and the grand jurys decision not to indict Officer Darren

Wilson. Because of the amount of interest and content this story has created, I plan to

make a special online section on the NBC News website and form an organized, visually

appealing platform that displays each aspect of the story in a unique way.

The platform will only focus on the Ferguson controversy and will contain all of

NBC News published stories about the subject, a timeline (with links to the stories from

that time), an interactive photo and video gallery, user-generated content and engaging

polls. The webpage will be innovative and will contain different tabs to organize the

different aspects of the story. For example, the tabs will be titled: The Stories, The

Timeline, Photo/Video Gallery and #FergusonOnNBC, which will contain curated

user-generated content.

The new platform will ease any confusion readers may have about the story

because of the organization and innovative layout of the webpage. It will encourage more

engagement and create a larger story within itself: the entire Ferguson story.

Audience

Since this story has been a prominent topic for the last three months, the target

audience would include the entire nation. The story has news value and would be

interesting to all different types of people, because of the conflict, emotion and currency.

The people who arent directly affected are interested, and the people who are directly
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Final Project
affected want to share their story/opinion. This new platform gives all audience members

the information or outlet they may have been looking for. NBC News target audience is

adults between the ages 25-54, which includes audience members who understand

todays technology and are involved with the worlds current conversation. Because this

audience is fairly tech-savvy, the innovative layout of the webpage will be understood

and appreciated.

Social Media Integration

Due to the popularity and prominence of social media, this platform will include

various options for users to interact with each other and with the content as well. When

the new platform is first unveiled, NBC News will post a story about the new webpage

and explain how users can use its various features. Included in the announcement will be

the key to success: the Ferguson story hashtag, #FergusonOnNBC. A unique hashtag

will set this story coverage apart by curating almost all user-generated content about the

Ferguson controversy and presenting it in a live feed. However if users post about the

story and dont use the hashtag, their information wont be directly shared with NBC

News.

As previously mentioned, there will be a tab on the webpage with the hashtag as

its title. In this section, the audience can see a moderated curation of user-generated

content from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. It will be organized in a visually

appealing format that is easy for the audience to navigate. Because some of the content

may be inappropriate, any posts with profanity or inappropriate images will be flagged

and not shared on the website. This new section will solely focus on what the audience

has to say, which will add depth and a first-person point of view to the story. When
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Final Project
journalists post stories about Ferguson online, they will need to include social media

content to add depth to the stories. Each piece of content that they add must serve a

purpose to the story, so that readers appreciate that its added. Each time that a new story

is published or a new photo gallery is released, it will be shared on Facebook and Twitter

to increase the number of views and interactions.

While much of this content was posted by the public without any encouragement,

NBC News can also use this as an opportunity to learn more about the affected people by

encouraging them to share their opinion and experiences. NBC News will frequently

share posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that encourage users to tell their stories

or share their opinion. Along with those posts will be informational tweets, live updates,

links to the webpage and promotions for stories and features.

Each time there is a post shared across all social media platforms, the message

will be edited and adapted to meet the needs of the specific platform. Twitter will be used

to frequently share new information and links, while Facebook will be used to share

larger pieces of the story with more in-depth coverage. Instagram will mostly be used to

share the most noteworthy pictures from Ferguson, which will not be posted frequently.

By using user-generated content in the story, the audience will be able to see the

story from a more personal point of view. Audience members will be able to read first-

hand accounts of the protests, see what people think about the issue and communicate

with anyone in the country. They can use this as an opportunity to create conversation

amongst themselves and engage with a news story in a new way. Integrating social media

into the story coverage provides the audience with depth and provides NBC News with

sources of information that can be used in/for stories.

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Challenges

Although this plan seems effective and seems to be positively affected by the

addition of social media, there are also challenges that come along with incorporating raw

content into a story thats published on a professional website. It will be difficult to fairly

curate the user-generated content in the social media section of the webpage, because

sometimes it may be hard to judge the appropriateness of a post. Along with that, some

may see it as unfair and biased when their content is excluded from being published on

the webpage. Even though a strong system will be put in place to monitor social media

activity, some audience members may find something to be inappropriate that others may

not. Any words that are profane or any posts that contain inappropriate pictures or videos

will be cut from the social media stream. In order to resolve this issue, there will be a

warning posted before the content can be seen that will inform readers about the risks of

viewing the user-generated content. It will also be important for journalists to accurately

and fairly report the stories, so that there isnt any misrepresentation or biased stories.

Existing Social Media Presence

NBC News already has a strong social media presence, with 5.4 million likes on

Facebook, 1.9 million followers on Twitter, and over 411,000 followers on Instagram.

Because of the large audience, integrating social media into the coverage plan will

increase engagement and the audience reach. It is important that the sharing style of this

plan meets the style the company has already implemented across its different platforms.

In order for the plan to work, information must be shared frequently to ensure effective

engagement. On Facebook, NBC News posts almost once an hour, while on Twitter, there

is a tweet posted about two to three times an hour. However on Instagram, NBC News
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posts about two times a week. Across all social media platforms, NBC News maintains a

professional and unbiased image. Each post is informative and doesnt have a specific

voice, which will be helpful for the integration of this plan. Each post on social media

and every story will maintain an unbiased viewpoint and wont have a specific voice.

Many of the posts on social media will be have a serious, informative tone, in order to

stay neutral. Most importantly, NBC News is already very active on social media, which

is important because the plan can be easily implemented. The activity on Instagram will

be increased to raise engagement levels on that social media platform. Because the

presentation of the story is similar to how NBC News already shares information, the

transition will be easy and effective; therefore I believe that there will not be any issues

with the new story coverage plan.

Conclusion

After the implementation of this coverage plan and its use of social media,

audience members will be able to easily read the stories about Ferguson, see a timeline of

the story, view photos and videos and access live user-generated content. All of these

different features give the story depth and give readers a chance to be involved. After the

coverage stops, the success of the plan can be measured by audience engagement and

reach. After creating an informative and engaging story by combining different features,

user engagement and reach would increase. Therefore the success of the plan will be

measured by the amount of engagement through social media platforms and the amount

of page views. Because of the innovative, organized social center created in this plan, the

entire Ferguson story will be told with clarity and through different perspectives.
Michael Coste
12-2-14
MSCM 343
Final Project