Title: How Does the Mass Media Influence People? | Small Business - Chron.com
Headings: How Does the Mass Media Influence People?
How Does the Mass Media Influence People?
Social reporting
Different Take on News
News Today, Gone Tomorrow
Flash point
Chasing Social Media

Content: Business stories that appear in traditional mass media outlets may not have as much direct influence on people as in the past, but they do influence bloggers. News Today, Gone Tomorrow
Traditional news media may stay on a major news story for weeks or months. Stories that grab attention on social media may do so within hours of their first appearance on the blogosphere, and be gone just as quickly. The PEJ study found that only 13 percent of top stories on blogs in one week were still grabbing attention the next week. That was only true of 5 percent of stories shared on Twitter. If a business is involved in a major story, good or bad, it will have to effectively communicate with traditional news media to have any influence on the story’s outcome. Flash point
If social media doesn’t keep its news stories around for long, it does make news stories combustible. John Timpane wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer that a story in Rolling Stone about inappropriate remarks by Gen. Stanley McChrystal erupted into a “media firestorm” in June 2010 due mainly to Twitter, Web reports and cable news that in two days abruptly ended the general’s post as commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan–before the story ever appeared in Rolling Stone. Chasing Social Media
When a news item reaches a sudden flash point, reporters are often chasing bloggers to catch up with stories that are suddenly widely known without credible sources. Columnist Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press wrote "there is no such thing as a single ‘media’ anymore.