As news outlets prepare to cover election results, apt handling of their social media pages becomes particularly crucial. An inaccurate or early call before enough votes are counted, or the spreading of misinformation, can result in heavy ramifications for media outlets. In a Nov. 2 Times Insider article, deputy audience director Anna Dubenko, and deputy editor, off-platform Jake Grovum, gave insight into The New York Times’ plans to handle these intricacies.
According to Dubenko, while social media tends to move at rapid speeds, the Times will take extra care to ensure the accuracy of their posts. She says,
When it comes to state calls and results, everyone at The Times agrees it’s more important to be right than to be first.
Grovum adds that they also will not speculate on results while they are still being counted.
Additionally, the Times social media team has been able to prepare for their coverage of the election by pre-making designs and creating preliminary copy. As for what the coverage itself will look like, Dubenko tells us to “expect many more videos and photography from around the country, and graphical representations of race calls,” than there were in previous elections.
The team has also staggered their schedules for this week in case the election results drag out longer than they normally would.
