Respected news brands are very important for social media such as Twitter. This is because of the fact that theses news brands are actually trusted organisations with respectable and professional mediation in place in order to make sure that the information is as accurate as possible. This especially helps to increase the accuracy of many online sources and news outlets especially such as the ones like Twitter which have little to no gate keeping due to the citizen journalism. This would in turn have a positive effect and growth on the ad revenue for Twitter and other social media.
Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?
Respected news brands and organisations are very good for Twitter for the fact that it helps them to create greater ad revenue, but more importantly also because the social media platform allows news brand followers to easily communicate with their favourite news brands. This is a feature with social media that would otherwise not be available in print platforms. In the report it states that 60% of news brand followers say that Twitter gives the man opportunity to engage with news brands.
The report suggests that old and new media “are not, in fact, in direct competition, but often work extremely well together to enhance both the media eco-system and the consumer experience”. What evidence do they provide to support this idea? Do you agree with it?
It can be argued that the old and new digital medias are actually in direct competition due to the fact that there has been a greater increase in traditional platforms such as print declining in large numbers with the downsizing of newspaper institutions due to a reduction of ad revenue. However, the reason for the fact there could be no visible competition is due to the fact that the traditional platform institutions are actually evolving by moving a lot of their investment into digital media and therefore work hand in hand with social media platforms to generate ad revenues, e.g. Mail Online.
On page 24/25 of the report, the focus turns to 'gossip' or 'banter'. What example tweets from journalists are used to illustrate this?
- "Do these pants make Kim Kardashian’s bum look big?" -Daily Mail Celebrity
- "The most amazing thing about the story of President Hollande having an affair is that he apparently only has one pair of shoes." -Caitlin Moran
- "Biggest cheer at the Emirates tonight by #AFC? To an announcement for the MUFC away fans that no more trains leaving Euston." -Tom Newton Dunn
Personally, I think that the increasing amount of gossip or banter is actually harming the reputation of journalism. This is due to the fact that journalism is no longer seen as a reputable profession due to the fact that institutions have sacrificed integrity and prioritised sales. This means that they would report on softer news such as gossip which sells a lot more than hard news.
What does the report say about trust in Twitter and journalists (look at pages 34-39)?
Do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?
It can be said that developments in new and digital media has resulted in positive impacts in the media industry. This is especially evident as there has been a greater empowerment in the audience as there is a lot more citizen journalism. Using the actual eye witness of the event means that news can be broken a lot quicker and which means that news institutions can greatly benefit from new digital media such as Twitter.
Finally, how can we link this report to the vital current debate regarding fake news and Facebook? Do traditional news brands need protecting to ensure there are sources we can trust?
Due to the rise in fake news, tradition news brand need to work a lot more harder now to introduce a form of mediation in the way that they source and create news online. The social media platform results in a greater lack of mediation combined with the way citizen journalism works, it gives a lot more empowerment to users in terms of creating and producing news, a power that once belonged to professionals that is now in the hands of those that can use it to their own advantage rather than the advantage of society.
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