Full disclosure, I’m starting this blog for my Mobile and Social Media Journalism class. My first assignment is to post about our readings and the state of journalism, so here we are.
With the advent of social media and mobile devices, journalism has changed and will never be the same. While you may agree or disagree with the statement that anyone can be a journalist, the truth is that professional journalists will never be able to take the same approach as the journalists who came before them.
The positives of this change are that journalists can talk to their audience in real time, and that content can be driven by readers, rather than what an editor thinks is important. It’s never been easier to crowdsource, and it’s never been easier for a journalist to gather photos or videos from breaking events that they happened to not personally be at. The Miracle on the Hudson was one of the first examples of a story breaking on twitter from a non-journalist.
http://twitpic.com/135xa – There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.
— Janis Krums (@jkrums) January 15, 2009
Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the internet’s ability to allow users to quickly publish anything they want, factual or not. We’ve all heard of fake news, which in this case I’ll define as stories that are deliberately fabricated as an effort to troll or push an agenda. You can read a story here from New York Magazine about a twitter troll that spread false information during Hurrican Sandy.
As a journalist, fake news can always be combated by verifying the facts before reporting. Journalists should make it a priority to be right instead of to be first. Overall, the rise of social media and mobile devices has made it an incredibly exciting time to be a journalist, despite what others might tell you.
Silas White 