Title: The effects of social media on journalism
Headings: The effects of social media on journalism
The effects of social media on journalism
1. Social media offers journalists increased access to content
2. Journalists are responsible for sharing their stories
3. The “fake news” phenomenon makes reporting more challenging than ever
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Content: With active usership in the 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. Reports are now responsible for sharing their stories far and wide, and making sure it stays in the news cycle for as long as possible. 3. The “fake news” phenomenon makes reporting more challenging than ever
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. While the reach of social media is great, it lacks a method of policing content and sources to prevent completely fictitious stories from spreading. As Facebook and Twitter draw fire from federal lawmakers over fake Russia-spawned content published ahead of the 2016 presidential election and President Trump continues to arbitrarily slander all kinds of news reports as being fake, reporters are forced to defend themselves and their stories against an increasingly cautious public.