HOW DO YOU successfully marry a traditional broadcast news operation with social network news gathering? As social media and web editor for Al Jazeera English (AJE), Bilal Randeree is in a better position than most to answer the question.

Randeree, a South African journalist based in AJE’s newsroom in Doha, Qatar, was one of the first journalists to make online contact with Tunisian protesters and activists in the events leading up to the Arab Spring revolution in that country.

“It was not our intention to rely or use social media for news gathering at all,” he says, describing AJE’s traditional use of “old-fashioned reporters on the ground and cameramen with them”.

But, in Tunisia in December 2010, there were no reporters on the ground, and so it was the airing of images and videos sourced through social media by both the English and Arabic channels of Al Jazeera that helped publicise the tensions.

Randeree next week addresses the Media Future Conference in Dún Laoghaire. His talk is titled “The Arab Uprising – A Social Media Revolution?” The question mark is there because Randeree doesn’t believe the label “social media revolution” is entirely accurate.

“The phrase was thrown about a lot, almost giving social media a lot of the credit for the revolution. However, from our experiences, from speaking to people, it’s clear to us that the movements have existed in the Arab world for a long time,” he says. “I wouldn’t say it wasn’t a catalyst, but I wouldn’t say it was the only catalyst either.”

Though he “wouldn’t go to the extent of saying we have a totally converted newsroom”, Al Jazeera journalists are still finding new ways to use social media.

In this respect, the fact AJE’s online audience is bigger than its traditional television audience is an advantage.

Live blogs on running news stories – once “a small part of a big website” – are now its most popular element, says Randeree.

“Most people would prefer to look at the live blog and see what’s happening during the day than look at a news article that was written an hour or three hours ago.”

Live blogs, which naturally facilitate the integration of social media with “traditional” reporting, serve as a news catch-up for “people who don’t have time to watch a live stream for hours on end”.

It hasn’t been a great week for AJE, which was forced to close its bureau in Beijing after China refused to renew the press pass and visa of its correspondent, Melissa Chan, a US citizen, and AJE was denied permission to replace her.

Though director of news Salah Negm has said the channel will continue to request a presence in China, the expulsion has been interpreted by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists as “a real deterioration in China’s media environment”. Even in China, however, it is difficult for authorities clamping down on media scrutiny to just press the off switch on the internet.

In some situations where journalists are either unable to or are prevented from reporting on the ground, social networks provide “more opportunities” for them, says Randeree.

“The industry has changed. The way we do things is different than it was yesterday. Most people acknowledge that tomorrow it is going to be different as well,” he says. “The important thing is to know how to use these tools and do what we are trained to do.”

The Media Future conference organised by Mediacontact.ietakes place in Dublin from May 14th -15th