In the beginning, the reporters crept tentatively onto social media, like gazelles at a waterhole, gazing round nervously before lowering their heads.

Slowly at first, they drank from the vast pool, always watchful for the predators lurking in the shadows. They tentatively shared links to their work and asked shyly for leads and story ideas. They were content with that. The loud aggressive displays of attention were for others: for the lions of industry, the policy shapers and the politicians; the kinds of people they would observe and report on.