Social Media’s Relationship with the News
People, and particularly the young of society, include hanging out on social media outlets as part of their daily routine. It’s a cute way of sharing snapshots of what’s going on in one’s personal life. It can be a quick and easy way of getting ahold of a friend.
In the past few months, Facebook (or Mark Zuckerburg at least) has particularly been featured under the hot lights of the media. Ironically enough, one of the things users and outside onlookers have been upset about is the amazing ease by which fake news (or inaccurate statements) commonly make their way onto the social media platform.
Social media can be as messy for the users as it can be for the creators, as Zuckerburg has been reminded yet again. Most employers will examine social media profiles either before hiring and/or regularly after successfully taking on a new employee. As you can imagine, certain posts or comments made on social media can be severely damaging to a career. A heated group debate could flare up. And in a time where anything can be classified as hate speech, even the most seemingly harmless remarks could be enough to lose a position.
In addition to the caution a social media user should have in posting comments and any other content, there is, of course, spam to deal with once in a while. However, for a reporter or journalist sketchy information or suspicious organizations end up being the most annoying aspect of these platforms. Good journalists, like most good readers, want the truth so they can speak the truth.
Social media outlets are possible hunting grounds for news writers; some really intriguing stories have come from employing this method. However, the dilemma these reporters are faced with comes in two major stages. 1) The information has to be authenticated. 2) In order to do that, the original source must be found and reached out to.
That is one way in which social media can help reporters gather relevant information. But because social media has become so prominent in the modern culture, random posts from celebrities and government officials became sources of information in and of themselves. President Donald Trump’s Tweets catch the public’s eye regularly, and Hollywood big-shots like Chris Pratt post stuff on social media all the time.
Often, these Tweets (they’re a good example since they seem to be most frequently noted) are only referenced by the news writers, but they are included in the article itself. This article on the faith life of actress Letitia Wright (Shuri in Black Panther) is one example of this Tweet-inclusion technique which I see everywhere nowadays. In researching my own pieces, I found this “Tweet inclusion” to be done almost to the point that it’s overused.
Social media movements can make headlines themselves. The world won’t be forgetting the #MeToo movement for some time. So social media has had a huge impact on the world’s society, even its overall mindset to some degree.
But social media has aided news outlets in yet another way. Eric Wilson, a local news anchor from my area, teaches a class on writing for the media at Rock Valley College. I was a student of his several months ago. We had a field trip one day; it was a visit to the station where he co-hosts one of the nightly news programs.
During our tour of the station, Wilson introduced us to one of his co-workers who holds a unique position, a position some may be amazed actually exists, and pays. The gentleman he introduced had the role of social media manager for the station’s content.
Eric Wilson even said that this position was unnecessary until just a few years ago when the need for a healthy social media following really kicked off. As a result, managing social media pages has become a career path! Social media’s influence and necessity in regards to the news media will be an interesting development to examine over the next few years.
