Individual Topical Paper: Journalism and the Social Media Revolution

Introduction

Journalism, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is the activity or profession of writing for newspapers or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television. However, in today’s context, journalism encompasses more than just the broadcasting of news and events via the print media, or on the radio or television. The Internet, in particular the social media, has become a commonly used medium for broadcasting news as well. With the News and broadcasting organizations have been greatly impacted as a result of the social media revolution. There is a new wave of journalism with the increase in the use of the social media for broadcasting news. Thus, this has caused news and broadcasting organizations to rethink their strategies so as to not be overtaken by the rise of the social media in the world of journalism.

We live in an information society today, and the social media revolution has caused a large extent of change in the face of journalism. The social media provides people with tools to disseminate news. Furthermore, people today are unlike people in the past. People today do not merely accept the news as told by news agencies or government organizations. Instead, with the rise of the social media, people are now exposed to different viewpoints and are forced to filter and critically think about the issues being reported.

In this paper, I will discuss how journalism has changed with the social media revolution. Citizen journalism is on the rise, and readers are getting more involved in the dissemination of news. This paper will be broken into three main parts, firstly, the history of journalism (before the rise of the social media), the current situation, and lastly the future of journalism. Also, I will examine how the dissemination of news has changed, and how people are responding to the use of the social media for dissemination of news. While it may seem like news and broadcasting companies are facing a crisis with regards to the demise of traditional journalism, this is not true. The emergence of the social media will only lead to the possible demise of print news in the future. This will be further elaborated on in the paper.

Before I begin delving into the main topic of how the emergence of social media has changed the forms of journalism, I will introduce the main terms I will be using throughout my paper.

Social Media

As defined by Webster, social media is a form of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content. Communication has been refined through the use of web-based and mobile technologies. There are many different forms of social media, such as social networking sites (Facebook, blogs and microblogs (Twitter), content communities (Youtube), internet forums etc. Due to the onslaught and increased popularity of the social media in recent years, traditional journalism has been forced to take a back seat.

Journalism

Journalism, as defined above by the Oxford Dictionary, can be taken to be the gathering and development of news. News is not only broadcasted to the public via newspapers, but also through magazines, the television, the radio, and as seen recently, the Internet and the social media. Journalism does not only cover national and international political news. It also covers the arts, as well as business aspects and crimes. Journalists broadcast information regarding these aspects to the general public via different means.

Journalism in the Past

Traditionally, journalism was more of a one-way form of communication. Journalist told the readers what they needed to know, and readers merely read and accepted these news reports. The journalists were responsible for transmitting information, not only from the authorities to the public, but also other important information such as recent crimes and the happenings around the world.

Censorship and Opaque Journalism

In addition, governments tend to control and restrict what journalists can report. This was especially so in the past. Journalists were restricted by boundaries set by the government, with regards to governmental information in relation to protecting the national interest.
Traditional journalism tended to be opaque in nature, with information being manipulated by the government or groups of authority. Information was often tampered with so as to portray the government or its policies in a particular light. The lack of transparency in journalism is due to an abuse of power, and corruption in certain areas has been high due to this reason.

One example of such an area would be North Korea. North Korea strictly controls its press, and has only one state news agency, the Korean Central News Agency, which is the only source of information for all media agencies in North Korea. The broadcast media in North Korea actively promotes its beliefs and ideologies, and because the people are not exposed to other ideologies and perspectives, they have to simply accept the government’s ideologies. This has resulted in a high level of corruption in North Korea, preventing its progress as a nation.

Journalism Today

Citizen Journalism

Currently, with the emergence of the social media, there has been an influx of citizen journalists. Citizen journalism occurs when people who used to be on the receiving end of the media spectrum, and who have not received any professional journalism training, are able to collect, process, analyze, and disseminate information and news.
As mentioned by Mark Glaser, a freelance journalist, “The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others.”

This can be seen when people post news via social media outlets. For instance, by taking a video of Tim Cook unveiling the iPhone 5 and uploading it on Youtube, or by posting the latest features of the iPhone 5 as released by Apple on your Facebook wall. Likewise, in times of crisis and devastation, such as during the tsunami that struck Indonesia and many other regions in 2004, it can be difficult to keep track of the regions which are affected. Hence, journalists would not be able to convey such news efficiently and the only way for people to remain informed of the devastation in different places was through social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. Besides updating their statuses and tweets about the state of devastation, photos of the disaster can also be uploaded and shared via these websites using mobile devices. This would in its own way be like live-time reporting, which is practically impossible to be done by reporters or journalists during such live-threatening circumstances.

Increased Speed in Reporting

Furthermore, in recent years, it has been noticed that people are posting news via social media outlets faster than news agencies. One example is the reporting of the death of Osama Bin Laden. Before the news agencies received the news of his death, the news was already broken by a Twitter user:

@ReallyVirtual Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).

Following that tweet, there was a real time report of the unfolding of the events which led to Osama Bin Laden’s death.

Another example of when the news agencies were slower than the people on social media in reporting the news was during the Mumbai attacks in 2008. The Mumbai attacks were first reported by Twitter and Flickr users before the news agencies. It was also reported by The Telegraph that there were around 70 eyewitnesses’ tweets every 5 seconds. Flickr users also uploaded live photos from the scene of the attacks.

The rise of the social media had aided citizen journalism and created an emphasis for real-time reporting because of the rapid speed of the social media. Tweets, posts, and photos can be uploaded almost instantaneously and hence for news agencies to keep up with this speed, many news organizations have begun live blogging. This can be seen when the BBC News team put together a live blog on Osama Bin Laden’s death by collating resources from the Internet. Besides allowing readers to comment on the blog posts, news agencies are encouraging readers to contribute to the reporting of the news stories by uploading pictures and videos. News agencies are also seeking out material from the social media to aid in their reporting. This also goes to show that news organizations are turning to social media outlets for their source of news.

Journalists’ New Focus

Moreover, the social media is being valued by journalists, because they are supplementary to their work. As Martin Nisenholtz of the New York Times says of the social media “We see these things as being highly complementary to what we do.”

It is acknowledged that when there is a huge story, journalists are not able to turn up at the scene immediately. Hence, they are now more dependent on people who are at the scene to provide them with pictures, videos, sources and information. Besides, with the prevalence of the social media, people are now faster than professional journalists in breaking news to public. Thus, news agencies and journalist no longer attempt to be the first to break the news to the public. Instead, they focus on ensuring that their reports are up-to-date.

Critical Thinking in Progress

Additionally, with the convenience the social media has brought about, news are now originating not mainly from reporters and journalists, but from an array of sources made up of journalists, readers, and users of the social media. Due to the vast amount of information and news being posted on the Internet via social media outlets, readers have to filter through this information and are forced to think critically about different issues. The large amount of information made available to the readers also exposes them to different perspectives on different issues. Editors are not available to filter through the information available on the social media outlets and thus it is on the onus of the readers to decide which viewpoint they choose to support. Furthermore, readers are also able to share this information with their friends, and are more inclined to discuss their personal opinions with regards to the issue.

Journalism in the Future

Short-Run Outlook

Looking to the future in the short term, it is not possible that print media would reach its end. Although it is inevitable that news and broadcasting companies face a smaller market with regards to the print media, the print media will merely face a decline in readership volumes. Less people would refer to newspapers or magazines for news reports due to the easy access to news on the Internet as well as the social media. Smaller news agencies may find themselves out of business as the demand for their printed news decline. However, larger news agencies that were able to adapt to technological changes, and had tapped into the social media market on top of continuing its print media, would be able to survive.

Long-Run Outlook

However, in the long run, who is to say that the print media would definitely survive this digital age? It is highly probable in the next 20 to 30 years that print media would reach its end due to the rapid advances in technology. While news and broadcasting agencies and organizations may find themselves in a fix with regards to the demise of the print media, since it is highly possible that print media would to come to an end, I would not expect news and broadcasting agencies to shut down indefinitely. Although continued rampant citizen journalism will be observed, news and broadcasting agencies would still manage to survive as long as they change their attitudes. Due to the rising of the social media these days, news and broadcasting agencies should be more inclined towards making use of the social media for the reporting of news.

As mentioned above, news agencies such as BBC News and The Guardian have already used live blogging to report breaking news. The Straits Times in Singapore has a Twitter account in which users who follow them are able to catch the latest news through their tweets.

Furthermore, as mobile phones are now an integral part of our lives and it allows us to easily access social media sites, it is inevitable that mobile phones will also play a huge role in journalism in the future. In fact, mobile phones part of the reason why citizen journalism is becoming a fad. Mobile phones enable us to be connected at all times, hence when something newsworthy occurs, bystanders merely take a picture or upload a comment in relation to that event, and it sparks a whole thread of perspectives.

Shift of Responsibility of News Agencies

News agencies can also move from being providers/producers of news to being facilitators of news. This can be seen through a project by the New York Daily News, which allows fans who like their Facebook page to upload photos real-time. These photos then also made available to the general public as the photos are simultaneously uploaded onto New York Daily News’ main site. Similarly, other news agencies could also make use of this application to engage readers and encourage them to participate in the provision of news. It could be taken a step further such that not only can photos be uploaded, but readers can also upload articles of their views on certain issues, or articles behind the photos they uploaded. The public would be allowed to view these photos and articles uploaded, as well as comment on them, which may spark further discussion on the issue.

Possible Dangers

There is, however, a downside to this. Misinformation is one main danger of citizen journalism. While we are all busy producing the news, we may be inclined to exaggerate, or report something that is not a fact, especially since we are not bound by news companies’ policies or the ethics of journalists. The perspectives of others might be taken to be accurate news because there are no editors to check the accuracy of these photos and reports uploaded by consumers.

One example of misinformation which was misleading to the public was the first news about the Ford Hood shootings, which was provided by Tearah Moore, a soldier from Linden, Michigan who is based at Fort Hood. She used her Twitter account to update reports about the situation, although complying to military procedure, the base was supposed to be in lock-down. In one of her many tweets, she reported that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was killed at the scene. Furthermore, her reports were picked up by mainstream news agencies as well, which based on her tweets, also reported that Hasan was killed. However, it was soon realised that this was untrue. Thus, this proves that citizen journalism via social media outlets are not entirely true and cannot be relied on completely due to the lack of editing on these reports.

Possible Measures

One way to get around having misinformation on the main news sites would be by having news agencies using applications similar to that being used by the New York Daily News use editorial control for content being uploaded by consumers onto their site. The news agencies could delegate an editor to edit the reports being uploaded onto their site by consumers. The editor could proof read and confirm the accuracy of these reports and photos before uploading them onto the main site. This would prevent inaccuracy and misreporting, which might severely affect the news agency’s reputation especially since these reports and photos are uploaded directly onto their main site. However, due to the extensiveness of social networking sites, it would be of great difficulty trying to edit information being posted on to sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Hence, editorial control may only be available to a certain extent, and cannot fully prevent misinformation being reported on such sites.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is indeed a fairly difficult task to catch up with the developments of technology, given that it is advancing at such a rapid rate. As discussed in this paper, the social media revolution is not leading to the death of journalism in the near future, but merely leading to the possible death of print news. Additionally, citizen journalism will become more widespread given the numerous avenues available with the increase in social media outlets. People will have more avenues for news and are exposed to more viewpoints. They will also be better able to filter and respond to the different perspectives as they practice verifying the reliability of the news available on the social media outlets. After all, with the prevalence of the social media and the easiness of fabricating news, we have learnt not to trust everything that is available on the Internet.

In future, as technology advances further, no one can safely say that news and broadcasting agencies would be able to sustain themselves as journalism faces more changes and challenges. Just as technology is slowly starting to replace printed books, printed media will also be gradually replaced, and the news and broadcasting companies may face turmoil as journalists are unable to hold on to their jobs with the onslaught of the different types of journalism evolved with advancements in technology. However, while this may be so, it is essential to note that traditional journalism will not die. News agencies need to recognise the need for change in today’s world, and should make use of the social media outlets to move forward. Once they acknowledge that social media is here to stay, and manage to successfully make full use of these social technologies to their advantage, they would be able to survive. Therefore, the social media revolution is not leading to the death of journalism. It is simply allowing a new type of journalism to emerge.


References

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