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Local media must react to the 'silent killers' online, such as social media and networking sites, Tom Steinberg, founder of MySociety.org , told the Westminster Media Forum on Friday.

The regional press, in particular, should be less concerned with the supposed threat of bloggers and user-generated content and look at the conversations and news being shared by users on new platforms, he added.

Facebook group coordinated events, the use of Twitter to share links and information during breaking news events, and freedom of information requests made by the public through MySociety are all examples of users consuming news away from traditional organisations and 'communications and news blurring', said Steinberg.

Listen to the clip below to hear Steinberg's full comments:

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Other news from today's WMF on local media and on MySociety: US local media in worse shape than UK, says Enders Third of local newspapers to have disappeared between 2002 and 2013, says Enders chief mySociety turns five - how can journalists best use its sites?

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Written by

Laura Oliver
Laura Oliver
Laura Oliver is a freelance journalist, a contributor to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, co-founder of The Society of Freelance Journalists and the former editor of Journalism.co.uk (prior to it becoming JournalismUK)

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