'Bluebird, what do you feed on? By which I mean: How do I get verified as a freelance journalist, Twitter?.' Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved June 5, 2023, from īenton, Joshua. Bluebird, what do you feed on? By which I mean: How do I get verified as a freelance journalist, Twitter?. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 31 Jan.

This fourth rejection was the fastest – decision in under an hour to explain my work isn't notable enough which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that this has been looked at properly?īenton, Joshua. If you have 'notability' criteria that's different for freelancers then it would be helpful to share it with us. Twitter has already verified these publications and staff journalists and editors working for them also have blue ticks. No problem, I have more than 100 bylines from this period. Step 1 is you have to provide 3-10 articles written in past 6 months. Here’s that list, now at 78 names here’s one of its organizers, established freelance health journalist Emma Wilkinson:įor those who don't know, freelance journalists have their own category in the application process. Some staff journalists who have struggled to get a blue tick also feel Twitter’s policies have been applied inconsistently. Twitter began rolling out its new verification system last summer, with journalists among those encouraged to apply for blue ticks on their profiles to allow the public to see that they are trustworthy sources of information.īut not everyone feels the rollout has been successful or fair and almost 80 freelance journalists have now added their names to a list of those who feel their applications have wrongly been rejected. Maybe “translucent” is a good interim goal? Here’s Charlotte Tobitt for the Press Gazette:įreelance journalists are “frustrated” at the Twitter verification process which has left even well-established writers with large followings feeling like “second-class citizens”. Twitter has done a lot to try to make the process more scalable and less opaque…but transparent it still ain’t. That blue bird over at Twitter certainly is inscrutable when it comes to verifying accounts - the granting of the blue checkmark that deems someone some combination of important, extant, and ready to be lumped together with all the other horrifying elite “ bluechecks.” This was my fourth time applying!! wtf is up

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