Journalists love Twitter Will newsreaders follow suit? (Essay Sample)

Journalists Love Twitter: Will Newsreader Follow Suit? Student's Name: Institution Affiliation: Literature Review Why Twitter Matters in Journalism Twitter provide effective means in which journalists can reports world news in a unique way. It also engages the journalists with the community and locates sources. Recently, Twitter has come out to be a tremendous news tool that is used to alert the world about natural catastrophes, revolutionary uprisings and even hostages standoffs. One of the greatest features of Twitter is its ease of use. It is remarkably easy to post a tweet. Primarily, Twitter is a social network that is based on interest rather than on friends. The users can only create a brief post of about 140 characters or less (Tremblay, 2010). Twitter allows users to view updates from the various users, semi –private or send public replies. They can also conduct private conversations with other users. One great feature of Twitter is that users can search for interesting topics in real time (Ahmad, 2010). Moreover, it facilitates the organizing of their streams with ‘hashtags' and lists. Most people focus their effort on Facebook because it has a larger audience compared to Twitter. But the fact is, it is important to ensure that journalists are engaged in both platforms. Facebook is structured along "the social graph" this implies that most users follow people follow people they have met. On the other hand, Twitter is organized across "the interest graph" this indicates that most users will follow accounts with most valuable information regardless of whether they have met or not (Schmierbach, & Oeldorf-Hirsch, 2012). Social media has played a great role in transforming the newsroom. This platform allows connection between reporters and sources. Most institutions have incorporated social media policies to convey information to various personal. Journalists use Twitter every day to find story ideas, communicate with one another and share the news. Most journalists understand the purpose of this platform and appreciate its value. We receive tech news from Twitter on a regular basis before even it is published on other platforms (Broersma & Graham, 2013). Twitter as a useful Tool for Journalists. Twitter is useful to enable journalists to conduct public interviews. By posting multiple or single questions on our Twitter account, we can gather several responses to the questions posted. Through these journalists can collect piles of vibrant research in a minimum time. Also, Twitter works well for finding quick solutions to various tech problems or questions. It is an efficient platform that enables Journalists to promote their online articles (Tremblay, 2010).Bloggers can post links to their individual articles to enable the users quickly access the material in a convenient way. A recent report by Cision's State of the Media about 21.6% of people believe that Twitter is the platform that would most probably grow in value to the press, and about 40 percent of individual’s postulates that Twitter is the most treasured social channel (Krotz &Kramp,2014). Ways journalist use Twitter Twitter is the best tool for building relationships with journalists and other users. It helps in the establishment of a good rapport between them hence strengthening relationships. Through sharing of compelling content, retweeting their best photos to their followers will enhance the journalists' reason to connect back. Through Twitter, Journalists can monitor public opinion. It is undeniable that social media is a powerful tool in finding out how people are thinking. Just as brands use Twitter to monitor their customers and competitors, similarly Journalists use the same platform to monitor the public opinion. The short form of 140 characters that Twitter provides journalists offers a high and low-level views of their stories. This is has a far-reaching impact on the public and shines a light on trending topics. Most Journalists have used Twitter in one way or another to locate and create news angles. Journalists can let the public gives new to the public as soon as anything happens. Due to the short nature of the tweets, readers are not given all the details. These makes them interested in coming back to the site and reading the whole story (Dugan, 2012). Journalists get reactions from the stories posted and can also get more ideas for the new stories that they are working on. The life of a journalist is most of the times all about writing a story, reporting, tweeting that story, and looking up for any breaking news to tween again. Journalists are the well-represented group of Twitter users. Twitter can be a dependable source of information if the report is verified (Bonini & Sellas, 2014). Twitter has contributed to journalism in various ways. For instance, Twitter has been used to report a major earthquake that has occurred in the recent past. Robert Scoble wrote about how Twitter users informed the world by reporting on a major earthquake that took place in Mexico City. Also, in Egypt and the Middle East most renowned journalists such as Jess Hill (based in Australia) and Andy Carvin (based in the US). The journalists used Twitter to establish trusted sources of information in the Middle East and Egypt during the 2011 upheaval. They depended on those sources to collate and report what was going on in those affected areas (Weiai & Miao, 2014). During this period it was hard for media organizations to get reporters on the ground. Furthermore, Twitter has been used to follow up and analyze the political instability that was witnessed in Egypt. Another instance in the use of Twitter was during the London riots in 2011. During the riots, the reporters depended on Twitter to connect with citizens and contribute to refining the coverage. Citizens on the ground were able to get help quickly as the unrest unfolded across the capital. The demise of Bin Laden first broke out on Twitter. Keith Urban broke out the news in May 2011 that Osama Bin Laden has been exterminated by the U.S government. The news came as a stun and surprise to the public. Twitter broke the information on real time. The information was virally dispersed by many Twitter and Facebook throughout the world. Getting information in real time is important in the current generation, and Twitter has played a great role in achieving it (Dover, 2012). The significance of Twitter in journalism ranges to day to day reporting with journalists using it to remain on top of their rhythms. Role of the Traditional Media Twitter does not replace the traditional media in providing news instead they both work hand in hand in providing information to the public. Social media provide real-time news faster than the traditional media outlets. There is the need to determine and verify the accuracy of the information. Social media comprises a broad range of sources. It is correctable immediately and can be corrected (Lasorsa & Holton, 2012). The community plays the role of correcting the social media. The traditional media outlets may be wrong, but it may not be easily fixed. Much of the news content provided on the social media comes from the traditional media. Twitter gets the best of the best media houses and magazines such as ABC, CNN, Huffington Post, and New York Times. Reporters use Twitter to get sources for their stories (Palser, 2012). Can Twitter provide Reliable News? Identifying credible information on the social media can be a great challenge because false information and rumours can spread very quickly through the social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter. It is important to verify any information regardless of the type of the media channel. According to the Pew Research Centre, the news use in Twitter and Facebook has been on the rise. As early as 2015, about 63% of Twitter and Facebook users access news from their respective sites (Jungher, 2014). The research postulated that the increase in News use is evident across most demographics. It cuts consistently across all the demographics including, race, gender, education, age and household income. The researcher further found out that Breaking news bulletin is more common on Twitter that any other social media outlets. Users are therefore able to see a wider variety of news. When an incidence occurs, journalists will first turn to the social me...