New Media Changing The Journalism World For Eternity?

Does new media equal new journalism? This constant asked question has been  revolving for the last decade. There is no doubt that the way people consume their news has changed. The industry of journalism has been changed by an explosion of technology that has tremendously changed how news is gathered, distributed, reported, and shared. 

On a survey that was taken for the year 2014, it reported that over 50% of Twitter users stated they received their news on popular social media sites as compared to only 33% in 2012. If you add that with more than 8,000 tweets being tweeted around the 

globe every second there is no doubt that Twitter play a major role in news consumption. 

Like Lyse Doucet, BBC Chief International Correspondent, says "There is no question, if you are not on Facebook and Twitter, you are not getting the full story." (https://lubpak.com/archives/248399)

However, the change in news consumption is mutual. Social media networks such as Twitter, has reformed the newsroom, in addition to, speeding up a present complicated news forming  process. Prior to Twitter, news took a longer time to travel to the average person. Now news is easier to come across, such as by reading a simple tweet. Although, it is a faster medium for transporting the news, the professional journalist must constantly be on lookout that the reader doesn't miss important information.

 Though social media sites provide real time information, public opinions, and reactions during news breaking stories. Certain studies show that journalists use sites like Twitter for up to 80% of their news-gathering skills. However, Journalists must still be careful to decipher between fiction and fact. Due to the fact that misinformation can spread across the internet like wildfire. 

Thanks to new social media, the average person contributes to the news reporting process. Because of this the public relies on the journalist to verify the news information reported. The journalist job has now transitioned from gathering the news to the explanation process. 

With the easy accessibility to new social media, it allows for a particular group or a community as a whole to rally around an idea or cause, which can eventually lead to social activism. The recent example being #BlackLivesMatter campaign on Twitter, Facebook, and various other media networks.

The public outrage to the incidents that took place in Ferguson, New York, Florida and other parts of the United States fostered a global social media support campaign. Lastly, Hashtag activism stresses the concept of filtering what information we as people consume daily. As NY Times David Carr puts it "The media is not the message, the messages are the media. " (http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/02/15/two-worlds-collide-twitter-the-butterfly-effect-and-the-future-of-journalism/)