Speaker Stresses Google Tools

Google News Community Manager speaks at Mass Communication Week

By Jake Goodman

Stacie Chan is a Community Manager at Google and she spoke about her career experience and the different tools Google provides that can benefit journalism and mass communication students.

Chan graduated from Stanford University with a degree in communication and returned to attain a masters degree in journalism.  After graduate school, Chan began working at patch.com as a news editor.  Chan left Patch.com  for Google News.

 

“I was responsible for video editing, P.R., basically everything at Patch,” Chan said.

Chan said that the best way to find work as a journalist is to seek out and network.  She stressed that the networking did not have to be formal but emphasized that the best way to land a job is to seek it out instead of letting it fall into place.

“I worked 80 hours a week; not to scare you, I loved what I did at Patch.  It didn’t feel like work to me because I loved what I did,” Chan said.

Chan encouraged students to apply for jobs at Google in the particular area that interests them and said that google offers a journalism fellowship award.  Chan said that Google is not only a job for coders, but for journalists as well.

“I can’t code, and it’s just not something I want to do, I’m always dealing with engineers and it just helps to be able to speak their language,” Chan said.

Chan also discussed the different tools Google offers to journalists.

“I would say as a reporter, Google Now is a really good tool to make your life easier,” Chan said.

Chan said one of the most useful qualities of Google Now for journalists is the product’s ability to pull all of the users accounts together.

“Google Now will pull things from all of your accounts.  It sounds kind of creepy but it’s really helpful,” Chan said.

Chan also spoke about the difference between Google News and Google Search.  She said that Google News is a separate entity from search.  Instead of keyword searches the stories at Google News are searched based on timeliness, relevance, proximity and links, she said.

“Write the headline that naturally summarizes the lead and we’ll find it,”Chan said.

According to the slide Chan displayed during the presentation, Google News has 60,000 publishers, 72 editions, 30 languages and 1 billion users globally.  Chan said that on an average day 1.5 million Android devices are sold, each with a Google News App.

“The part that’s most relevant to journalism is that Google News gives you the ability to create your own edition.  I did one and it was super-easy.  I just linked to the Google RSS feed and a random YouTube Channel,” she said.

Chan said that having an established YouTube presence is one of the best ways to increase the search engine optimization (SEO).

“You shouldn’t use social media to get and take from them.  Instead you should be creating content that makes people want to come to you,” Chan said.

Jake Goodman is a senior journalism and mass communication student at Texas State University.  Contact via email at jgoodman53stj@gmail.com or twitter @jgoodman53stj.