Reflection on Week 8 article: The Future of Social Media in Journalism

Yes, it is not news unless you are part of it! WOW that seems to be how NEWS in today's virtual world will be expected. It is not surprising to hear about how journalism is changing with blogs, twits and many other social media platform. The face of a Journalist has changed from a person that has study the field of Journalism or communication and works for a newspaper or TV channel and provides news to the public to that of many people sharing what is going on through their blogs, twits or Facebook and now their share comments are considered news. Sharing the news making history, these people are the new freelance journalist, without knowing it they are bringing the news through the high speed internet, without knowing it they contributing to the history, they are not necessarily making a living out of blogging or twitting but just communicating with people. It is through these communication efforts is that news is being disseminated to the public, free  and most likely without any sensationalism  something that we grew accustomed to listening day by day up to the point that we stop listening. Lets talk about true journalism. True journalism has been about making news, telling the stories that the public want to hear, selling news whether it was good or bad. Most of the time what we learn through news broadcast is not exactly the good news, because it does not sell. It is the bad the news that sells. 

This and many more anecdotes are what Journalism has been about for a while. However, this news generation of news broadcasters indirectly are providing the public the truth, and at least it is no longer about selling news but about informing the truth and fortunately sometimes the truth is coming thru with positive news to share with others. Bloggers as well as Journalist are also making money selling their stories online or even better selling a spot on their blog to make some money.  However, this is just a fraction of most bloggers. There are many bloggers that are actually blogging as a form of hobby, entertainment or simply to share information to their following.

So, I guess I can say from this week’s reading is that it is to be expected that with social media and people’s ability to freely communicate and express themselves that there would be a following, sometimes larger than that in the newsroom and that these changes would bring changes to the way news would be provided from now on and how journalist will be delivering news confiding on the contribution from people like myself.  I have to agree that journalism will never be the same, and in the same way that librarians will need to evolve in order to continue being relevant. For the journalist it will require that they too adopt this new form of media and also be part of the community by providing news coming from different venues.