Why reporters use social networks
An increasing number of readers in the United States are taking in news through social media sites such as Twitter or facebook. A recent Pew Research study Center study found that 67 percent of American grownups get at least some of their news on social media.
Due to the fact that of these modifications in audience behavior, many US news companies are distributing their material through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Journalists also utilize these social networks in their reporting.
Lars Willnat of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and David Weaver of the Media School at Indiana University surveyed of 1,080 full-time reporters working for day-to-day and weekly papers, radio and tv stations, wire services, news publications, and online news media throughout the United States. The objective of the study: to understand journalists’ use of, and attitudes toward, social media in their professional work.
The researchers discovered that 8 in 10 reporters utilize social networks in their everyday work. Journalists working for tv stations (88 percent) and wire services (97 percent) are the most likely to have actually included social media into their everyday work routine, while reporters at magazines (64 percent) and weekly newspapers (53 percent) are the least most likely to have done so.
The findings likewise showed that reporters working for tv (59 percent) and online news companies (51 percent) are the most likely to consider social networks essential in their work, while wire service (32 percent) and magazine (24 percent) journalists are the least most likely.
Over half of the journalists (54 percent) stated they routinely utilize microblogs (mainly Twitter) for collecting information and reporting. Other social media are utilized much less regularly, including the blogs of other journalists (24 percent), crowd-sourcing sites such as Wikipedia (22 percent), audio-visual websites such as YouTube (20 percent) or professional websites such as LinkedIn (11 percent). Blog sites by citizens (7 percent) are used the least.
About 73 percent of the reporters said they utilize social networks to check what other news companies do or to see if there is any breaking news. Over half of them likewise utilize social media to keep in touch with their audiences (60 percent), find originalities for their stories (60 percent), gather additional information (60 percent) or discover additional info or sources (both 54 percent).
The findings likewise showed that around 72 percent of journalists believe that social networks have a “very” or at least “rather” positive result on their expert work. Just about 7 percent of the journalists– most of them working for papers and wire services– stated the effect is negative.
The results of using social networks included self-promotion, better engagement with their audiences and faster reporting.
To check out the complete text of the study: https://bit.ly/2zs2iQY
Willnat, L. & & Weaver, D. H. (2018 ). Social Network and U.S. Reporters. Digital Journalism, 6( 7 ), 889-909.
The post Why journalists use social networks appeared initially on NewsLab.
