Individual Topical Paper Review Outline
1. Specific Innovation of Interest: The increased use of social media has started to affect news and broadcasting organizations. News organizations are rethinking their strategies as a result of the social media revolution.
2. Rationale for Choosing this Revolution: People today are not like people in the past. They do not merely accept the news as told by the news agencies or government organizations. Instead, with the rise of the social media, people have greater access to different viewpoints and are forced to filter and critically think about the issues reported, instead of merely accepting the perspective of the news media. Social media has in this way, caused a large extent of change in the face of journalism.
3. Proposed Approach to Development of Paper:
a) Executive Summary
How the social media revolution has led to the rise of citizen journalism, and has caused readers to be more involved in the distribution of news
b) Background/Introduction
Social media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue (Defined by Wikipedia)
Comes in many different forms – Social networking sites, blogs, forums etc.
Only in recent years has social media caused traditional journalism to take a back seat
Caused by the onslaught and increased popularity of social media
c) Historical Perspective
Journalism is the gathering and development of news
Journalists were sent out to gather news, then report their findings, which would then be sent to their editors before the reports are published in newspapers or magazines
Readers merely read and accepted these news reports
d) Current Situation
Influx of citizen journalists
People are posting news via social media outlets faster than news agencies
Real-time reporting more common
People are not merely reading and accepting the reports; They are questioning and voicing out their viewpoints via social media outlets
Journalists are also turning to social media outlets for their source of news
e) Future Considerations
In the short-term, print news (newspapers, magazines) are not expected to die off
Continued rampant citizen journalism will be observed
In the long-term, we might see the demise of print news and news agencies
Journalists may mainly be freelance and not under a particular company
News would be dependent on citizen journalism
f) Conclusions
Technology is developing at such a rapid rate that it is difficult to catch up
Social media revolution is not leading to the death of journalism
Merely leading to the death of print news
Citizen journalism will become widespread
People have more avenues for news and are better able to filter and respond to different perspectives
g) References
Ruth A. Harper. Published 11 March 2010. The Social Media Revolution: Exploring the Impact on Journalism and News Media Organizations. Retrieved 8 September 2011 from http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/202/the-social-media-revolution-exploring-the-impact-on-journalism-and-news-media-organizations
Woody Lewis. Published 7 April 2009. Social Journalism: Past, Present, and Future. Retrieved 8 September 2011 from http://mashable.com/2009/04/07/social-journalism/
1. You need a thesis to tie your entire paper together e.g. the emergence of social media will not lead to the demise traditional journalism, but will put an end to print news. This should be stated in the executive summmary and intro and be supported throughout the paper.
ReplyDelete2. I think you need to include some caveats. You should be careful not to overstate the importance of citizen journalism. People will still turn to traditional news sources for analysis and comprehensive reporting, so citizen journalism will merely be a supplement. Gathering news is expensive and resource-consuming. Citizen journalists also don't do thorough fact-checking.
3. There seems to be an inconsistency: you say that we might see the demise of print news and news agencies, but you later go on to state that it will not lead to the death of journalism. Perhaps you need to explain journalism more clearly. Do you mean traditional journalism where you have an editor, reporters and camera crew (vs a lone individual)?
Hi Rebecca, TA here.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, when I look through the outlines, I just check if you have answered the important questions.
What is the innovation?
Before this innovation, how did people get things done?
How are people using this innovation now?
How will they use it or develop it in the future?
You have answered all the questions, which is better than a fair number of your classmates, but like Evangeline pointed out, there are some kinks to work out in your content. But I am sure that you will be able to think this through better when you start your draft.
Also, the last question has not been answered sufficiently. The 'Future Considerations' is the most important section as it is not a mere stating of facts. You have to use your imagination and analysis of current trends to think about how your innovation will be used in the future.
So work on that some more. Read what other people have to say about the increasing use of social media in journalism to gain some inspiration :)
Email me if you need help!