Amanda Zamora is a University of Texas alumni who just can’t stay away from her alma matter’s state. She got her start at an Austin institution, the Austin-American Statesman, working as an editorial assistant and reporter. From there, she transitioned into a variety of roles across publications with a huge national recognition: The Washington Post and The Huffington Post. She is a founding member of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, an initiative created to fund investigative journalism that produces journalism with an open-source, publishable by all ethos.
More recently, she has focused her professional efforts on engaging audiences. She has stepped into multiple social media roles, including time in this capacity at both The Washington Post and ProPublica. Currently, she is the Chief Audience Officer at The Texas Tribune. As an audience engager, Zamora prioritizes making sure that engaged consumers of journalism know they are appreciated, getting the public involved in journalism and finding people with the right perspective and expertise to enable journalists to tell stories correctly.
Questions:
- What is the best example of that you have seen of journalists using social media content in a substantive way as part of their reporting?
- Did you have an “aha!” moment that led you to see the potential in the relationship between social media and journalism? What was it?
