With so many buzz words like “multimedia” and “smartphone” in journalism, it’s apparent that the old ways of sitting at your desk and cranking out a story are long gone. The only way to have an edge on the competition is to stay on top of the constant stream of new tools and ways to tell a story to an audience.
One of the newest additions to reporting and one of the most important tools for people everywhere–regardless of their profession–is social media. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram among others have changed the way people tell a story and who can tell the story. Now anyone can “break news” to a large audience and essentially, the world.
Newsrooms rely on social media so much so that there are full-time jobs dedicated to the position popping up everywhere. This job posting has social media in the title.
In Chicago, newsrooms like NBC5 and their reporters like Mary Ann Ahern break news on Twitter and even give a play-by-play when they’re interviewing to keep followers informed in real time. This means that journalists need to be plugged-in and giving their followers and readers information all the time.
These outlets for communicating provide many benefits, but also many opportunities for problems.
False reports of celebrity deaths and misinformation are just a few of the issues that are constantly appearing on the social media site. These kinds of tweets have been retweeted thousands of times and when a reputable news source like CNN retweets the false tweet or tweets about the subject matter, that brings down the credibility of that news organization.
Basically, when you hear, “don’t believe everything you read on the Internet,” the same applies for Twitter.
As long as you’re careful, you can use these social media sites to tell a story, share information, or even score a job.
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