Social media has become a dominant and growing source of news and information for hundreds of millions of people around the globe. It is not only fast, it’s free, and it’s always with you in your pocket courtesy of your smartphone.
International Journalist Network (IJNet), puts Facebook users at 2 billion per month, the platform is easily the world’s most popular social media platform, which makes it indispensable for journalists and news organizations. While Twitter has become the social platform of choice for many journalists thanks to its chronological timeline of quick, 140-character bursts of information that instantly lends itself to breaking news situations. It’s also great for engaging with your readers and crowdsourcing new story ideas. Snapchat also has a growing number of journalists who are using the platform as a storytelling tool, particularly the mojo community of mobile journalists. The app is famous for allowing its users to send “snaps,” a 10-second videos or photos to friends. Instagram is equally not left out as users finds it easier disseminating news with more pictures and videos.
Social media has drastically shifted the way journalists do their jobs, from changing the way they receive information and story ideas to shifting how they share those stories. I’m going to quickly highlights 3 roles social media has played in journalism. Firstly, Social media offers journalists increased access to content, journalists have unprecedented access to their audience, putting them closer than ever to the content and story ideas that their readers/listeners care about. Audiences are no longer passively waiting for a news anchor to tell them the news, they are on Twitter or Facebook, sifting through content and sharing stories from their friends and family, sometimes before a journalist has even picked it up. Secondly, Journalists are responsible for sharing their stories, Social media is full of clutters. With its statistics running in billions, word travels quickly and then gets lost in the shuffle. Consider that roughly 6,000 tweets are shared per second (per second!) on Twitter. And that’s just one of many social networks. While that makes it a highly effective tool for communicating breaking news, it also makes the lifespan of a news story much shorter than it used to be. Thirdly, “fake news” phenomenon makes reporting more challenging and cumbersome than ever, while the reach of social media is great, it lacks a method of policing content and sources to prevent completely fictitious stories from spreading.New data from the Pew Research Center shows 45 percent of American adults consume news on Facebook and half of News consumers on Facebook depend solely on that site for news. This stat shows the outrageous impact of unverified news source in the world.
On the plus side, most journalists have realized how beneficial social media can be to their business and adapted accordingly. In Muck Rack’s 2017 journalist survey, 70 percent of journalists said they saw Twitter as their most valuable social network and 72 percent track how many times their own stories are shared on social media. Social media truly revolutionized the way journalists report and tell stories. It’s a priceless resource that offers nearly endless amounts of information –and it can be easy to lose yourself in the noise. As a result, remembering to give yourself a break every once in a while is quite necessary.