Journalism vs. Social Media
By Somayya Safa
With each passing decade that comes and goes, it either leaves behind a significant impact of a moment that either withstand the test of time or dies out.
In today’s world and generation, where our lives revolve around social media and technology, many of these changes raised concerns about the challenges certain professions like journalism and the shift of traditional media are facing.
Although newspapers have been struggling and declining in sales, it evolved and shifted its way into the digital world of subscription.
Bloggers who are sharing their personal beliefs and expressing themselves and their opinions are giving a second outlook into what they are thinking and how they feel about what’s really happening in the world around us.
We are influencing and being influenced by sharing and connecting to audiences who share the same common interest as us throughout all social media.
Because we have a wide range of social media interaction and interests, it’s the trending that became important.
Social media platforms are a way to bring people together engage in a two-way conversation through what is being shared, commenting and giving one’s opinion. But somehow the content of its availability became more of an investment among people.
It has shaped the way we communicate and how news reach us.
The rise of social media platforms has been challenging traditional media such as journalism and everything that had a purpose for what it was known for in the beginning of its time. It has been shifting and evolving with new technological transformation and its advancement, in which this has created both a negative and positive outlook on the reality we live in today.
The negative aspect of it is that through Facebook there are so many news outlets that are reporting on fake news and somehow, it attracted the audiences to fall into the trap of believing these fake news and they give credit to the false news of reporting than the one that’s reporting the facts and truth.
Although some of these issues have created algorithms to fact check and filter out any fake news such as Facebook, in my opinion, I don’t know how long it will take for AI system to fully understand the different type of patterns human language skills have, where an AI software doesn’t recognize.
If anything I feel that the only positive outcome of this matter brought people together to give their opinion and interact socially to engage not just with people but journalists as well.
It gives a journalist a chance to interact with their audience on a personal level to know them better and to gain their trust from just interacting with them in what they report on.
Most journalists are known to be on Twitter than on Facebook, but somehow all of the platforms are connected to reach an audience of preference on social media.
Although some news organizations try to stay away from social media, others understood how the platform works and how fast news spreads.
Even though social media is not to be considered a news source, breaking news travels faster on social platforms than any other news media.
