Journalism Trends Blogpost

Article Critic:

1)   http://www.sssup.it/UploadDocs/6635_8_S_The_rise_of_Social_Media_and_its_Impact_on_mainstream_journalism_Newman_07.pdf

2)    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/05/06/three-charts-that-explain-how-u-s-journalists-use-social-media/

Nic Newman discusses the impact social media has on mainstream media in his study of how newspapers and Journalists are responding to it. He uses the Iranian election protests in order to explain some of the changes. He said that it is a challenge for news organization to integrate the user-generated content into organization broadcasts. Since there is such a huge amount of information fluctuating there are plenty of false stories that are being created to help sway certain direction Newman said. In the case of the election there was a lot of negative and false information being tweeted to undermine the front-runner’s position. He said that there is little balance in tweeting. In the times of understanding how too use social media as a primary source of journalism large corporation are often seemed to be beat to the stories by the initial tweets coming in, especially during protests and things of that nature. This according to the author is still a problem to a degree today.

The second article from The Washington Post covers a more practical idea of what journalists think of social media and how they use it. There was a study conducted that surveyed over a 1,000 journalist and 40 percent of the said that social media sites are “very important” to their work and most of those people said that they spend around one hour on those sites. The Microblogs like twitter were clearly the favorite style amongst the journalists. Another result found that 80 percent of journalists used social networking to stay on top of breaking stories. Journalists are using this outlet to look at competitors and for finding ideas their audiences may like.

Opinion:

·      Social Media is the latest instrument that is changing the news.

·      Do to the large amounts of news being shared though social media, there will be some false information as result.

·      The sharing of news is redefining the original way we understood the news cycle.

            Social media has added an entirely new element to the way in which news is transported and shared. News is being tweeted, status updated, blogged and posted creating a new dynamic to the news spectrum. The media is slowly adapted to these new changes but this genre of news is still in its adolescent stages. With this constant influence that social media gives us it is important to beware that not all of it is factual. Sometimes too many interpretations lead the story down incorrect paths because people who experience news events and post them tend to post them to their own interpretation not striving for objective truth. Most people who upload to social networking sites are not journalists clarifying the point that there most likely will not have tried to post from an objective standpoint, minimizing bias. Social media can also be a positive asset to have in the news. The 24-hour news cycle has broadened because millions of news articles are posted every second and credible news companies use networks like Twitter to constantly post quick story leads. This method usually has a hyperlink embedded in the lead to the rest of the story that can be shared amongst friends, families and the rest of the world. Sharing may the most important aspect of journalism in social media because of the power it has to reach millions of people. Sharing creates platform so that people can be their own journalists and have the opportunity to give their own insights on events, therefore creating a well-informed public.