Journalism and the Role of Social Media

Social Media has recently been playing a vital role in journalism. We’re teaching ourselves to
rely more and more on certain platforms for news as opposed to broadcast and print
journalism where media capture is meant to be easier.
We are teaching ourselves to find a perspective/ gain news from a more objective lens where
everyone has a voice and a story to tell. However how much of what we know or what we see
on our screens has been filtered or selected by people who own these particular platforms,
willing us to see a certain sort of content, making us want to streamline our minds?
The truth is, we barely understand social media and are afraid of how to use it. We have made
several failed predictions in the past- Twitter was meant to shut down in 2016, and Tumblr
was supposedly ‘over’ in 2017- but both these platforms still exist and are thriving.
At the same time, Meta is shifting its emphasis from Facebook to AR and VR, and Instagram
has a record number of zombie accounts.
The positive of social media and the effect journalism has had- is that it is the place where
conversations occur after movements, that have been inspired by a spark of good journalism,
paving the way to change our thought process for the better. People nowadays spend only a
few minutes reading the news but invest plenty of time watching creators and influencers
with great intellectual prowess discussing and debating this news.
The creator driven landscape is certainly what appeals to a majority of us, but it branches out
into two sections even here; those striving to abide by journalistic principles and those doing
anything to attract attention and money.
The shift of the channels of media is both a technological and an ideological one. The
crumbling of traditional media provides us with a huge opportunity to build platforms with
more diverse and inclusive voices- which has already begun to happen. We must make a
conscious effort not to make the same mistakes as we did in traditional media. We cannot
permit the rich and powerful to take control of the grassroots and seize power to promote and
make us truly believe their extremist ideology.
Citizen Journalism is the new up and coming form. Content is being monetised by them (us)
irrespective of their (our) agendas. Information that newsrooms are reluctant or unlikely to
cover is being brought up by them and hence they are more trusted. Investments in these
journalists by newsrooms would be investing in a democracy.
It is also key for these journalists to create a bond with their audience as opposed to their
audience coming to them solely due to the algorithm/ traffic of a platform. They must build
their trust.
Every turning point in the evolution of social media is an opportunity for journalists to
revamp their approach to the audience and their effort to stay true to serving people.