The Importance Of Social Media In Journalism

In today's society there's a new update on how journalism is delivered and written. Through the power of the cyber world new context is being uploaded and videos are being uploaded to video websites such as YouTube. Three authors express their thoughts about this modern-day problem in a traditional way, via textbook. They discuss how social media websites deliver messages that are not very accurate and informative. These messages usually target certain groups to create a community of its own.

News organizations that report on stories in a fair, balanced and ethical manner are essential to the functionality of this nation. A citizen’s ability to make well-informed decisions hinges on a news organization’s ability to relay the most accurate information regarding the state of the nation, the changing condition of communities, and adjustments in the government. Journalism is no longer a one-sided conversation. Journalism is an interactive process that allows for readers and viewers to create a dialogue with journalists by utilizing mediums such as social networking sites and comment sections. Audiences have a say in what stories get reported and how news stories are presented to the masses. When news organizations fail to cover all

Clay Shirky who wrote Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable (1993) argues that society doesn’t need newspapers society needs journalism to save society. Shirky supports this argument by giving a historical background to the problems newspapers face and how the problems have developed over time and the solutions society has came up with. The blogger concludes that in order for journalism to go farther new models must be created in place of past molds. Shirky directs this blog toward the current and future generations in attempt to motivate new models and methods of journalism.

Objective journalism in the United States should be reconsidered to accommodate the demands of varied audiences and increased media outlets. With the media growing in magnitude and influence, many people are looking for fresh, like-minded news sources. Declines in newspaper readership and television news viewing among many Americans suggests that objectively reported news is a failing philosophy. Younger, more impressionable people may be ready for the advantages of the partisan news reporting style.

Newspapers and other forms of news are very vital communication methods in the world today. The goal of news is to sell us their ideas by being biased and talking about how their idea is best. News can give us biased information although, the viewer could do further research on the

Thesis: Dissemination of news through social media allows for rapid distribution and incredible accessibility, but can lead to decreased understanding, stifled discussion, and even the propagation of fake news stories.

The history of journalism in the United States has spanned from the first colonist crossing the Atlantic Ocean to today’s mass media. Even before we were a country we had printers and journalists writing and printing stories for the people. Looking back, we can divide journalism history into different time periods and see how news reporting developed over time. Some of these time periods include the Colonial Period which spanned from when the first Pilgrims came to America in the mid 1600’s till the 1760’s. Other periods include the Revolution period which picked up from the colonial period till the early 1780’s. The period of Westward Expansion lasted from the 1800 to the 1830’s, then there was the Civil War Period which spanned from the 1840’s till the 1860’s. Finally, the Interpretative Period which lasted from 1930’s and continues to today. Looking back at these time periods we can see what was considered “news” and what was “newsworthy”, the dominate issues of the periods, and how far we have come as a society from those issues.

Beginning with the first printed American newspaper in 1690, citizens have desired knowledge not only of their country’s state of affairs, but also that of the rest of the world (Early American Newspapering, 2003). This first venture into media did not end well: the authors ran afoul of the ruling government and it was shut down a stunningly short four days later. It was not until the end of the 18th century that newspapers became fully established as the source of news in the country (Early American Newspapering, 2003). However, it was not until the 1920’s that the idea of objectivity was applied to journalism in response to “growing recognition that journalists were full of bias” (The Lost Meaning of ‘Objectivity’, 2003). Bias is a preconceived particular tendency or inclination, and “media bias” is the exhibition of bias by journalists and producers in the selection of events or information and how they are reported to the public (Media Bias Law and Legal Definition, 2016). Today, the sources for news have expanded from newspaper to include television, radio and now the internet and are used to provide even more information to an even larger base audience. With the influx of multiple sources and avenues to receive news, the need for fair and unbiased reporting is at all-time high. However, perhaps due to flood of information available, many concerned citizens are asking just how biased modern media is and whether it is easy to recognize their bias.

In The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, the authors stated that the primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to self-govern. As a student who regularly uses Google News, it is crucial to me that the journalist publishes the article in a way that empowers the audience. Often, external influences affect the role of journalism in our society. The line between journalism and propaganda is often muddled and groups of people are left behind. Although it is sometimes lost, the journalism we see today is meant to be the metaphorical bridge that makes sense of the masses of events and delivers it to the audience in a way that demonstrates clarity.

Objective journalism originated in response to yellow journalism. Objective journalism is reporting facts rather than opinions and presents both sides of the partisan debate. Objective journalism became the new norm of society and ultimately eliminated most of yellow journalism. With the development of cable television and FM radio, the news began to take a more partisan role and led to the increase of party polarization, which is the further divide between Republicans and Democrats. With the rise of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, the creation of “fake news” is becoming imminent. Today, news organizations are using the tactics of yellow journalism in politics to gain the attention of the audience and provide false facts that produce a major response from the viewers. Ideas and propaganda material are able to spread faster and to a wider range of people through social media. Much of this material is “fake news” that usually discredits one of the political parties, Republicans or Democrats. With the wide spread of this negativity toward one party, the opposing party strengthens its ideals and ultimately leads to increased party polarization.

Social media has had a huge impact on the way that journalism is practiced and the way that the general public perceive news in the present day.

The recent surge in popularity of social media comes with a price: fake news. Fake news is defined as news or media that has been altered or modified. Journalists have begun to analyze why that fake news exists and why it continues exist. Two authors, Eoin O’Carroll and Kevin D. Williamson, both have written articles about fake news. Eoin O’Carroll’s article “How Information Overload Helps Spread Fake News,” discusses how the media has bombarded us with news stories, blurring the distinct lines between real and fake news. Kevin D. Williamson, a journalist for the National Review, writes in his article “‘Fake News, Media and Voters: Shared Reality Must Be Acknowledged” that the news is not fake; it just does not align with one’s personal beliefs. Both authors successfully appeal to their audiences’ emotions and feelings, but O’Carroll is more likely to succeed than Williamson in persuading his audience to try and combat fake news because the writer presents himself as someone the intended readers will more readily identify with and offers evidence that his readers will find more compelling.

Social media has drastically changed how the news industry operates. People may argue whether or not social media has had a negative or positive effect on journalism. While social media gets the conversation going between people about major events, opinions can cause inaccuracy in stories. The time it takes for news to enter the market has shrunk significantly since social media has become increasingly popular. Citizen Journalism has also impacted the news industry. What used to audience has become a team of constant media journalists and content producers. Both of these changes have had both positive and negative impact on the industry.

The overview of the subject matter is that the big worry is that quality will decline Journalists are employed to check their facts and they get checked in turn by editors who question the reliability of their sources; we trust the paper’s brand not the individual journalist. Social media could be reliable, but how would we know? This is equally true then it comes to bias. But the fact of the matter is journalism is more credible and if we lose credibility in the information we get everything could fall for speculation. The authors’ thesis is we should not stand for the decline of journalism as a profession but support our right to have valuable information

To wholly have a grasp on how this new founded approach to journalism has changed alongside technology—as well as understanding the dangers such openness brings forth—one has to understand what exactly those changes are. Primarily, those that are writing for the sake of offering information have, whether willingly or not, fed into the usage of social media as it has become a centralized method of distribution that is relatively inescapable with the current times. As such those framing the news for the masses find an authentic avenue to stay in contact via social media that has benefits ranging from, “its extraordinary newsgathering potential; its potential as a new tool to engage the audience; and as a way of distributing our news” (Eltringham, 2012), all of which are deeply different from the presentation of reporting that occurred during earlier eras. Days of strongly structured instances of journalism that could not travel with such speed have been replaced as, “social media has trashed many of the foundations on