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Research Essay
Research Essay
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In recent years, social media has become one of the most interactive channels of people
in the world. The rapid development of platforms creates new trends in the spread of
information. Each post also has a strong influence on the world as a whole. The interaction
between social media users created enormous power for social media platforms (Newman et al.,
2012). Thanks to the ability to high-speed spread, information disclosed by users on social
networks has a direct impact on the press, especially in the field of news reporting. Individuals
and organizations in the field of journalism changed to adapt to the development of social media.
Based on the above analysis, it can be seen that, in one way or another, social media is gradually
changing daily news reporting. So, this paper is to learn about social media and how it changes
news reporting in this digital age. The thesis statement is that social media engagement and
competition have positively impacted journalism's news reporting and benefits the public. This
paper includes three main points: the concepts of social media and news reporting; the role of
social media in news reporting; and the competition between social media and traditional media
in reporting news.
In the journalism industry, traditional news reporting is often done based on collected
information through investigating and taking the news directly. That means, when journalists and
reporters want to report news, they need to be present, talk and interview individuals who
appeared at the scene (Soloski, 1989). Sometimes, reporters spend hours chasing events and
gathering information from a variety of sources to give audiences the truth. However, in the
current digital age, many believed that news reporting may change depending on the origin and
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nature of the information. Audiences' curiosity demands fast reporting speeds that cannot be met
To meet those needs, social media has been utilized to optimize the news reporting
process of reporters. The concept of social media was created a few decades ago with the advent
of the early internet and the Bulletin Board System. However, until the existence of the Web
Platform, technology tools could help users create content and distribute them over a common
connection. Today, social media are communication platforms with a variety of features for
pages, forums, etc. Therefore, the spread of social media has a direct effect on news reporting in
Every day, the increase in the number of users makes the influence of the social network
more and more influential in spreading news. The figures show that the number of social media
users increased from 2.86 million to 4.41 million in 2017 – 2025 (Statista, 2020). Social media
connects people all over the world, no matter who and where they are. Thanks to the instant
sharing feature, users can distribute news/information on social networks at any time. The more
users, the stronger the connection. Therefore, that makes social media a source of news for many
spread of breaking news for individuals and organizations. Social media can be defined as a
channel or tool for word of mouth in this digital age. Information and events mentioned on social
media can become a rich resource for individuals and organizations (Kapoor et al., 2017). When
a user distributes information, that news immediately becomes the topic of discussion on social
media. After assessing the authenticity and importance of the information being discussed,
individuals and news organizations can research and turn them into the news. In the past,
individuals, organizations, and reporters had difficulty keeping up with last-minute news; and
now they can access the news in the simplest way: log into Facebook or Twitter. As a result,
At the same time, public opinion revolved around information shared on social networks
is also a remarkable thing when reporting the news. After observing the reaction of the online
community, the reporter can grasp social opinion and public perception trends. Thanks to that,
the next news reports on the right track, multidimensional and richer. News waves on social
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networks are created in the process of interaction between users, making information powerful
(Bergström & Jervelycke Belfrage, 2018). The combination of social media and the behavior of
public discussion changed news reporting. The reporters recognized the important role of the
It can be said that every social media user is a source, and they can censor the
information they post. This is known as citizen journalism. The social media web platform gives
the public/readers the ability to open up their communication channels. Each user can act as a
gatekeeper when they have full discretion to decide what information to publish on their blog.
Media scholars officially call this phenomenon "citizen journalism." This phenomenon provides
more multi-dimensional information to the media (Ali & Fahmy, 2013). The fact that users
actively contributed to the discussion of hot social issues also influenced news reporting.
Discussions actively supported journalists in reporting real and essential news to the public.
The competition between social media and traditional media in reporting news
Besides interacting and stimulating each other, the press and social networks also
compete with each other to attract public attention and participation. In a competitive
relationship, both the press and social media strive to better serve the needs of the public. The
news reports have features such as topicality, openness, periodical, and multidimensional
function. Before the advent of social media, these were traits that were unique to news reporting
in the press industry (Vasterman, 2018). Today, however, the press is no longer the only source
and distribution of news for the everyday public. Social networking has become an environment
of rapidly supplying, spreading, and interacting with information. Thus, social media competes
with media reporting in many aspects such as current news, openness, multidimensional and
interactive.
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In news reporting, the press and social media all strive to reflect the fastest new events
happening in life. The press channels are known as quick, popular, and far-reaching sources of
information. Due to the flexibility and acumen of social networks in updating new information in
all aspects of people's lives, the press has faced pressure on information competition. Facebook,
Twitter, Google+ have become all too familiar to people all over the world. These social
networks attract billions of users and create an extremely large community with a dizzying speed
in spreading information. Even websites, a new type of journalism, are sometimes inferior to
social media in spreading information, at least from a time perspective. Press organizations with
a limited number of reporters cannot reach sources as everywhere compare to users on social
media (Vasterman, 2018). Therefore, in many cases, information about a new event appears on
social media before appearing in the press. This is because social media users are everywhere,
they can capture images and sounds of new events at any time and upload them to social media,
before journalists. Event detection and access. The pervasive speed of social networks has
created pressure to push the press to speed up the rate of news updates to assert the role of
than traditional newspapers because it is not dependent on any agency. Social media has the
strength of sharing and presenting emotions, so members can freely present their views. In a
certain sense, this makes information on social networks overcome personal barriers to become
and performing a navigation function to guide perceptions more relevant to online discussions.
This demonstrates the power of the press in the context of social media becoming increasingly
popular. Interoperability is one of the strengths of the media, especially online newspapers.
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However, online newspapers are also competed by social media in this strong point. Social
media will "die" if it stops interacting with the public, so any platform always knows how to
promote this strength (Dwivedi et al., 2016). Thanks to the interactive feature, netizens are free
to express their opinions and comment on issues that they care about. Each person has different
perspectives, creating a different flow of opinions. Honest users contributed fresh perspectives
on news. Therefore, social media is an important channel for journalists to also capture public
opinion trends.
Conclusion
In conclusion, social media influenced journalism and changed traditional news reporting
thanks to its spread of information, openness, and multidimensional nature. The interaction and
competition between social media and the press benefited the public in terms of reporting
information. The press and social media together created a more progressive news environment
compared to the time before social media appeared. engaging readers. Besides, the explosion of
social media brings not only challenges but also opportunities for the press. Social media forced
the press to change content and form to bring readers quality news. The scientific and
technological revolution will last a long time and the development of the press and social
networks will unpredictably change. But certainly, in the modern media ecosystem, the
interaction between media types is inevitable. No matter how social media evolve,
References
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