Impact of Social Media on the Practice of Journalism - Report Example

The impacts of social media on journalism have been the of time. In reality, there is an exaggeration of the effects that appear ina short period and an underestimation of the effects that occur on long term basis. The combination of all the effects of the social media is thus substantial. The effects are changing the way of practice of journalism. The publication examines the effects that accompany the emergence of the social media on journalism. The article thus considers the practices of journalism before the gradual advent of the social internet in addition to the time after its emergence. The article thus discusses the change in objectivity of journalists as well as the ownership of information by journalists. Furthermore, the document focuses on the increasing traffic of receptors as well as the acquisition of trust from the news consumers as per the authority that a journalist acquires from the consumers of the news. The publication also features on the changing participants of news, the changing style of disseminating the news and the circle that attributes the generation of the breaking news. The views of the writer also appear at the end of the document. A reference list appears at the finalization of the paper to authenticate the propositions therein. Introduction The debate that surrounds the impacts that the social media has on journali8ism is a matter of the changing technology. Research works establish that the role of technology with respect to the human population is numerous. The development is in the aim to create and consequently enhance the capacity of human interactions and strengthen the organization of businesses. Moreover, the configuration of companies tends to develop, and the service that all firms offer to the customer base experiences a quality upsurge (Bor, 2014, p. 245). The various aims of technical development over the years have not had substantial effects on the business world only. In fact, the technological developments ensure that all spheres of the human life become even better. The journalism perspective of humans is on the frontline in terms of the inducements that the technological developments are creating. (Chen, 2013, p. 44) The test of time makes sure that technology rises up to new levels. In the past, the use of text messages and the corresponding adoption of the electronic mail have been the most advanced methods of information transmission. Recently, there is a rise in the creation of more convenient methods of communication. The methods include the blogs, the wikis, the message boards as well as the social networks. Most notably, the popularity of all the communication modes is great and makes the world become a unit village. All the styles include the social media (Bryfonski, 2012, p. 37). Social media relate to new ways that people use to find, read as well as share new events and occurrences. The phenomena and events make up the news that people have immense interest. The other aspect that relates the social media is the discovery and sharing of information and content. From another perspective, social media are the democratization of data and information. Accordingly, people tend to shift from ordinary readers to publishers (Bryfonski, 2012, p. 39). On the other hand, journalism relates to the act of collecting, dispensation and the dissemination of news plus information that has the close relationship to the news. The news is in a view of a particular population or audience. Most importantly, journalism relates to the application of appropriate words in terms of the acquisition of the news as well as the style that is useful in the dissemination of the information and the news (Valtysson, 2013, p. 52). In order to substantiate the various impacts of social media on journalism, it is important to point out that information is not necessarily journalism. The instance means that the extent that the platform that social media creates to generate information originating from the former readers is not an equivalence of journalism. Reporting requires the aspect of discipline. In addition, journalism is a totality of psychoanalysis, the corresponding clarification, and the framework. Therefore, despite the emergence of the freedom of publishing that the social media creates, journalism is still a valid profession (Shonin, 2014, p. 9). However, journalism cannot compete with the internet. On the contrary, any journalist who anticipates competing with the internet cannot manage to be relevant bin the profession. The only option that is of benefit to the press institutions around the globe is the inclusion of the internet in the journalism acts. Accordingly, the inclusion creates the vast inducements of the social media to the practices of the journalism profession (McCurdy, 2012, p. 246). Effects of Social Media on Journalism Objectivity The internet tends to change the objectivity that characterizes the works of journalism. In the past, journalism had the aim of delivering news and information that people could base their trust. The information had to be in the shortest time and reach the high number of the population as possible. The presentation was also in a view to ensuring that it transmits the real emotions that accompany the events that tend to unfold in the place of the occurrence of the news (Herrera-Damas, 2014, p. 157). However, there is a change in the objectivity that has come of age by the widespread of the use of the social media around the globe. The aspect of trust in journalism is quickly becoming a substitution of transparency. The argument that follows is that the transparency that characterizes the activities of the writing is the superior origin of trust that the audience can rely on. Therefore, the news must be accurate, precise and fair. There is also a need for an audience who are the consumers of information to see the way the production of news takes place as well as view the origin or the source of information. Furthermore, the listeners, viewers or even the readers need to have the knowledge of how the information works (Dewing, 2010, p. 44). For that reason, the delivery information is as important as the explicit emergence of the information that makes up the news. Ownership In the past, the journalists’ who collect the news from the field were automatically the gatekeepers of the information. However, the emergence of the internet tends to ensure that the new organizations that involve in the collection of the information do not become the owners of the information. The social media have led to the aspect of ownership of information by the journalist being left. The news that journalists acquire sees the sharing of the corresponding public space. The fact thus implies that the instance of citizen journalism is very crucial in the new world. However, the conclusion that the citizen journalism makes the internet a source of information is partially wrong (Christmas, 2011, p. 21). The reason is that the information that constitutes the news does not emanate from the internet but the users of the internet. The effect of citizen journalism is an effect that appears in the long term. Traffic The internet creates a different indicator that poses as an evaluation of the efforts that the interest the journalism profession. In view of the Washington Post and the Huffington in the USA journalism, there is a competition that focuses on the number of readers rather than the competition of journalism. Social media are enabling citizen journalism to achieve the high number of traffic that reads the news on a daily basis. In other words, social media make sure that writing does not only reach the listeners and viewers. The internet makes sure that journalism reaches out to the readers. The Washington post in this particular case has been slow in the apprehension of readers. The reason is that there is a difference in the presentation style. The Washington post only uses special features for the performance of individual projects and the submission of sports (Bryfonski, 2012, p. 44). Authority and Trust The social media are dictating on the acquisition and consequent distribution of data, information plus the news. In recent times, a journalist must make sure that the authority of disseminating news is among the best things that he can get from the consumers. The social media have made the determination of the intelligence power from the journalism to consumer. The receptor of the news tends to acquire the information from various sources. The sources include the persons that the customer is following on the internet platform. Therefore, the same news can emanate from different news sources. The same news can also originate from friends as well as the news organizations from various parts of the globe. Therefore, the source of news tends to be the combination of the news authorities, as well as the traditional sources. The combination of the two sources comprises of the friends that a user has on a social network (Christmas, 2011, p. 22). The instance of changing authority creates the need for the existing news organizations and journalism businesses to incorporate the social media. For example, the Guardian and the Washington Post have internet applications especially in Facebook. The applications tend to ensure that the reader is capable of sharing his reading preferences with other friends on the same platform. By 2014, both the Washington Post along with the Guardian has approximately five million users of the news application that transmits their news (Herrera-Damas, 2014, p.70). Participants of the News The social media have a great deal of effect on the persons who make a piece of news become a whole. Study shows that the news reporters in the current journalism practice share information on their Twitter, Facebook and other platforms on the internet for their readers to confirm the news. The reporters also have the purpose of soliciting useful information as well as conversation with the persons who follow them online. Study also establishes tatty about 40% of all the users of the social media participate in the news. The participants also fill in as broad news consumers. The members use the authority that they have in own social networks to redirect traffic back to the source of the news that is the news websites. (Mandiberg, 2012, p. 34) With the rise of the new participants in the journalism field courtesy of the social media, some journalism organizations take advantage of the status quo. For instance, the Guardian has a field test that experiments on the development process of the news that attributes to the public. The name of the operation is ‘open news’. The only difference comes in that the field of study is the social media platform. The Guardian explains that anyone with upcoming information about important news of any kind should help the editors alongside with the reporters. The help will be an enhancement of the work that the press house is working on to deliver even more news that is comprehensive to other users. The Guardian also has an editorial that appears daily. The editorial calendar tends to solicit data from the communication participants. The Guardian also has a hash tag in Twitter bearing the name open news. The tag is a dedication for discussing the news that the press house is working on producing in the near future (McCurdy, 2012, p. 253). The Dissemination of News The traditional mode of news dissemination was through the television, the radio or the newspapers. The emergence of the social media gives a new dimension to the spread of the news. Study estimates that about 50% of all adults who use the internet attain information from the emails and other posts on the popular sites on the social media. After reading the news, most of the consumers tend to share the news especially the most exciting news with their friends. The instance improves the authority that the initial customers have on their friends. The primary users acquire power that graduates into trust. Accordingly, news reporters and editors have the role of becoming users of the networking sites on the social media. Being part of the internet ensures that they grasp the story that is in circulation and engage in the conversations that affect the news. The news reporters correspondingly share the news to their friends. Research also puts forward that about 20% of the news consumers on the internet tend to receive news directly from news institutions, as well as individual journalists. The statement, therefore, implies that the journalism industry is heading towards the full use of the Internet for the dissemination of the news (Shonin, 2014, p. 15). The News Circle in Relation to Social Media The most significant impact that the social media has on journalism is on the aspect of reporting a crisis. The nature of the crisis is in a way that any breaking news tends to be short, in the same way that the context has a short life span. Simultaneously, the analysis of the breaking news plus the stage that comprises the archival of the news tends to be lengthy. Therefore, there arises the need for a means that ensures a fast generation of the breaking news as it happens on the field. The social media are playing the role of being the fastest platform to transmit the breaking news whole it happens. The primary sites include Facebook, YouTube, blogs as well as Twitter. The sites are also adding the missing contexts of the breaking news and the making the news complete. Similarly, the social media are playing a very significant role in the analysis plus the consequent archival of the news. Some of the best sites that lead to analysis and corresponding archival include the Google search, the blogging, the videos available nine and the wikis (Christmas, 2011, p. 22). In conclusion, the social media are not a replacement of journalism. In fact, social media are providing an additional layer whose incorporation in the practice of journalism creates a platform for more information plus the inclusion of diverse opinions. The views act as feedback to the reporters and the editors of the information. The status quo is that some people are still reliant on the traditional sources of information. The persons are thus happy on the activities of the journalism institutions of sorting out the truth as well as the fiction that attributes the emerging data from the field. However, it is faithful to point that the same persons tend to have more engagements with the same information if they acquire it on the social media. The consumers tend to have the recommendations from friends or even from other trustees. From another perspective, a good management of the rising population on the internet by the journalism institutions can lead to the conversion of the social media users into respective news consumers. The use of technology in news dissemination can result in colossal profits for the information houses. The most probable step to take is to reconsider the importance that the social media recommendation presents to journalists and other news organizations. The social judgment is capable of redirecting the online users into purchasing the traditional forms of news presentation such as newspapers. Bibliography Bor, S. (2014). Teaching Social Media Journalism: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Curriculum Design. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 69(3), pp.243-255. Bryfonski, D. (2012). The global impact of social media. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press. Chen, G. (2013). Why do women bloggers use social media? Recreation and information motivations outweigh engagement motivations. New Media & Society. Christmas, L. (2011). A New Age of Transparency -and Let the Public Know. British Journalism Review, 22(4), pp.20-22. Dewing, M. (2010). Social media. Ottawa: Library of Parliament. Herrera-Damas, S. (2014). Recurring topics in the social media policies of mainstream media. Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies, 3(2), pp.155-173. Mandiberg, M. (2012). The social media reader. New York: New York University Press. McCurdy, P. (2012). Social Movements, Protest and Mainstream Media. Sociology Compass, 6(3), pp.244-255. Reed, S. (2011). Sports Journalists Use of Social Media and Its Effects on Professionalism. Journal of Sports Media, 6(2), pp.43-64. Shonin, E. (2014). Mindfulness and the Social Media. J Mass Communicat Journalism, 04(05). Valtysson, B. (2013). Democracy in disguise: the use of social media in reviewing the Icelandic Constitution.Media, Culture & Society, 36(1), pp.52-68. Read More