Social Media and Journalism: Correlation in the 21st Century

Kathmandu: How social media has changed Journalism over the past years is what will be discussed in the article.

With the moving generation, today; journalists face new challenges that is caused by new technologies. Social media in today’s world brings many additional advantages when the correct idea and technology is adapted from the market. It also brings in new features and characteristics that include interactive dialogue along with social interactions. It has been very feasible for journalists in today’s world to have direct interactions with their viewers and audience. This makes it very easy for journalists to have routine review, feedback, contents, making it easier for journalists to allocate their basic resources directly from the audience itself.

Online debates and watering hole are also kept in easily access method which lets the audience and their viewers express themselves and thrive the “feeling of being heard”. This helps create the feeling of being valued when their opinions are expressed and heard. Observing the scenario across the globe it is very clear that today social media has given the real meaning to what a freedom of speech should be.

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, Reddit, etc. are considered as very professional journalism platform. Interaction with audience is the utter most advantage any media could have and this has been made very easy through these social media platforms. On social media, many news organizations will know their readers even more as compared to press releases because there are comment sections where people can speak out what they believe is right and true as per the news. The feedback or the comments can be both positive and negative, for instance, any positive news related to ABC party will be given negative feedback from another random XYZ party. This helps journalists understand and read their opinion and focus on what the audience would prefer or makes a debating scenario. But even in today’s generation where the competition is very high in all the sectors, few news organizations still resist using social media while some try and embrace it as rightly as possible.

However, one of the most challenging factors faced by news organizations and audience is that there are group of people with no credibility that post on platforms like YouTube and Facebook about the same topic with completely different and irrelevant information as compared to registered media houses. And due to people and pages like these, even the credibility of good and existing media houses are in danger of losing the trust among the audience and find it difficult to prove that the quality and ethics of the news provided are from genuine sources.

Tags: Audience, Challenges, journalism, news, Relation, Social Media, Technology