Snapchat and News Mix

Local news has its place in the Snapchat app. One of the apps features lets its users post their snaps to a public story if there is a specific event going on. From sporting events to weekends at Universities, Snapchat allows you to send in stories relating to whatever event is going on and broadcast it to anyone who has the app in the area. as great as this idea is, it could be even better if it were used for reporting news. All the content would come from witnesses and be real life accounts of what is happening. A recent example of this happened during the multiple gas fires in Massachusetts. The first media to be shared and released to the public had been done through snapchat. Regular citizens provided coverage of the event as it was unfolding.

Compare this to other social media and the closest thing to the public story that you will find is any live feature. For example, Facebook has its Facebook live feature that is more personal and tied to only one account. While not live, Snapchat’s control over when public stories are available allows them to focus in on one story while multiple people can upload their snaps and share their version of the story.

Snapchat has taken its own interest in local news as well. The company has started working with Tegna. This allows journalists access to public snaps to include in their articles. It is a very efficient way of bring first hand witness visuals to go along with stories that are headlining news.

News sites like heavy.com have begun to include snapchat media into their stories. Gets more efficient the more important the story is. Live footage has seen an increase in use in news and social media with things like Facebook/Instagram Live.

As helpful as Snapchat can be within the realms of showing the public what is going on at that specific moment in time, it also can arise problems with the content it provides. New stations show visuals of traumatic events, but the clips that are shown on TV are usually regulated and approved by the station. By allowing Snapchat users to send in visuals that have to do with whatever is going on, people can send in content that news station may not want to show or are not allowed to show.

A statement from Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s office said that the filters “were unfortunately posted before receiving approval.”

Snapchat misrepresented local landmarks in Boston as geotags and the community did not approve. So much, that they even made shirts saying “east Boston is not an airport” due to the fact the east Boston geotag was represented by Logan Airport image. This may not be a big deal in the news world, but it does no good for the value snapchat could bring to broadcasting local news.

Snapchat is a quick and relevant way of sharing information publicly. It use within broadcast news could be very useful and a proactive way of getting people to really understand the events that make news on TV. It also would advocate people to work together in natural disasters or any event that would require people to know about in order to help communities come together to solve whatever disaster is at hand. With the apps popularity and usage, it very well could be a more popular form of news then other platforms.

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