The Importance Of Social Media In Journalism

Social media has created a new wave of journalists that utilize digital platforms as the basis for their articles as news travels at a rapid pace online. However, online journalists clash with the journalists who choose to work in a traditional manner as social media allows anyone with an opinion to partake in journalism. Journalists who use sources from social media in their stories, such as Twitter, face backlash from their sources and readers if journalists do not properly respect the privacy of those who are being used in articles. The main issue that causes the problems for journalists when using online resources is that there is no set of ethical guidelines that all journalists refer to when writing articles that contain social media …show more content…
Hess begins her claim by introducing a story about Christine Fox who turned to Twitter in order to expand on a news story concerning rape with her couple thousand followers. Soon Fox’s tweets were republished by Jessica Testa, a reporter from BuzzFeed, which brought further attention to Fox and her conversation on Twitter. The unwanted attention did not sit well with Fox who later expressed her discontent about not giving her consent to BuzzFeed before republishing her tweets. Hess highlights that journalists have the right to utilize information from social media, but journalists also need to consider whether or not the sources they are using are newsworthy enough. Since Twitter is a social media platform that garners billions of users from around the world, Hess points out that “if reporters view all statements on Twitter as equally quotable—who among billions of Twitter users couldn’t be accused of seeking attention?” Hess illustrates that journalists have a hard time producing an adequate news article for the public, while at the same time respecting a source’s privacy. As Twitter attracts more users who publically voice their opinions, journalists will continue to use tweets as a source for news and bend their code of ethics in ways they feel will most effectively enhance their writings regardless of …show more content…
Ward first establishes the lines that are drawn that separate the two forms of journalism; he then introduces systems in which journalists can enjoy the two styles become integrated such as his proposal of layered journalism. This is Ward’s way in ethically appealing to the audience as he contends that boundaries between the two journalism styles can be erased joining as one in order to make journalism more organized. Figure two enhances Ward’s example of how traditional journalists believe only the “highly developed” should call themselves journalists since today social media makes it so easy for people to refer themselves as one. The different viewpoints people have when defining journalists ranging from “at least three approaches…skeptical, empirical, and normative,” reflect that there are different takes on how journalism should be considered, therefore, journalism of all kinds should be