COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA JOURNALISM

Communications and Media Journalism



Abstract

The authors find that an increase in the overall media visibility of entertainment images of forensic science, coupled with news media's tendency to tie such images to real-world forensics on the local and national scenes given an absence of alternative sources for news-oriented stories, speak to the importance of the holistic examination of the role of CSI-related programming in influencing popular perceptions.

Table of Content

Chapter One: Introduction4

Research Question4

Background4

Chapter Two: Literature Review6

Chapter Three: Methodology12

References14

Chapter One: Introduction

The social media tools could probably run on for paragraphs, and today's technology changes so rapidly that many industries, including corporations and news media, can barely keep up. In the traditional world, newspapers, corporations, governments, or other types of leading organizations simply had to give out information, and people would consume it by reading or looking at it. But this seemingly tried-and-true method has started to transform. Simply making information available is not enough for today's public.

Research Question

Are today's audiences expecting to be able to choose what they read, and do they believe they should be able to contribute content and opinions, too?

Background

The shift, sometimes called the social media revolution, is not the death of journalism as America always knew it; it's the birth of a democratic movement that emphasizes some of journalism's key factors: transparency, honesty, and giving a voice to the person who doesn't have one. Many traditional and non-traditional media outlets report and comment on how the Internet and social media, especially social networking, have begun to seriously affect news organizations and how they operate. Although newspapers currently face a crisis on how to make the news profitable in the digital age, that isn't this report's main focus. How papers will make money has been talked to death. So, instead, this report will focus on how social media, especially social networking sites like Twitter, has begun to affect the news organizations and changed — for better or worse — how journalists perform their jobs every day.

The main purpose of this report is to learn how the social media revolution has changed and will continue to change journalism and news organizations. To understand social media and its effects, one must read and analyze information gathered through journal articles, interviews and observations as this report has done. The report is broken into subtopics: a summary of the current state of traditional media; definitions and background information on what social media and social journalism are; social media tools professionals use and why; current event case studies in which social media played a role in reporting the news; ethical issues surrounding the social media shift; and how the future of the news media might look as a result of social media.

The report will respond to one simple, yet rather complex, question: What impact has social media had on news organizations? A question like this cannot be answered straightforward but must instead be explored. While the report will focus on what has already occurred, it will also look to the future ...