Journalist’s news dissemination on twitter

Journalist’s news dissemination on twitter

Abstract

Technological advancement is one of the significant issues that lead to easier conveying of information within a short period. With the launch of twitter in 2006, this helped a great deal on the spread and sharing of information. According to my research digital media and journalism has been affected positively by twitter both positively and negatively.  For this reason, it is vital to share reliable data to avoid misleading the public. Social media and especially Twitter, has grown in the number of followers from a few million in the first year to almost a billion active users currently.  Our research shows that twitter a more reliable way to share information for any journalist and digital media publisher; this also indicates that if misleading information is shared, it will also reach so many people. It is essential to have a verification platform to ensure that information shared on twitter is real and reliable.  Twitter can as well impact journalists negatively due to cyberbullying and also legal requirements; hence it is very crucial to be sure of the data to be shared to avoid colliding with the law or other social media bullies. This research will, therefore, on the impacts of twitter to digital media and also journalism.

Introduction

News dissemination can be referred to as the whole process in which raw data and information are converted and transformed into the news. This ensures that only specific content is put into the report. Data gathered by journalists has to be re-edited to ensure that the most relevant content is displayed as news. Digital media is also an affected area due to the rise of twitter; it has been affected both positively and negatively. News dissemination can be done via different platforms, which also include social media (Wallace, J., 2018, pp274-293).  A journalist should, therefore, understand his or her target audience and hence write accordingly. Different types of journalists have different principals of writing and thus have various kinds of content. The different types of journalism include news, investigative, reviews, columns, and features.

Journalism can be referred to as a form of writing that tells people more about what is happening, while digital media is sharing of information, data and also other details electronically by either use of social platforms or private address like emails. Journalists mostly work with television stations, websites, or even print media to deliver messages and information to the public. Journalists can also be writers in the digital media platform, although anyone can contribute to writing and sharing information on this space. Information dissemination is a crucial task as it helps people be updated on day to day life issues. In most cases, the government uses this platform to address the nation on specific matters (Ginglinger, E., 2017, pp761-791). Twitter is the most popular platform that is used to disseminate information and especially for both freelancers and news houses globally. This platform helps to reach out to more people as fast as possible and also get to understand their views on different issues. Another essential impact twitter has on news dissemination is the fact that one can retrieve this information and read later. Unlike use televisions where news is read at a specific time and if one misses cannot retrieve then. Twitter can also be an essential platform in the provision of information, and hence journalists can create stories with the data they get.

This report will major on the impacts of twitter on both digital media and journalism. The positive effects of twitter will be discussed, as well as negative. This essay will, therefore, support use of twitter in journalism and digital media as it has helped in growth of the two industries.

Methods

The method used to investigate the use of twitter will involve random sampling and collection of data from active twitter users and also the inactive twitter users. Random sampling will be as data will be collected from ten active users and ten inactive twitter users. These numbers will represent the whole population of twitter users. For the inactive users, I will use the silent followers who rarely post anything on twitter. The use of a questionnaire for the random sample population group will be used to obtain information from the twitter users. The data will be recorded on a table, analyzed, and discussed.

Results

Discussion

From the above results, it can be noted that the use of twitter to get information is a common thing. News updates are a standard post on twitter, and it can be noted that news updates are one of the significant points that make people use twitter. For this reason, it is essential to use verified and real information for use on twitter. This is because misleading information will reach out to more people quite fast. According to the results above, we can note that the active users majorly login to twitter daily for news updates. But for the inactive users, they visit from time to time.

Individuals on twitter have relatively lower interest in investigative information. This can be noted by the fact that smaller numbers are pointed out on the investigative information (Orellana-Rodriguez and Keane  2018 pp 74-94). This can be attributed to the availability of different suggestions and opinions from different people, making it hard to verify the data from the source.  For this reason, both active and inactive twitter users avoid the use of investigative news from twitter and prefer the use of a more reliable news point like the television.

Lastly, it can be noted that twitter is a lousy platform for both leisure and marketing options. This is dictated by the low numbers of individuals interested in this platform. For this reason, it is important to use leisure and marketing information on other social media platforms. For journalists, it is essential to identify the best platform for the information they want to convey to the public and hence be able to get more audience. We can conclude that Twitter is an essential platform for data dissemination for all journalists. It can help reach out to more people within a brief period if the right information is shared.

Argument

Use of social media has gained a lot of fame amongst people and especially the young. For this reason we can note that digital media and journalism have to always have stories to tell and share on twitter. This can be attributed to the growth of both digital media and journalism. Although their many challenges facing them, their advantages always outweigh the disadvantages hence, making it an important platform for digital media and journalism.  The main difference between digital media and journalism is the aspect that journalists share verified information from occurring incidences. Digital media is mainly on individual basis, in that people might share their own thought concerning an event that has occurred and this can be done through blogging and also sharing on twitter and other platforms.

For investigative kind of journalism, one can quickly get lots of information tips and leads from social media and especially twitter. Twitter is one of the safest places where people feel comfortable sharing information. For news sharing and also conveying important messages faster and in a more reliable way, twitter can be the most excellent platform. On the other hand, social media journalism can be risky. It might be unsafe to share some type of information on social media (Einav and  Lipson  2015 pp 1007). Cyber bullying and information copyright can also be a significant issue on social media. It is also vital to ensure that cyber security is practiced to ensure that accounts are not hacked and used to deliver misleading information to the public. Social media users always come in two different types of groups, first the group that contributes to the news production and, secondly, the social media influencers.

Twitter was launched in 2006, and since then, a significant change has been noted on information delivery and getting feedback from the public. Accessible data and information access is the most important thing for people. Data and information verification is vital to avoid the spread of fake and untrue news. A verification platform and especially for large media houses is essential to prevent tarnishing of the media house name (Lokot  and  Diakopoulos  2016 pp 682-699). Twitter has a significant help on the journalist and digital media, and it is an easy and convenient way for them to share their thought on different issues and especially for freelancers. Twitter has reported over one hundred and forty million users over the past few years. It can be noted that with such a large number of active users, information can reach out to so many people within a short time.

The main challenge that can be faced on sharing information on social media is information verification.  The large numbers of people that have joined twitter have led to posting a lot of misleading information, hacking accounts, and using them to bully others and other cybercrimes (Ohlsson et al. 2017 pp 116-130). It is, therefore, imperative to create a verification platform to ensure the information posted is genuine and not misleading.

Before twitter, information sharing was quite a challenge globally. For this reason, the information would take long before a large group of people is reached. Currently, due to the technological advancement and use of twitter, one can easily retrieve information at anytime and anywhere across the globe (Thorsen  2016 pp78-88). For this reason, it is vital to ensure that data sent is from verified sources and does not mislead others. The structure of data dissemination in twitter has no specific order, and for this reason, it is vital to ensure that the sent information is useful across all age groups.

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