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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Background
Technology has always been at the forefront of newsgathering and the journalistic process. The last century has seen audio, visual, and digital innovations contributing greatly to changing the way journalists think about and engage in their work. Yet these technologies have not by themselves redefined what it means to be a journalist, in the professional sense Lasorsa, Lewis & Holton (2011).
Emery and Emery (1996) note that newsgathering and diffusion technologies are fundamental prerequisites to modern journalism. From the penny press in the United States, wire services, radio, television and satellite communications, technology has continually transformed how the media have produced and communicated content. In the 20th Century technologies such as desktop publishing software and portable audio and video recording led to the rapid digitization of content and in the process pushed the boundaries of journalism. Not only has technology allowed the media unparalleled access to audiences around the world, it is also redefining how journalists gather and interpret the news (eJournal USA, 2006).
Pavlik (2001) observes that new media technologies that make it possible for anyone to create, modify, and share content with others by using relatively simple tools are transforming journalism. Through the nature of the news and by the way journalists do their work, new media are redefining the relationships between journalists and news
organizations and journalists and their audience.
Skoler (2010) notes that today’s culture emphasizes connections and relationships, the old journalism, with its overreliance on experts and analysts, is no longer relevant in the age of information sharing, connection and the collective wisdom. The media are not the only ones engaging the people and setting the agenda; now the people are directly engaging the media and leading the discussion.
According to Geneva Overholser of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, people are vastly more powerful now as consumers and shapers of news. Traditional news organizations have set out an agenda to become more engaged; they are including live blogs of events on their websites, incorporating amateur video into their feeds, and encouraging user comments and feedback in formal and informal ways (Knight and Cook, 2013). Lately, social media has become a part of the news process with all big news organizations looking to tap into its newsgathering potential as a new tool to engage the audience and also distribute the news (www.bbc.co.uk). Currently, networks like the
Cable News Network (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) often stream live activity from their social media accounts. The influence of social media has led western news organizations like the Associated Press, Reuters, New York Times and BBC in recent times to adopt written guidelines on how their journalists use social media in newsrooms (www.socialmedia.biz).
The 2011 social journalism study in the U.K. by Cision and the Canterbury Christ Church University suggests that social media has become part of the journalist’s toolkit. The use of social media is now a standard practice for UK journalists despite significant numbers
expressing concern about the implications for the quality of their work. The Cision survey showed that 97 percent of UK journalists regularly use social media as part of a mix of channels used to source, verify, monitor and publish work.
Rosentiel and Mitchel (2012) confirm in the 2012 American state of the news media report that at the moment, Facebook and, to a lesser extent, Twitter, dominate the intersection of social media and news. As of May 7, 2013 Twitter had reached a total of 554,750,000 registered users with an average number of 58 million tweets per day (www.statisticbrain.com). Facebook on the other hand currently supports over 900 million active users who share over 1 million links every 20 minutes.
New media is undoubtedly pushing traditional media organizations to change some aspects of their operations especially in the aftermath of social agitations like Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, protests against the removal of fuel subsidies in Nigeria and most recently the U.S. and Ghanaian elections. Sports journalists are now live tweeting from events like FIFA tournaments, the Olympics, Confederations Cup, the English Premier League and Wimbledon from their personal and organizational twitter accounts. International and local disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, Hurricane Sandy, the Boston marathon bombing and the collapse of the Melcom store building in Ghana generated a lot of Twitter and Facebook news. Journalists in the mist of these events did not only inform the audience of the unfolding events but were also informed by the audience posts and tweets. This dual process observed in particular on BBC WHYS (BBC World Have Your Say) account on twitter or on CNN’s iReport where followers given up to the minute updates on unfolding events and at the same time followers in the affected areas report changes occurring. This process is particularly aided by geolocation
technology like GPS that allows a mobile device to attach a persons geographical coordinates to a tweet or Facebook post. This allows a contributor’s proximity to an ongoing event to be verified. By networking and assembling knowledge from both experts and ordinary people, journalists are able to stay abreast with the news.
Social media organizations like Facebook have recognized the contribution of their services to the practice of journalism and recently launched a media resource page to help journalists use the social network as a reporting tool and better connect with their audience (www.abs-cbnnews.com). According to Facebook the page is intended to be “an ongoing resource for the growing number of reporters using Facebook to find sources, interact with readers, and advance stories.” Facebook’s new graph search tool allows journalists to better navigate the site to find resources (journalism.co.uk). This feature will be particularly useful to users on the Facebook + Journalism page. Twitter has developed a set of resources called “twitter for newsrooms” which is supposed to help journalists and media organizations their reporting and publishing process.
