After his panel at South By Southwest Interactive, Mike Isaac, Senior Editor at All Things D, spoke to SXTXState’s Sara Peralta on how social media has changed how journalists find sources.

In comparison with other journalists that are highly engaged in social media, Isaac admits that his technique is more traditional. Isaac prefers to allow his sources to use social media to approach him, and then he will reach out to them to met offline. His style is in sharp contrast with other reporters, like NPR’s Andy Carvin, who use social media to actively recruit sources.

“The way I was raised in journalism, that’s not how you do it, Isaac explains, “the way you do it, you are very selective of your sourcing.” Rather than relying on social media to find sources, he connects with potential sources on social media, then moves to meet with them in person to “suss out their credibility,” Isaac says. Meeting individuals “in real life” is vital to his process for vetting sources.

Given his selective approach to finding sources, Isaac acknowledges issues of diversity among his sources. “The tech community has been heavily  criticized for its lack of representation of women and minorities,” Isaac says, “and it is true, because its underpopulated.”

The lack of diversity in the tech sector complicates sourcing, and until the pool of sources is more diverse, it will continue to be difficult. “I think its a supply side problem and there are a lot of movements to get more women into engineering positions,” says Isaac.

Isaac advices emerging journalists and communicators to have strong knowledge of the journalists and newsmakers in their industry. Also, he warns about using social media as a crutch when connecting with sources, “its not just tweeting at them,” he says on sourcing “its more like getting a feel for geting a feel for how these people are.” Isaac continued “a lot of journalism is about the people, and about understanding people and how they operate and what they think, and that informs the newsworthy decisions that they make.”