SOCIAL Media shifts the power to produce content and develop ideas away from the established mainstream, and towards the individual. In the past, information available online on the World Wide Web was static, and this was controlled by the few who had access to equipment, bandwidth and content. Content was highly filtered, being controlled by the newspapers, magazines, companies with big marketing budgets, and a few really smart people who could write copy and code HTML very well. Even when blogs started to surface, these were relegated to being personal diaries and nothing more.
That bit of thought comes from J. Angelo Racoma, a professional Filipino blogger. Reading his post brought back memories of arguments we had in my graduate class. Yes, blogs and other Internet innovations such as podcasting, have allowed YOU to participate in what we now call “citizen journalism.” That term is actually a misnomer because journalists are citizens too. But I digress.
Social media is a broad term that describes participatory journalism. Blogs have indeed become one way for YOU to contribute to discussions and sometimes to journalism.
Angelo writes, “[B]logs have grown to be popular sources of online commentary, opinion, and even journalistic reportage. Blogs are crossing over to the mainstream. Moreover, other more media-rich content have started to become popular. Video sharing sites have become popular channels for grassroots moviemaking. Podcasts—audio programs distributed over the Internet—are becoming good alternatives to talk radio.”
He continues:
Social Media, therefore has changed who decides and how these decisions are brought about. Before, editors and publishers decided the news headlines. Before, editors and publishers decide which story goes to which section of the newspaper. Today, it’s you, the user, who has control.
The most obvious advantage of social media is that users are now empowered to determine what the Web contains and how these are presented and shared. The Internet inherits the social aspect of humanity. However, this is only one of many benefits.
For some journalists, allowing YOU to decide what makes headline story tomorrow is sacrilege. Many traditional journalists will cringe at the thought. The concept of social media is not new. It is the very essence of journalism,which is really about YOU, the public. Blogs have allowed YOU to put in your two cents’ worth of ideas. And that makes for good conversation and journalism in cyberspace. It adds more depth to stories.
But the reality is, YOU will still need editors, publishers, and reporters to provide YOU the news. In turn, YOU can now use technology such as blogs to offer them different perspectives or information. With that, we will end up with better, and well-digested stories.
To end, here’s interesting thought from a Slashdot interview with Jay Rosen of PressThink:
Sometimes the network will be the knowledge producer, the journalist the enabler. Other times the journalist will be the producer, and the network the enabler. Pro-am journalism is not inherently better than am-pro. Amateur users could in some cases do it all themselves, with editors watching and giving the green light in stages. Different combinations beg to be tried. It’s unwise to say in advance that we know how it will work, or that it can’t.
