CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
This essay work is like a two side of a coin. It centers on “Social Media and journalism practice” as a duo which has common goal.
Social media and journalism practice are two inter-related concepts which requires a deliberate treatment and to explain these concepts well, we shall critically examine each of them, stating what each means.
SOCIAL MEDIA
The word “social media” is a combination of two word (social and media). According to Longman Dictionary (2009), “social” means relating to human society or its organisation, while the word ”media” means all the organisation such as television, radio and newspapers that provide news and information for the public.
Elisenbery (2003), the author of “waiting for your car to bark”, says social media are platform for interaction and relationship not content and advertisement.
JOURNALISM
According to Longman Dictionary (2009), Journalism is the job or activity of writing news reports for newspaper, maga/ines, television or radio.
Akinreti (2007) says, journalism is gathering processing and dissemination of news and information related to news to an audience. The word applies to the method of inquiring for news, the literary style which is used to disseminate and the activities by journalism.
According to some scholars, say the media that journalism uses vary diversely and include content published via newspaper and magazines (print), television and radio (broadcast) and their digital media version through news websites and application.
1.2 DEFINITIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
According to Joe-Cothrel-Lithmm (2002), technologies inc. Define social media as only channel for user-generated content as distinguished from platform which are referred to as social technology e.g. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and Egarepoint.
Andreas Kaplan & Micheal Haelein (2000), define social media as a group of internet based application that build in the ideological and technological foundation of web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.
Michelle Chairesooki (2002) says social media is not about what we do and say together,
worldwide to communicate in all direction at anytime, by any possible (digital) means.
Social media is a digital content and interaction that is created by and between people. Sam Deck in mass relevance.
According to Rouse (2015), social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction content-sharing and
collaboration.
Daniel Nations (2015) says, social media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication
1.3 CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Andreas Kaplan and Micheal Haelein (2002), classify social media into the following:
- SOCIAL NETWORKING
This is using websites in applications to communicate informally with all this, find people and share similar interest. It also allow users to directly connect with one another through groups networks and locations. Examples: Facebook, Google +, Linked in
- MEDIA SHARING
This is publishing users digital photos and video enabling the users to share photos and video with each other either publicly or privately. Example: Instagram, YouTube, Flucks and Pintenest
iii. BLOGGING
This is recording opinions, stories, articles and links to other websites on a personal website. Examples: Word press and Bloggers.
- MICROBLOGGING
This is pasting of very short entries or update on a social networking sites. It allow users to subscribe to other users contents, send direct messages and reply publicly and also allow user to create and share hashtag to share content about related subject. Example: Twitter and Timbir
- BOOK MARKETING SITES
These services allow you to save, organize and manage links to various websites and resources around the internet. It allows you to “tag” your link to make people easy to search and share, example Ushandi Inc.
1.4 BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
According to G.S. Jackson-Demand Media (2013) highlights some of the benefits of social media
- AIDS FOR CRIME SOLVING: Social media has variable aids for crime
solving whereby to investigate going related crime on social media networks.
- FORUM FOR SUPPORT AND SAFETY INFORMATION
There have been several recent disaster during which social media provides only the viable venue for communication.
iii. FORUM FOR POTENTIAL INFLUENCE
The social media has given a true voice to the people. The rally for marriage equity spread throughout social platform at the Supreme Court and cases regarding some sex marriage.
- BEST WAY TO CONNECT ACROSS
Social media is the best way yet to connect across vast distance. Many people are now able to connect with friends and relatives from far and wide without having to waste money paying for international phone call or travelling to meet such people.
1.5 CATEGORIES OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
Webgeekly Com Atom Feed, according to the research carried out by Forrester research, social media users has been classified under the following concepts.
- The creator: This is the person who create social media and users for the world to
This types of users will publish blog, posts or web pages, upload videos and
images, audio, and share contact online. - The critics: This is the person who respond to the content posted by others, posts,
rating and review of products and services, comments or blogs and forum contributes
to articles in a wiki.
The collector: This is the person who organizes contents for themselves or others
using RSS fields, social bookmaking (ex-digg) and photo or page tagging.
- The joiner: This is the type of person who join social networking websites like
Facebook and twitter and maintain multiple profile. - The spectators: This type is probably the most common people who read blogs, view
users-generated videos (ex-YouTube) read online forums, listening to podcast and
frequently search for user review and written rating. - The inactive: This is a person who is online but in no way participate in any form of
social media. Doesn’t post anything or read anything which is user contents. This
type is becoming rarer as more websites integrated elements of social media into their
1.6 According to Henreicks (2013) says the earliest methods of communicating across great distances used written correspondence delivered by hand from one person to another. In other words, Letter.
In 1792, the telegraph was invested. This allow messages to be delivered over a long distance far faster than a horse and rider could carry them and the messages are always short and they were a revoluntary way to convey news and information.
He earliest form of the internet such as CompuServe, were developed in the 1960, primitive form of email were also developed during this time. By the 70s, networking technology had improved and 1979’s UseNet allowed users to communicate through a virtual news letter.
By the 1980s, home computers were becoming more common and social media was becoming more sophisticated. Internet relay chats, or IRCs, were first used in 1988 and continued to be popular well into the 1990s.
The first recognizable social media site, six degree, was created in 1997 which enabled users to upload a profile and makes friend with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular creating a social media sensation that is still popular till date.
After the invention of blogging, social media began to explodes in popularity. Site like MySpace and Linked in gained prominence in the early 2002s, and site like Photobucket and flicker facilitated online photosharing. YouTube came out in 2005, by 2006, Facebook and Twitter both became available to users throughout the world. These sites remain some of the most popular social networks on the internet. Other sites like Tumbir. Sporigy, Poping up to fill specific social networking niches and today there are tremendous variety of social networking site.
1.7 SHORTCOMINGS OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA
Chris (2011) identifies some shortcomings of the social media.
- TIME CONSUMING: Many people do not use social media because they
believed it is time consuming. To use social media effectively requires a minimum of 6-8hours a week.
- FRAUD: Social media websites are used to get closer to people without even revealing their true identity. They are numerous scandals in which people have gone as far as marrying each other and then realizing the truth. This relationship based on false information often leads to serious consequences. There have been so many cases in developing countries whereby people sell in love over social media websites and end up being cheated financially, emotionally and physically.
iii. RISK OF NEGATIVE NEWS: This has been observed in social media whereby a false story or news will just be posted without any evidence to prove it on without any eye witness of such event which can cause an heart attack to the reader of such negative news because social media disseminate information than any other media.
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