MAINSTREAM REPORT--
When Journalism Worldviews Collide--
(RED BEACH)--Diametrically opposed by their ethnic and professional backgrounds, Andrew Mercier and Barkha Dutt share at least one thing in common. The first reported in Muck Rack that the second is one of the most followed journalists on Twitter.
"The platform has been credited with giving a voice to people in closed societies, inciting revolution, opening dialogues on tough issues and being used by world leaders to get their unfiltered messages out to supporters and critics alike...This top 10 has some notable changes from 2013, mostly the inclusion of some journalists in India." (Muck Rack)
Ms. Dutt is rated at number four, behind only Anderson Cooper of CNN, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and her fellow countryman Rajdeep Sardesai. The 2017 list shows Barkha at over 6 million followers, currently the Twitter page for her shows nearly 7 million followers. (Twitter)
Barkha Dutt (@BDUTT) on Twitter indicates she signed up in February 2009 and her bio reads;
"Barkha Rani Jamke Barasti Hai. Emmy Nominated Reporter. Wannabe Lawyer. Columnist @WashingtonPost Contributing Editor @TheWeekLive. Argumentative! Aaron Ka Yaar." (Twitter)
Barkha also has a Facebook home page that indicates 600 thousand likes and roughly the same number of followers. Clearly, the "money" appears to be in her Twitter base. (Facebook)
Twitter recently locked Ms. Dutt out of her account over an online sexual harassment complaint she filed against the social media leviathan.
"On Feb. 18, Dutt tweeted a screenshot of a complaint she emailed to Twitter, saying the website had temporarily locked her out of her account. It had done so, she said, because she had tweeted some identifying details of men who had allegedly sent her abuse, including obscene photographs and rape threats." (Aria Thaker, Quartz India)
According to the article, Twitter has made it a practice to ignore complaints from women of India who have filed similar complaints against the website, described as a place for "microblogging." The article continues to point out the immediate response given to a similar incident involving an American journalist, also pointing out the extent to which one of India's most prominent journalists was attacked through abusive posts. A month later, India Today reported that the police had taken action.
"Four people have been arrested by the Delhi Police cybercrime cell for allegedly harassing senior journalist Barkha Dutt online. Dutt took to Twitter to confirm reports of the arrest." (India Today)
The article indicates not just the names of the suspects but the degree to which they conspired in the alleged cybercrime activities.
For her part, Ms. Dutt's presence on Twitter includes posts relating to many diverse topics of concern for India. For the month of July she has already posted at least sixty tweets ranging from a flashback to the days when she gained fame reporting on the #Kargil conflict: to recent issues such as the resignation of prominent political leader Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress, following its recent defeat in Parliamentary elections. (Schultz, Kumar, NY Times). Clearly, Barkha Dutt 's multifaceted, well-informed approach and style on Twitter is a credit to her profession which explains her high rating in the higly competitive realm of social media journalism.
For his part, Andrew Mercier (@Andrew_MuckRack) boosts a paltry 833 followers, by no means a Twitter rock-star. His bio reads.
" Information addict, news junkie, @HarlemYuppie, and @muckrack Editorial Director. Views expressed here are my own. andrew.mercier[at]http://muckrack.com." (Twitter)
What separates Mercier from his colleagues is his position at the web rating site Muck Rack; finding information about the who's who in social media journalism is difficult and he is the go to person to provide it. Opposite in many ways to Ms. Dutt in gender, ethnicity, background and age, Mercier's Twitter page in no way reflects that he is out of the loop when it comes to being in the know. His LinkedIn bio is far more descriptive of his talent.
"I have spent nearly half my life in some kind of customer service capacity and have no desire to stop any time soon. In that time, I've learned a myriad of skills and have had the honor of managing some great teams." (LinkedIn)
Here, he shows 500 plus connections which indicates a strong background in his field and lists Education as New York U. with a BS in Media, Culture and Communications. One of his more recent posts on Twitter gives a link to the necessity of why journalists need to develop their online portfolio. Keeping with a recent JOUR304 lecture by Dr. Paromita Pain at UNR, the article emphasizes the shrinking role of newspapers as the primary source of news for the public.
"And although some savvy newspapers were able to strongarm their way through the digital shift by migrating to online-native publications, all outlets have had to face one ugly truth: there just aren’t as many jobs in the traditional journalism field as there used to be." (Muck Rack)
It is no wonder that Mercier is the editorial director at Muck Rack, which is exactly where the article suggests going to establish the online profile and portfolio necessary for success in social media journalism.
Forget the old days where reporters relied on the standards required to get the news published, times have changed. Even though some of the requirements remain in place such as verification, social media now allows journalists to follow live reports being posted by those on location, who many times prove to be citizens directly involved in the story. Adapting to the trends of journalism on social media will assure Barkha Dutt of her stellar standings on Twitter and Mercier's continued accuracy in his reliable information on performance of journalists on social media in general.
Works Cited
Mercier, A., Muck Rack, https://muckrack.com/blog/2017/07/31/the-2017-state-of-journalism-on-twitter
Barkha-Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/BarkhaDutt/
@BDUTT, https://twitter.com/BDUTT
Thaker, A., Twitter Lockout, https://qz.com/india/1555678/twitter-treated-nyts-maggie-haberman-different-than-barkha-dutt/
Cybercrime Arrests, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/barkha-dutt-online-harassment-arrest-1482345-2019-03-20
Schultz, K., Kumar, H., Resignation, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/world/asia/rahul-gandhi-resigns.html
@Andrew_MuckRack, https://twitter.com/Andrew_MuckRack
Mercier, LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/amercier88?trk=people-guest_profile-result-card_result-card_full-click
Online Portfolio, https://muckrack.com/blog/2019/04/18/online-portfolios-for-journalists-with-muck-rack
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