“Four Questions With …” is a monthly series of interviews with different social media and community editors in the news industry.

So, what is it like to be a social media or community editor? What are the job responsibilities and how does one end up landing such a gig? The goal of “Four Questions With …” is to answer some of these questions and to give insight into what is a new and constantly evolving field.

For the month of May, we chatted with Anjali Mullany, the social media editor at Fast Company. Previously, Mullany was social media editor at the New York Daily News. She started working with the Daily News in 2009 while a master’s student at New York University’s Studio 20, ultimately becoming the Daily News’ social media editor. In April, she left to become the social media editor at Fast Company.

Here are Mullany’s thoughts on social media, journalism and how technology is changing innovation in the field. Read more

When the news broke that Whitney Houston had died, the world was shocked.

Social media sites lit up. On Twitter, hashtags related to Houston and her name itself dominated the trending topics. YouTube’s News channel featured her videos. Fan pages were created on Facebook. On Pinterest a search for “Whitney Houston” revealed dozens and dozens of pins. Videos and photos, from album and magazine covers to more candid ones, created what Poynter’s Julie Moos termed a “scrapbook of her career.”

While some news organizations covered it in the usual way with the standard obituary, videos, and slideshows of photos, others took Houston’s untimely death as an opportunity to experiment with using social media to pay tribute to the artist. A few outlets, such as Mashable, created Spotify playlists to honor Houston.

In particular, there were three that stood out and used social media tools to create particularly effective memorials to Houston. Read more

With today’s technology, it’s becoming abundantly clear that every reporter should have a mobile reporting kit stashed in his or her car or bag. But what do you put in it?

This past weekend, Columbia School of Journalism hosted its second annual Social Media Weekend. While there, Anjali Mullany, New York Daily News‘s social media editor, filmed this excellent video interview with MSNBC’s Meg Robertson. In it, Robertson details what she has in her mobile reporting kit.

I thought it would be a good idea to revisit some of these must-haves Robertson mentions. Read more