How did you find this post? Was it through Facebook? Or maybe Twitter?

We hear a lot of different things about the impact of social media, but it has a very specific role when it comes to building audiences online.

It’s almost two years since upstart was launched, and since then the site has not only become central to the La Trobe Journalism curriculum, it’s also consolidated quite a following. In this recent presentation for La Trobe University’s School of Management seminar series, Lawrie Zion discusses how upstart has been building its audience through its presence on Twitter and Facebook.

Dr Zion, who co-founded upstart with his colleague Christopher Scanlon, also considers some of the opportunities and dilemmas facing mainstream media organisations and emerging journalists in the era of social networking.

To hear the presenation, please click here.