Journalism Evolution: The adaptation to Social Media
We as consumers and as an audience of news media are interested on learning about what is going on around us. This ranges from stories in our local communities to global events from around the world. Journalists are vital in supplying these stories to their respective audiences, and today it is even easier than before to reach out to prospective readers by the means of social media.
Mobile technology has allowed us to interact immediately with others from across the globe. Coverage on Brexit via the internet is readily available internationally. Before social media, journalists would have to coordinate in relaying the news in daily papers or a time slot on evening news. Delays could happen due to distance or in some instances language barriers requiring translation. News is now instantaneously available via live feeds, streaming, and archival availability due to the internet and mobile devices.
Social media has also blurred the line between the journalists and audience. Anthony Adornato in his book Mobile and Social Media Journalism notes in the first chapter that, “once-passive audience members… are not only consumers of news, but also influential producers of content”. Adornato points to how a dramatic photo taken by a Twitter user became circulated before any journalist was on the scene of a plane’s emergency landing. Social media enabled the event and photo to spread via interactions with his initial post, not any news outlet or journalists.
Traditional media outlets had very few interactions with the audience, where it was limited to interviews on street beats, replies to columns in newspapers from mail-ins, and call-ins to radio shows. These were thus curated and had a clear divide between audience and journalist. The mom-blogger now can become a news source as she updates community events in her neighborhood.
Social media has enabled independent journalism and also allowed for more voices from marginalized groups to be heard. The curation is now in the hands of the active participating audience by the clicks, shares, and likes.
There is a possible pitfall with this crowd-sourcing method of news where misinformation spreads and is taken as truth. Controversial issues such as unregulated political ads by Facebook and a concern of echo chambers rising. Tabloid journalism or yellow journalism is it’s ancestral form. Sites like Snopes seek to curtail the fake news circulating around the internet.
To combat the fake news, a piece by Alexandra Samuel says to look back at yellow journalism: “What observers of yellow journalism recognized — and what we need to recognize today — is that fake news does not appear in a vacuum.” Our part as a consumer is still highly important, making our engagement marketable and profitable to a fault.
The ethics of journalism are still relevant today as ever with the ever changing landscape of social media news. The DMCA being an integral piece that has been considered revision and extension on how content is shared and governed online. Consumers and users are wary of how this could possibly target content creators and create a domino effect in the online space.
The social media sphere is now a huge aspect of people’s lives. The journalism industry must adapt in order to maintain relevancy. Publications in the new form is a net positive for the audience. The immediacy of important issues are readily available at mobile users fingertips, along with live updates on an ongoing story. The malleable organics of journalism will be key its survival.
