Journalism and its negotiation of online, the blogosphere and social media

Or is it not?

Twitter, Facebook, blogger, youtube, well, you name it! It’s the era where social media platforms are booming currently. This is probably the reason why I decided to report on this week’s seminar and I definitely paid extra attention to the seminar as well. Vanessa and Roslyn did a great job with the presentation highlighting all aspects of the journalism industry and not just about social media platforms. Great video too guys!

Like I mentioned earlier, social media platforms are becoming more and more prominent in practically everyone’s daily lives. Take me for example, I did not have Facebook until about a year ago which was not even created by me but a friend of mine. Anyway, the point is, now I am hooked to it that I have to check my Facebook page every day. In fact, an average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook itself (aguntuk, 2010). Thus, it makes more sense for news to appear online or via these social media sites first before it appears on traditional media. This is also because these websites are mobile that when someone is at a spot where important information or events take place, they can immediately tweet or post in on their page for their friends to see it. It may not be the full story, but at least the summary of it appears first before the detailed report which will appear in the traditional media later or the next day. I guess this is why we have twitter and Facebook pages for The Straits Times as well.

But then again, with the rise in social media platforms, more and more people are able to post anything that credibility becomes a problem as well. People are doubtful about the credibility of certain news being spread by social media platforms but they are able to distinguish the real and the fake ones after some time (Catillo, et al, 2011). This is because, people do not simply believe what they read. They are bound to discuss it with their friends who will also probably help to validate if the information is true. Also, this could be a reason why people follow or like news web pages as they are able to receive information, credible information from these sites, even if it is a summarised version. Well, maybe it’s time for me to get twitter as well. What do you think?

References

1) Aguntuk, 2010. People Use Facebook 44% And Twitter 29% For Social Sharing [Online]. Available from: http://thetechjournal.com/internet/social-community/people-use-facebook-44-and-twitter-29-for-social-sharing.xhtml (Accessed 9th June 2011).

2) Castillo, C., et al., 2011. Information Credibility on Twitter [Online]. Available from: http://www.www2011india.com/proceeding/proceedings/p675.pdf (Accessed 9th June 2011).