Social Media and the Future of Journalism

Group 2 led the class discussion on social media and its effects on journalism. They defined the difference between yellow journalism and citizen journalism. Yellow journalism relies on "sensationalism" instead of facts, whereas citizen journalism relies more on social opinion and the community's participation. Citizen journalism has several advantages: more coverage, because more people are participating in the reporting' the coverage tends to be more intimate and deeper, because citizens tend to report on things that matter deeply to them; and it has a subjective viewpoint. The downsides are the information overload, the information triaging, and the ethical and professional objectivity. Consequentially, the public should consider how they find what is relevant, and how they verify that information. While the role of journalists  is in "providing citizens with an accurate and informed picture of people and events," citizens and bloggers hold no such ethical duties. I feel that this is the most important difference between true journalism and citizen journalism, and the important reason why true journalism must survive. Information is powerful, but it can also be dangerous if misinterpreted or misrepresented.

On a brighter note, Group 2 then listed ten reasons why there is still a bright future for journalism:

1. More access to more journalism worldwide

2. Aggregation and personalization satisfies readers

3. Digital delivery offers more ways to reach people

4. There are more fact-checkers now than ever in the history of journalism

5. Collaboration…

6. More voices are part of the news conversations

7. Grater transparency and more personal tone

8. Growing advertising revenue online

9. An online shift from print could improve our environmental impact

10. Stories never end.

Because nearly all citizens originally get their stories from journalists in the first place, I don't believe that journalism will ever die out, but I do believe that over time it will merge with other social media sources. The world of information is moving online, so eventually that is where everything will go. In yesterday's issue of the New York Times large-city restaurants are providing iPads that feature their extensive wine listings, in order to provide guests with detailed information on each individual bottle, along with thousands of customer reviews. I can see a day in the future when textbooks will be purchased and available through iPads or other electronic sources, where the news will all be online, and where books can be rented through online sources and viewed online. However, just as JSTOR is far more reliable and in-depth than wikipedia sources, I believe that bloggers will never hold the reliability, thoroughness, and dependability that journalists hold. While journalism may move to another medium, it will continue to exist.