Social Media Domination

Last time I gave a few examples of news stories that included or were headlined by social media usage and ended our conversation speculating as to whether or not the news could report without mentioning some type of social media. In order to comprehend whether or not the news can do its job with or with out social media, I think we first need to identify the growth of social media through the years.

Social media is all over the news because it is all over our lives. Whether discussed in the classroom, used in place of a telephone or used to watch shows and videos, social media seems to be a staple in our lives and more so, the poster boy for the Internet era. However, with everyone so anxious to give the public an update on their lives, how can the media ignore this method of interaction that is right in front of their eyes. As users twitter about minor details in their day such as where they are having lunch, to posting status updates about how they are feeling, who they are dating, and what they plan to do next, one would be hard pressed to blame the media for using social media as a news source. This website, http://www.joesblogg.com/2010/03/social-media-usage-statistics-2010/, tracks the growth of social media over the past several years and the rate of growth is astounding. Facebook is said to have reached over 400 million users worldwide while Twitter hopes to reach the benchmark of 50 million tweets per day. As I said in my last blog, it is not only the children using these sites; adults have also joined the party. The aforementioned website displays these alarming statistics in terms of adult social media usage, “Forrester also recently produced some interesting stats about adults using social media. Some of the findings included:

-A third of adults post at least once a week to social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

-A quarter of adults publish a blog and upload video/audio they created.

-Nearly 60% maintain a profile on a social networking site.

-70% Read blogs, tweets and watch UGC video.”

So out of all these adults using social media, how many of them are reporters or affiliated with news coverage you ask? This link, http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/01/20/more-reporters-using-facebook-and-twitter-for-story-research, tells us “89 percent said they turn to blogs for story research, 65 percent to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52 percent to microblogging services such as Twitter. In addition, 61 percent use Wikipedia.” However, we can take solace in the fact that journalists aren’t completely abandoning their old school ways of reporting as there is a lot of fact checking that accompanies these social media sources. In essence, the social media site is somewhat of a starting point for the journalist to discover a story or uncover some facts that may not have been available before. Check out the chart in the aforementioned link and tell me if you believe social media has a place in news broadcasting.