The Ever Revolving Life of News and Social Media
These days, eyes are everywhere. People are roaming the internet for the latest trends, surprising stories, and interesting events. The internet is a free-for-all in that anyone — whether you work for the media or not — can participate and contribute in providing news to people across the globe. The speed of which news is spread daily is something nobody truly saw coming even 15 years ago. Times have changed and the audience has now become an ally for journalists.
Journalists can’t always be a two places at one time, so the use of social media and creation of hashtags has made this possible. From sports to politics, journalists have utilized the audience as a way of growing and as a outlet to the source. Successful journalists see social media to connect with their audience in a way that both grows theirs reach and to learn.
The audience (now, not back then) probably understands the power of social media today. One video, hashtag, and commentary can impact the whole world when seen by a person who gets a hold of it. Interacting with the audience allows journalists to expand their horizons and gain knowledge from different perspectives. The audience can also provide different viewpoints and commentary that you will not typically hear from news outlets. It’s raw, authentic and can touch people across a nation.
“The graying of NPR’s traditional audience has the media outlet rethinking its journey with listeners in this age.”
The progression of social media has evolved the way news chooses to go about distributing their news. The younger generation has influenced a lot and it shows. Everything moves at light speed and a news outlet has rethought about how they do things that way they aren’t left in the dust. It’s all about who has the quality news as fast as possible. What it comes down to is if what the news source puts out is accurate and that’s where’s trust comes in.
“So how do newsrooms and journalists keep audiences coming back for more? Trust is key.”
Trust and interaction is what keeps the people coming. The audience and journalists must be able to communicate and work together in order for news networks to be successful in this social media era.
