Snapchat Taking Over Journalism
Over the years Snapchat have evolved from a messaging app to a place where digital journalism has taken off.
To understand where Snapchat is now, it’s important to understand it’s history and how it gained so much attention in the first place. After its creation in 2011, Snapchat gave kids and teens a simple way to share moments of their lives in a quick picture or video. What teens loved about Snapchat so much was that it was unique from the other apps they were using, like Facebook and Twitter, because whatever they recorded would disappear. Facebook and Twitter seemed to record everything and would come back to haunt them but Snapchat let users send without thinking twice.
Snapchat Timeline
2013: Story
Snapchat created a feature called a “story” in 2013. Users were now able to broadcast what see as they see it. Users’ content will then appear to followers as a story reel. Through this, followers were able to connect with others on a new level as they could see real insight into a persons life. By simply tapping on this story people could experience their followers entire day. However, the key aspect of this reel was that it can only be played back for 24 hours, after which, it disappears forever. (Other social media services, including Facebook and Instagram, started to offer story-creation tools too due to its success on Snapchat.)The “story” introduced users to become comfortable with broadcasting everything they do.
2014: Geo-filters
Geo-filters are location-specific elements that can be placed on a photo or video only if it’s visited by the user. Due to this feature, businesses were able to use geo-filters as a way for customers to advertise them. Geofilters could also be created by users which made Snapchat a place to share where people were going and what was happening around them. This feature was the start of the shift towards journalism for the app. Now, people could do reporting from any place in the world and confirm its location.
2015: Photo/Video Filters
As Snapchat became more popular all over the globe, constant updates were being made to keep user attention and make the app more dynamic. Like GeoFilters other lenses were created to add some flavor to pictures and videos. Just by a quick swipe right or left users could add colored filters, current time, speed, local weather, or geofilters.
2016: Streaks & Memories
With the creation of Snapstreaks, users can establish a streak by consistently snapping at least one snap every 24-hours. Special emojis with statistics would display next to names of the friends as long as users maintain a streak. For kids, this streak might measure their friendships and make bonds over social media stronger but for Snapchat this meant growth. Every day more users became obsessed with Snapchat just to maintain a streak.
Another feature to keep users coming back to Snapchat is “Memories”. Memories acted as a way to preserve snaps if users didn’t want them to disappear. By storing them on Snapchat users could choose to send snaps even after the 24 hours is up. Memories on Snapchat is similar to the iCloud feature on Apple. Memories allow users to locally store their photos and videos on their account and then organize, edit, lock and share them after they are taken.
What caused the shift?
Although many of Snapchat’s features are no longer unique, because apps like Instagram copied them, one thing that Snap still has over Instagram is Snap Map. Snap Map displays public snaps on a heat map that is searchable by location. This feature is hugely responsible for making Snapchat a more convenient journalistic tool. Now because of the Snap Map and Geo-location, journalists can search for information, images, and videos as they please. By using this app journalists have instant breaking news footage from all over the globe.
Journalists were fast to act when they noticed the benefits Snapchat could bring to the newsroom. Most newsrooms decided to make partnerships with discover platforms like NewsWhip, Tagboard, and Storyful. Ultimately, crowdsourcing became very popular on the app and expanded the user age from 13–24 to 18–50.
What publishers are using snap?
Most know Snapchat as an app for teens or “young people” and that’s a key reason why so many publishers want to make sure they are active on the platform. CNN, Fox News, and the New York Times are amongst the few that have attracted an older fan base and don’t always appeal to younger viewers. With the creation of the Discovery feature, Snapchat has taken off as a platform for virtually every type of digital communication.
Discover offers celebrities, news, and entertainment outlets a place on the app to put up content for other users. By subscribing to specific Discover sources users receive updates on their feeds. Discover has some legitimate news from publishers including the New York Times and Vice Media which has exposed many young eyes to big publishers that usually appeal to older generations.
Is Gen Z watching news because of Snapchat?
It’s evident that Gen Z looks to social media and other digital platforms to gain access to the latest news and trends. However, what really made Snapchat really unique is its daily news shows that give a lot of information in a very small amount of time.
NBC’s Stay Tuned
NBC’s “Stay tuned” is the star of Snapchat for journalism. “Stay tuned” is the first daily news show on Snapchat that posts daily, twice a day, and covers topics from politics to entertainment. Many young people use this as the only source of news in their life, mostly because it only takes up 3 minutes of their day. About 75 percent of the “Stay Tuned” audience is under 25, and 90 percent is under 34, according to Snapchat’s data. Savannah Sellers, Gadi Shwartz, and Lawrence Jackson that host the show, have become familiar faces to every user on Snapchat as they sum up breaking news from all over the world.
Users show to be very connected to this show as two-thirds of the monthly 25 to 35 million Snapchatters watching “Stay Tuned” show a represented net new audience for NBC News. This is probably since users feel involved in the decision of what is shown on the show. Stay Tuned asks for footage and topics from users on Snapchat to broadcast. All users are able to send in questions to the show, and according to the questions asked they will respond on the show. The young and fresh faces also help attract their audience as young adults tend not to appeal to the older generation speaking on traditional broadcast news. This shows a glimpse into the future for what journalism is becoming — a digital tool.
Today, it’s clear that Snapchat is a crucial player for digital journalism — especially amongst the younger generations. Snapchat has made its place in the newsroom although there are still arguments on whether 3-minute videos are enough to portray news accurately. What they have succeeded in doing is thriving in an attention economy by acting as a platform for messaging, news, entertainment, and more.
