Facebook And Its Role In Interfering In Journalism

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“I became a Journalist to come as close as possible to the heart of the world”

Introduction

Introduction to Journalism:

Journalism plays a very important role in today’s world. Journalism is a field of mass communication, which is related to studying, broadcasting and announcing of different world affairs which includes politics, fashion trends, government related and other issues to a wide audience.

Journalism spreads over history, it really started in the 1600s. The history of Journalism is closely related to the growth of science and technology. Before the establishment of different printing press, the word of mouth was the primary source of getting information.

After the creation of first printing press in Germany. Due to printing press people of Germany became more educated regarding different events happening around them. The first periodical in the history of Journalism was released in 1655, with the name of Oxford Gazette. From the 18th century, newspaper has always been the prime source of communication, then radio and TV in the 20th century and internet in the 21st century.

The face of Journalism was completely changed after the invention of first ever radio by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895. It gave Journalism a new name of Radio or Audio Journalism. Radio Journalism is type of Journalism in which news is transmitted through electronic signals. By the 1950s almost every country has its own state owned radio broadcast system completely operated by the state government. Radio became very much popular for entertainment purpose rather than for informative purpose. After the invention of Television which is considered as one of the most influential medium of Broadcast Journalism, provided both audio and video to its audience.

There are different forms of Journalism which includes Advocacy Journalism, Data Journalism, Citizen Journalism, Photo journalism, Interactive Journalism, Investigative Journalism etc. Journalism works in different areas which includes Arts, Business, Politics, Entertainment, Environment, Fashion, Sports, Science, Technology, Trade, Weather, World etc. Journalism works under different mediums which includes Print, Television, Radio and Internet.

Journalism has a significant value to the world because of global economy and almost a global society. In today’s world it is very important for us to know what is happening around us. Journalism is like a medium between the authorities and the people. Its main objective is to make people aware about their rights.

What is the purpose of Journalism? Why we need Journalism in our society? The main purpose of Journalism is to serve its people belonging to every community, religion and country. Journalism provides the information people need to make decision about their lives, their democracy and their society.

Introduction to Social Media:

Now moving on towards the importance of social media. Social Media is a phrase which is made up of two words,

The first word “Social” means interacting or communicating with people.
The second word “Media” means interacting with other people through a medium of communication such as internet.

Social Media is a tool which enables people to share different content with each other. But remember social media is a web based communication tool.

Social media is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Social plays a very important role in our lives. It helps us to stay connected with people who are very important to us. Social media also keeps us updated about different events happening around the world. Without Social media platforms it is impossible to live in today’s world.

There different platforms of Social Media such as:

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Linkedin
Quora
WhatsApp
Snapchat
Youtube
Pinterest
Google
Live
Yahoo.

Social Media has completely changed the face of Journalism forever. It has completely changed the challenges and role of a Journalist. In today’s time reporting content by journalists is not fulfilling for the audience. The audience looks forward to have a choice in what information they want to see and most of the people wants to have an active part in contributing to the content and voicing their opinions on different situations and cases.

Journalism has been around us for a long time, but today Journalism is getting more interactive and engaging through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp etc. Social Media is playing a vital role in creating a bridge between Journalism and the Readers. Very less amount of people are watching news on news channels first hand, instead they are watching or hearing about it through different social media platforms. Twitter and Facebook has emerged as a powerful informative tool, notifying about different world disasters, current affairs, fashion related information and different revolutionary uprisings. After seeing Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat has also launched its new section “watch via Snapchat” through which users can get informed about what is happening around the world. Thanks to Social media which made journalists even closer to its audience than ever. Now, audience don’t have to wait for the anchors to tell them the news. They simply can watch any news or any event on social media. Also they can share this news with friends and family as well. Social Media provides a platform of live reporting to journalist. Journalist can share live recording of event from anywhere. Journalist are using social media for making their contacts with big brands, for gathering information and promote brand goals. Social media provides useful analytics to the media houses which they can use for changing marketing trends.

But for this assignment we are going to study only one social media platform which is Facebook. What is Facebook and how it is effecting or changing Journalism?

Introduction to Facebook

Facebook, an American company was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow class mates Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes at Harvard University. Its headquarters are located in California. Facebook is one of the largest social media website in the world, with more than 2 billion users from all around the world. Facebook is a free social website, where anyone can make their account for free. Facebook is used for both commercial and personal use. People can create their own personal accounts, pages, groups, communities and many more. The company earns money from the advertisements on the website. Facebook has given businesses and professionals a whole new vision of social media marketing. Now a day’s, many organizations are using Facebook for their business purposes and promoting their products and services globally. Facebook has given Journalism a new platform where anyone can share news related to different industries such as Fashion, Media, Sports, and Politics etc. Many international news channels such as The New York Times, Daily Times, Express Tribune, Dawn are using different social media platforms for sharing different news.

Research

According to Pew Research Center, Around 68% of Facebook users, uses facebook to see what friends and family are up to. Nearly 62%, uses facebook to see their friends’ photos. Nearly around 38% users uses facebook for engaging in conversations with friends and family and sharing one’s own photos or videos (28%). Around 16% of Facebook users sees Facebook for getting news, on par with the proportion who say posting personal updates (17%) or playing games (14%) are major reasons.

Facebook changing Journalism

Studies have shown that almost every journalist from around the world is using different social media platform such as Facebook for News making, News sharing and for News selection. When it comes to social media, Twitter has been the platform used by journalist for news reporting and reaching out to the sources largely but with Facebook continuing to scale and becoming more and more public. It offers journalist a variety of options such as writing a content beyond 140 characters and to share it with the public plus to connect with the new sources of information.

Facebook has given Journalism a new platform, by introducing Facebook Journalism Project. The aim of this project was to strengthen its ties with different media organization and to provide these organizations with bigger platform to expand their audience and to promote trusted news in the “Post-Truth” era. The main aim of this project was to create more unique and creative ways of news telling and news sharing, to promote “News Literacy” among the journalists and to support local news as well. This project has provided news industry with a news tool known as “Instant Gratification” which posts news item directly on facebook without pointing users to news websites. Facebook is working with different other projects such as News Literacy Project to develop a number of public service advertisements on different social issues.

“According to the Pew Research Center, more than 40 percent of American adults get news on Facebook.”

Now a days, many Journalists, Politicians and Celebrities are using Facebook Live a way to connect with their audience in real time. Facebook Live is a feature of Facebook which allow users to live steam video with their audience. The features allows the targeted audience to comment on the video and displays how many people are viewing your video.

Facebook has a huge role in news industry because of its ability to reach huge audiences. Many notable news organizations are using Facebook Live because that’s where the young and energetic audience is. Many freelance and independent journalists are also using Facebook Live for sharing news with the audience without investing a lot of money on technical infrastructure of a news channel.

The advantage Facebook has over other social platforms is the absolute number of sources it presents for journalists. At National Public Radio, its 1.5+ million-member Facebook community is invaluable for finding sources, said Eyder Peralta, an associate producer on NPR’s social media desk.

One of the major advantage of Facebook is that it provides its users with an option to privately message any other individual on Facebook without having to be their friend. Because of this any news reporter or manager of any news channel can privately message any person from his/her private facebook account. If he finds any interesting personality he wants to interview.

“A total of 30 billion content is shared on Facebook each month.” With so much content moving into the news feed, Journalist are finding a potential voice by boosting and detailing quality substance to interested viewers.

In some cases, news coverage would have been impossible without Facebook. Libya is a great example of it. Peralta told NPR that when its own Journalists were banned from the country. NPR was able to get pictures and videos through Facebook posted by users in Libya. Facebook is becoming a more public platform rather than a private platform because of the tools such as Openbook which helps journalists to search public information on FB, Journalist can find news related to any event through this option. Other tools such as Facebook questions enables journalist to find expert opinion on specific topics and by using this tool they can also generate public opinion on any topic.

Facebook has been building up to enhance its connection with different media institutions and journalists from all around the world. Last July, the company told the media that they will help media institutions by enhancing their product to increase viewer’s engagement with media organizations. From July, different media organizations has seen 100% plus increase in their traffic from facebook. The company is also providing training to journalists on how to use facebook platform effectively and by taking their feedback on how we can improve this platform. The company has also launched a new post in their organization with the name of Journalist Program Manager, which will help journalist to use facebook as a reporting tool.

Conclusion

Change is very important in every field. For journalism it is very quick because of technology. As technology keeps changing very fast, the art and style of journalism changes as well. Social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram.

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