A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON NEWS REPORTAGE AND AUTHENTICITY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

For almost two decades, the web has changed the world and revolutionized how information is stored, published, searched and consumed. The ripple effect has spread so wide that it impacts not just businesses and industries but crosses over into politics, medicine, media and breaches geographical locations, cultural boundaries and ultimately affects people’s day to day lives. The great wave of web innovation since Google in 1998 has been in social media. Social media is about networking and communicating through text, video, blogs, pictures, status updates on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or microblogs such as Twitter. What makes social media of particular interest to journalism is how it has become influential as a communication and news-breaking tool.  Nobody will deny that social networks play a very important part in the development of future communication markets, as the figures speak for themselves, at the end of 2016 close to 1.9 billion people were using social networks in one or the other way. These users are able to interact with one another, as well as with countless news companies who have entered the social media world. Thus journalism not only has to cope with what shaped the last decades in regards to changing work flows  from the first computers and content management systems to new means of gathering and distributing news via online channels  but it is also confronted with a new type of audience. People are able to gather more news from many different channels than ever before, using traditional sources like newspapers, television or radio alongside online sources or apps on their smart phones. This means nothing less than the need for news companies to rethink the way they handle information, deal with commentary and engage with both their audiences and their customers. Many traditional players have developed strategies to deal with these challenges. Whether it is a more focused approach to their core potential whilst distinguishing the key benefits of old media or an attempt to serve both  worlds, the analogue as well as the digital. But still there are big differences if a media outlet tries to distribute its news via a website  regardless of whether it is behind a pay wall or not or via social media channels like Facebook or Twitter. Whereas the website can almost be categorized as a safe environment as all the power over its content lies in the hands of editors, journalists and IT people, social media is something completely different. The ultimate challenge for journalism in the twenty-first century could be to discover the precise nature of the correlation between efficient markets and good journalism. The recurrent danger is that in attempting to monetize the internet news organizations lose sight of the fundamental characteristics of good journalism the successful integration of democratic values, technological innovation, ethical standards, and respect for audiences. Current trends multiplatforms, pay walls, PR-dominated news gathering, shrinking editorial staffs, re-evaluation of the special status accorded journalists information rather than pointing the way are often contradictory, at times ephemeral, and always challenging. But just like the integration of other new technologies in the everyday life of journalists, social media as a tool for both distribution and news gathering cannot be left aside as technological possibilities of the digital revolution are empowering and extending the craft of journalism in ways that were unimagined just a few years ago . Newspapers, radio stations or TV networks can act more or less independently concerning their appearance on social media platforms. But what can news agencies do? An agency has not only to think about reputation or commercial success, but first and foremost maintain its position as an independent news provider.