The Social Media Revolution: Exploring the Impact on Journalism and News Media Organizations

The Iranian protests during summer 2009 offer the second example. In their article for The New York Times, Brad Stone and Noam Cohen discuss what occurred on and off Twitter during the protests. Also, Brian Stelter wrote two articles on the social media coverage of Iran for The New York Times, one discussing CNN’s coverage and another discussing the protest and citizen journalism in general (Stelter; “Real-Time”). Although, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, the protests were one of the hottest topics of its week, some voiced concerns with the mainstream media’s vast amount of coverage on the so-called “Twitter Revolution.” In his article titled “Iran: Downside to the ‘Twitter Revolution,'" Evgeny Morozov discusses two problems with calling it a Twitter Revolution. First, he writes there may not have been as many eye witnesses tweeting as expected for numerous reasons. Secondly, he says those Iranians who did use Twitter or blogs took a risk in being associated with Americans and considered spies (Morozov 10-14). In an InformationToday article, Michael Baumann also mentions the dangers Iranians who use social media would face; he quotes Morozov a couple times in his story (Baumann 1, 52, 54). While one of the most popular examples, the Iranian protests is just one example among many of journalists using social media.

One cannot talk about technology, especially social media tools, without evaluating ethical implications. For this topic, two articles served as the main sources: “Creating Ethical Bridges from Journalism to Digital News” by Jan Leach and “The Limits of Control” by Podger. Leach’s article considers how journalists and audiences will create and define news organizations ethics in the social media realm, while Podger’s article focuses more specifically on how traditional newspapers and organizations will create ethics guidelines for employees and Web site participants.

Finally, the last topic to examine is how professionals think social media will affect journalism’s future. Many articles, including those by Podger, Picard, Klose, Gordon, Greenhow, Holtz and Lavrusik, discuss this topic. The articles describe beliefs that news organizations will move toward increasingly using mobile devices. They also suggest reporters will become more independent instead of being linked to a specific news organization for a long period of time (Podger 36; Lewis 2). A handful of authors also discuss how the classrooms that shape future journalists will evolve with social media. In fact, one school, DePaul University in Chicago, has already created a course called “Digital Editing: From Breaking News to Tweets” that focuses on confirming sources and information from citizen journalists (“DePaul”). Surveying these data and documents will help one to gain an understanding of the direction in which journalism faces — toward increased usage of social media in daily routines.

Social Media Research Methods

The method for gathering this data is just as scattered and diverse as the opinions on the subject. As evident in the literature review, this report must have a plethora of types of media, including industry journals (online and print), industry books, news organizations, blogs and journalism institutions’ reports, articles and press releases.

First and foremost, the researcher gathered preliminary information using two main strategies: staying up-to-date on current events and industry news and following conversations and communications professionals on Twitter. In this report’s case, the researcher watched CNN most weekday mornings and checked in with Twitter a few times a day. The researcher received and scanned multiple daily e-mails, including social media-related newsletters, from MediaPost and AdvertisingAge. Also, the researcher engaged in a few Monday “#journchats” on Twitter to see into professional journalists’ minds, hear — or, rather, see — what they talk about in relation to the industry and perhaps even engage in conversation with said professionals. In fact, the researcher located public relations professional Chris Martin, by pitching a request for comment on the project’s topic via Twitter and the #journchat. The tweet read: “I’m researching journalism & social media for a school project — anyone willing to chat with me for a few minutes some time? #journchat 7:11 PM Oct 12th from TweetDeck.”

In addition to keeping up with the news and Twitter, the researcher also found numerous articles and related excerpts in communications-related books, journals, magazines, Web sites and blogs. Most articles and data were found using search engines and databases provided through the Friedsam Memorial Library. Finally, it was also important to locate surveys trusted research organizations like the Pew Research Center had conducted on journalism and news organizations. Combining information from articles and secondary surveys gave the researcher quantitative and qualitative data that was used to discuss the report’s purpose, which is to identify how social media has impacted journalism and news organizations.

Results

Before jumping into social media, it is important to understand the current circumstances surrounding traditional news media outlets. According to Jack Loechner, “Newspapers have a legacy of breaking news and uncovering stories of historic proportion, yet they are losing ground to a generation of consumers embracing digital and mobile alternatives” (Loechner 2). Despite this, according to a Pew Research Center survey on public perceptions of the news media, TV remains the dominant news source, with 71 percent of respondents saying they favor TV and 33 percent citing newspapers as their preference (“Public”). While TV may dominate right now, the biggest declines in traditional media usage are with the 18-to-24-year-old market. Loechner found young adults of this age group rank the Internet as more important than TV (Loechner 1). With the younger generation’s lack of patience comes its desire for speedy news and information, and the Internet can give just that. However, this desire troubles Geneva Overholser.

“It strikes me that most people don’t care as much about who publishes news (or what are often rumors) first these days as they do about whether the sites they rely on have it right when they want it. Now, as we all know, news and information need to be on the platform we’re checking, wherever we are” (Overholser 1).

In the Pew perception survey, most respondents, although more critical of media than in the past, still see traditional news outlets as important to watchdog journalism (“Public” 10-11). However, the public’s assessment of news organizations’ accuracy and media bias are at the lowest in decades (“Public” 2). According to the Pew public perception survey, 29 percent of respondents said the media generally report the facts correctly, while 63 percent said news stories are often inaccurate. In contrast, in 1985, 55 percent of the survey respondents said the media are accurate most of the time, and 35 percent said media are often inaccurate (“Public” 2). The public isn’t finding news organizations to be unbiased, either. According to the survey, about 26 percent of respondents said news organizations are careful to remain unbiased, while about 60 percent said news organizations are politically biased (“Public” 2). Only about 20 percent said organizations were “independent of powerful people or are willing to admit their mistakes”, which matches all-time lows (“Public” 2).