The role of Social Media, Jennifer Carbert

Part of the journalists's job is to build relationships. Relationships are what allow journalists's to gather information and find answers. The Internet and advances in social media have changed the way relationships are built and maintained. According to an article published by the University of Colorado Social Media is a way to get information that would otherwise have been next to impossible to get. "Social media supports “backchannel” communications, allowing for wide-scale interaction that can be collectively resourceful, self-policing, and generative of information that is otherwise hard to obtain." Social Media allows large amounts of people access to information, and allows people to stay in contact half a world apart, with so many connections gathering information is much easier.

Social Media has changed the way people interact and allowed information to flow much faster and easier. However, not everything about social media is good. Social Media encourages people to be more dramatic and more opinionated than they might have been otherwise on order to gain followers on twitter or friends on facebook. Katrine Sorenson in her blog post The Importance of being you  said: "Since success is measured in the number of followers on Twitter or the number of friends on Facebook, it has become very important to have a distinct personality or controversial opinions to break through the digital wall." In order to be someone online the writer needs to be distinct and different. Sometimes this can lead journalists, especially citizen journalists who are not held accountable for their words, to say defamatory or offensive things simply to gain followers and friends. Stephen glass is an example of a journalist who wanted readers and was willing to say anything to get them.


Another downfall of social media is the anonymous factor. Although stories may come from following someone on twitter or befriending them on facebook, journalists can never be sure who wrote those things. The name attached to them may not be the same person who wrote the comment. People who forget to log off their facebook accounts are hacked by friends, and incriminating things are posted as a joke by friends. A name on a computer screen does not mean total reliability on the keyboard.


With careful consideration and thought social media can be successfully used in the Journalism world. Information is easier to find, and stories are finding their way into the public sphere. With so much information journalists need to be careful which sources they choose and which posts they believe. Twitter and facebook are a great starting place to get in contact with people and find out who they are, but good journalism should never end with a twitter post, or facebook comment. The information needs to come from the source, face-to-face, or at very least over the telephone.

Note: Image from Politicus.us