Reddit

The front page of the Internet

Reddit’s rep

• Anderson Cooper’s report

Reddit explained

• PBS video

Reddit

• About Reddit

How it works

• Users submit links or posts, and other “redditors” vote the submission either up

• or down• Top submissions make the front page• Numerous “sub-reddits” exist for granular

topics

So why should journalists give a reddit?

Increased cred

• Obama on Reddit• AMAs

Increased cred

• 23,000 comments• Alexis Ohanian: “There are quite a few redditors at

1600 Pennsylvania Ave and at the campaign HQ.”• “There was interest in doing what in Redditese is

called an AMA, or “Ask Me Anything. It started coming up from their side over the last year or so. A little while ago we randomly get a ping saying ‘POTUS is doing an AMA.’ ”

Increased cred

Aurora shooting

Increased cred

• Aurora Eye witness

Increased cred

• Dan Petty, Denver Post social media editor:• “Reddit community is generally smart and

extraordinarily resourceful, which we found during Aurora”

• “I watch the sub-Reddit for Denver closely.”

Drives headlines

• NYPD cop and guns

Still apprehensive?

• The Reddit Edit

• Aggregator because Reddit is a news service.

Suggestions from Matt Silverman of Mashable:

• “If Facebook is your hometown, think of Reddit as a foreign country. You don't speak the language, the customs are odd, and you often won't know what's going on.”

Suggestions from Matt Silverman of Mashable

• “Just spend some time there. Check out the site at least once a day — more, if you really want to see how content moves around. Don't just visit the outbound links, but dig into the comment threads to see what people are talking about.”

Your story ideas?

Story ideas

• Lincoln subreddit

Story ideas

• College football

More resources

• Matt Silverman’s “A Beginners Guide”• Poynter’s quick guide• Short introduction to reddit