5
CAREER CUES
Social Media Needs a Journalistic Underpinning
I
met a digital strategist at the
spring convention of the Society
of American Business Editors and
Writers. She talked about her
budding consulting business and
managing her client’s campaign with a
mix of pride and excitement.
Maya Cade is scheduled to graduate
in December from Howard University
in Washington, D.C. She parlayed
an internship with the AARP
Foundation into a contract with the
communications team for Mentor
Up, a program on intergenerational
volunteerism. You can review her profile
on LinkedIn.
Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating
natural disaster of its decade, compelled
her to choose journalism.
“I come from New Orleans, and I saw
Katrina unfold as a 10-year-old.”
It was the opposite of stellar coverage
that motivated her. “It was the overall
message of New Orleanians being
called everything from savages to
looters to robbers in their own home,
their own city. Perhaps what wasn’t
understood is that many of these things
had to be done in order to survive,” she
wrote in an email.
“In short, there was such a journalistic
loss by not recognizing the humanity of
black residents in New Orleans.”
At Howard, she has worked as a deputy
on the Hilltop and managed a team of
five in planning and executing a digital
marketing strategy for the historic
college’s student newspaper. Working
on the newspaper helped her decide
how to marry her two loves – social
media and journalism.
Cade is also part of the student staff
By Linda Shockley
at Truth Be Told, an investigative
journalism and fact-checking site
created by Howard journalism faculty,
among them, Yanick Rice Lamb, Ingrid
Sturgis, Shirley Carswell and New York
Times investigative journalist Ron
Nixon. The project is funded through a
collaborative including the Excellence
and Ethics in Journalism Foundation,
the Robert R. McCormick Foundation,
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,
the Democracy Fund and the Rita Allen
Foundation, and is managed by Online
News Association.
Being selected by ProPublica last
fall for an Emerging Reporter Award
provided a stipend that Cade used to
support one of her other ventures, A
Tribe Called News. She created the site
for millennials of color to share their
voices while being edited to journalistic
standards. She said she works with
non-journalists in Google Docs so that
they can see and learn from the editing
process.
“The ProPublica award helped me
realize I want to be a social media
editor,” she said. Cade said Truth Be Told
showed her to talk to people about
diversifying what they read and to be
constantly critical.
She said, “I am truly thankful for my high
school journalism experience because it
gave me a leg up when I entered Howard. Without high school journalism, I
may not have been able to start working on Howard’s student newspaper as
Life & Style Editor as a sophomore.”
Her key takeaway is social media can be
fun, but that is not what it’s about.
It requires:
• Creativity
• Focus on the client’s goals and style
guides
• Proficiency as a writer
Adviser Update readers know better
than anyone how well suited, driven
critical thinkers are to elevating media,
whether online, mobile or in print from
clickbait, hearsay and compromised
standards. Share your stories of former
students who have made a difference
in the direction the media and
communications are headed.
Send your stories to me at
linda.shockley@dowjones.com.
In a May 9 article for E&P, Central
Michigan University journalism
students told publishers how to help
their businesses reach readers and
users now and in the future. Read their
prescriptions here.
Linda Shockley
Linda Shockley is managing director of
the Dow Jones News Fund. She joined
the Fund as assistant to the director in
1988 and was named deputy director
in 1992. She holds a bachelor’s degree
in journalism from the University of
Bridgeport in Connecticut. Before joining
Dow Jones, she worked as a reporter,
editor, bureau chief and city editor
for Gannett-owned newspapers in
Westchester County, New York.
Email: linda.shockley@dowjones.com
Phone: 609-520-5929