Social Media Has Forever Altered News Consumption
Growing up, I remember taking social media for granted and being a digital participant became second nature to me. My neighbor (who was two grades above me) coerced me into creating a Facebook account when I was in 5th grade, even coaching me to lie about my birth year so I could feign eligibility. As early as the site’s inception, my younger brother and I scoured YouTube for hours on end, eventually even trying our hand at uploading silly videos. Even before traditional social media existed, my peers and I were connecting online through games like Webkinz and Club Penguin. I joined Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter by the end of my middle school years and have been an active user on all these social platforms since.
Needless to say, social media is, and has long been, an inextricable part of my life. The same goes for the majority of the global population today and as such, social media usage has fundamentally changed the way we consume news and journalism. The days of print newspapers, radio, and television are long gone — they have been replaced by social media and there’s no turning back.
Here’s a quick recap of how social media has altered the journalism industry:
- Social media has become a gatekeeper
Study after study has shown that people are predominantly getting their news from Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter. Personally, I get my news by scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, or my Apple News app; either way, it’s through my phone or laptop. Because of the digital transition, newspapers obviously can no longer rely on traditional economical models that supported print journalism. Ultimately, if news is not digitized or made available on social media in some capacity, it likely won’t successfully be disseminated to broad audiences.
2. Social media has created a demand for the trendy, viral, and buzzworthy
With the rise of progressive liberal media companies like BuzzFeed and VICE, there is a perception that news is becoming less “serious.” Because news is so social media-driven and depends on a system of clicks, likes, and shares, there is an emphasis within the journalism industry on producing content that will go viral and generate lots of online traction. Otherwise, what’s the point of publishing it? News is increasingly full of internet memes and brief feel-good stories perfect for packaging into snapshots people can scroll past on social media. What’s more, in-depth news consumption has been replaced with people who tend to scan headlines, look at photos and videos, and read no more than a few key paragraphs before moving on to the endless possibilities social has to offer.
3. Social media has made the news cycle 24/7
In the past, news moved at a much slower pace, with certain events dominating news cycles for a day at a time. But now, news happens on an hourly basis, with organizations even competing for breaking coverage down the minute and second. The incredible speed at which social media moves means that news is old as soon as it no longer appears at the top of your timeline. Save for major political scandals, the majority of so-called breaking news is lost within hours, buried under the endless barrage of articles and audience responses collectively produced by the public. With access to the internet and without printing deadline restrictions, journalists are reporting day and night, and news is happening constantly and at all hours.
All these new social media trends and phenomena merit the question: What does this mean for the future of journalism? Now that digital media has supplant traditional print news consumption, it’s becoming increasingly important for journalists entering the field to have a variety of skills — from writing to shooting and editing B-roll footage to writing social captions. At the same time, newspapers must adapt quickly in nearly every way—in their business and advertising models, production speed, and social presence management. The digital revolution has irreparably rocked the world of journalism, making this age one of the most exciting times to be immersed in such a dynamic and transformative field.
