How has Social media and Blogging influenced Journalism?

Social media is an ever-growing industry with giants such as Facebook and Twitter with hundreds of millions of users. Social media has been a powerful tool to help keep us connected with friends and families as well as allowing to find new ones. These platforms also have other uses, they allow us to share and publish what’s on our minds with the world. Anyone now has the opportunity to share information and their thoughts online. This allows anyone with access to social media and a few friends or followers to act as a journalist and post online. It is no longer necessary to work for a big news company to be a journalist, anyone can pick it up. However, that being said it is not easy to gain a large base of followers or viewers and make a living out of it. Over the past several years many people have learned how to make a living out of blogging. Blogs that often to do well are fashion blogs and travel blogs, these seem to be some of the most appealing and successful to viewers.

These bloggers make money through advertising on their website as well sponsorships by products and companies who want them to advertise their products. One major advantage of being a blogger is that they can write about whatever they want they do not have to follow an agenda or a set of rules unlike most journalists working for news corporations. Journalists working for large companies often have to write in a certain way and have a certain political standpoint even if they disagree with it. A blogger on the other hand is free to write about whatever they want, it does not have to be big headline news and could just be about what they have got up to that day. The internet has allowed for people to write about a wider variety of subjects, things that would not usually be seen on the news. The writing style is also often different and the writing on blogs tends to be more casual and you can see the use of humour to make it more entertaining and amusing for the audience. This more informal approach however may not always be the most affective style when writing about more serious matters. It will make the author seem less trustworthy and knowledgeable. It would be more appropriate for a fashion blog to be more creative in the style of writing to make it more entertaining, meanwhile a blog about current affairs in war stricken countries would need a more informative approach and a more serious tone.

Another way social media has affected journalism is through its growing use by news corporations. They now share stories and headlines on their social media to their followers. This allows them to keep interactive with their audience. They can receive feedback and information from their audience and learn from it, making it easier for them to improve their service in the future. Even on the news, they now share tweets other people have posted online for the world to see. They have adapted the way they report and share the news to keep up to date with the latest trends. Many people follow Facebook pages and Twitter handles to keep up to date with what’s going on with the world and it has become a new way for people to read their news. If headlines catch their eyes they can click on the link and read the article in full. This brings up an interesting point of how people are now more selective of the news they read. Since most people read or view the news on the internet they can choose what information they choose to consume and what to ignore. The internet has changed the way people view the news for good. Many people now often just look at the headlines and don’t bother to even click on most of the articles. This is why making clever and interesting titles is more important than ever. If titles are of poor quality the articles won’t be considered interesting enough to read.