Social Media and Journalism

"We're all a Twitter"

Due to Web 2.0 technologies and the rise of social media an online revolution has occurred. This has changed the way business is conducted, friendships are created and maintained, and caused the field of journalism to enter a new era.

Kaplan and Haenlein state that social media is "a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content" (2010, Users of the World Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media, Business Horizons 53, 1).

Belka states that social media "is the viral spread of information through fans, partners, friends, tweets, videos, blogs...the list is long," (2009, online, Social Media does what? http://www.mindfly.com/blog/post/2009/08/26/Social-Media-does-what.aspx).

Social media such as Facebook and Twitter is now being used by journalists to gather information, establish contacts and locate further sources. Journalists are negotiating with social media to provide a new news source, a news-providing platform and as a link to online news stories. 

Harper outlines this concept of social media as a news source in The Social Media Revolution: Exploring the Impact on Journalism and News Media Organisations stating, "Today's audience expect to be able to choose what they read, and most believe they should be able to contribute content and opinions, too" (2010, p.2). 

Social media also acts as a platform for news, as news organisations, everyday people and citizen journalists use it to break news. This is evident through the breaking news of Michael Jackson's death via Twitter. 

Social media also allows journalists to provide further information and links to their stories. 

The decline in traditional media and rise in online social media (see the pie charts below) means that journalists will need to be multi-skilled in delivering high-quality news, sound, images and online-copy for a global audience. 

As Breit states, "Online journalism combines some elements of all its predecessor forms of news. Online journalism can be immediate, providing frequently updated stories of news events. It gives news consumers some sense of control, allowing them to explore news events and related issues at their own pace" (Breit, 2008, Pulling Newspapers Apart: Analysing Print Journalism, Routledge, Hoboken).

Quinn and Lamble state that "multimedia reporting involves new approaches to news gathering and new ways to tell stories using text, audio, video and graphics. Print and television tell news stories in a linear sequence...multimedia storytelling goes beyond these limitations" (2007 Online Newsgathering: Research and Reporting for Journalism, Focal Press, Burlington).

While journalists are increasingly pressured to have a Facebook account, Twitter account and a blog, they need to ensure that the quality of their journalism remains high. Obviously with all these avenues and tasks to complete, it is hard to produce quality news all of the time. Journalists need to remember their role as public 'watchdogs' and place this as their priority.