Last week’s coverage of the flyby was hair-raising, historic, and dominated by social media. That wasn’t just because NASA dropped an Insta-bomb. From putting the science team on Reddit for an AMA to pulling questions from Twitter during live press briefings, the New Horizons mission had the social savvy of a tech company’s product rollout. And it’s not just New Horizons, either. NASA has a brand-wide social media strategy as ambitious and carefully planned as a Hollywood blockbuster. Except NASA’s a public agency. So NASA had to think carefully about the legality and ethics of using privately held social media. And the press has to ask how NASA’s increasing reliance on it affects independent coverage.
NASA’s Social Media Strategy Is Genius—And Kinda Maddening
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