Social media is impacting journalism in several ways. It is changing how news is managed and distributed, as content management systems make it easier to share stories across platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Journalists are encouraged to engage audiences on social media by sharing links as well as rich media like photos and videos. Nearly half of Facebook users get news through the site. Citizen journalism through user-generated content submitted on social media is also impacting the industry. While social media helps distribute news, search engine optimization remains important. As journalism evolves, the majority of Americans still get news from print or online sources, though mobile-only readers are increasing.

1. Social Media in
Journalism
Christine Valdez

2. What is
Journalism?

3. Journalism
(As identified by Craft and Davis on pg 47)
1. Journalism informs, analyzes, interprets and explains.
2. Journalism investigates.
3. Journalism creates public conversation
4. Journalism helps generate social empathy.
5. Journalism encourages accountability.

4. Content Management Systems
“Journalism is changing because of the use of social media and rapid mobile media adoption. The
social media shift is impacting all aspects of the industry -- from the newsroom to advertising and
management. For content managers at newspapers, for example, content management systems
(CMS) increasingly make it easier to share news across traditional and social media platforms.
Facebook has been a popular tool for news sharing, but Twitter continues to grow. News managers,
armed with the latest industry data, urge reporters to not only share links to their stories, but also to
engage with audience members using interesting and useful content.”
Chapter 3, pg 47

9. Content Distribution:
“Journalists are very active on Twitter, especially during breaking news events.
They are being encouraged to not only share story links, but also rich media --
photographs, videos and source links -- using mobile apps, such as Instagram,
Tumblr, Vine Tour and Jelly.”
Chapter 3, pgs. 49-50

10. Content Distribution

11. Breaking News on Twitter

12. - SEO
*Using SEO -
friendly words
for headlines
and Tags.
While Social
Media helps,
there are other
areas to
consider.

13. As Journalism
Evolves:
“Scarborough Research and the
Newspaper Association of America
reported that 69% of American
adults, about 164 million people,
are regular readers of a print, online
or mobile newspaper edition.”
-Chapter 3, pg 51

14. Scarborough study continued:
The study found:
- 54% of readers in the 18- to 24-year-old demographic read a printed
newspaper or access news sites on a desktop computer.
- About 17% of mobile users are considered mobile-only readers.
- Print-only readers are on average 11 years older (median age of 54) than
online readers (median age 43) and 21 years older than mobile-only readers
(median age 33).

15. Journalism Theories
According to a study by the Pew Research Center and Knight Foundation found
that nearly half of Facebook users, or about one-third of the population get news
through the social media site. (pg 51)

17. Graph from the Pew Research Center:
http://www.journalism.org/2014/03/26/8-key-takeaways-about-social-media-and-news/

18. Graph from the Pew Research Center:
http://www.journalism.org/2014/03/26/8-key-takeaways-about-social-media-and-news/

19. Citizen Journalism: User Generated
Content
Occurs when media asks the audience
to submit content for a news story.
On social media it can be through the
use of the hashtag or submitting through
email, etc.

20. Citizen Journalism: User Generated
Content

21. Crowdsourcing
During a breaking news
event, users may provide
information not yet available
to professional journalists.

24. Bloggers:
Became popular online during the early portion of the new century. There are
Independent bloggers, as well as blogs on commercial sites such as The
Huffington Post. Bloggers are also considered successful challengers to traditional
media.

25. Blogs can cover a variety of topics.
Most blog posts tend to be 500 to 1,000
words.
“Use of images and video links varies
across blog sites.” pg 61.
Bloggers:

26. Social Media Celebrity

27. Failures
The Pew Center identified six important trends, including “advertorials” that are
advertisements packaged as news editorial content (pg 62):
1. Public awareness of effects from newsroom cutbacks
2. News Industry failure to capture the bulk of the new digital and mobile
advertising
3. Increasing amount of native advertising -- advertorial content, sponsored
tweets, etc. -- running risk of reader confusion.
4. Paid digital experiments, including use of paywalls for user-paid content.
5. Potential for digital impact to challenge local television news revenues.
6. Social media and word-of mouth origination of news instead of through news
media sources.

28. Lessons

29. Discussion Questions
1) How do you define journalism? How do you think traditional definitions of the work of journalists are
being altered through participation in social media? What can working journalists do to maintain
professionalism?
1) What must journalist do to be relevant to young people? What role should entertaining video play in
attracting new audiences to journalism? Are there other tactics journalists can use to have a positive
effect on business economics?
1) Does the norm of objectivity remain important within your definition of journalism? Are there other
strategies journalists need to adopt to be considered as a trusted source for fair information within
their communities?