Social Media – A Journalistic Tool – Embrace or Disgrace?

On Friday 11th March 2011 I did what I always do first in the morning; I checked my Twitter feed. As I worked my way up from the point at which I had last checked the night before, through some general mundane bed-time related updates, and the odd drunken-tweet that never fails to amuse, the tone of my timeline took a sudden change. From here, somewhere around the ‘early hours’ mark, and within the space of about ten tweets, I learnt of the horrific events that had unfolded while I had been asleep.

One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded had hit Japan and caused a tsunami to engulf the country, causing, as we are all now aware, mammoth destruction and devastation. Twitter was telling me that no one in the country was safe, that the death toll was rising, and that we must pray for the poor people effected because sadly, there was not much else we could do.

The devestating effects of the earthquake which hit Japan on March 11 2011

The trending topics that blinked alternately at me from the top of my Twitter app said it all. #Prayforjapan. #Tsunami #Poorjapan and even, if somewhat insensitively – #Godzilla. I clicked on each one and scrolled through, the devastation becoming ever more apparent and frightening. There were thousands of people in danger and I was glued to my timeline for updates on the country’s safety.

It occurred to me around two hours later that despite fervently watching Twitter for updates on the events in Japan, I hadn’t once felt the need to visit a mainstream news website or even turn the television on to watch the live coverage from the BBC. Yes, I’d read tweets from @BBCBreaking and @SkyNews which provided me with facts; the ever rising death toll and the amount of people missing, for example. But, I’d found myself provided with information through friends, associates and people I didn’t know but had found through the related topics that were trending. Information such as the phone number to ring if you were worried about a loved one in Japan. The website to visit if you wished to make a donation to the rescue mission. I even found myself ‘retweeting’ this information; I was part of this massive news-sharing conversation.

When I finally turned on the television to watch the events unfold on the BBC news, it struck me that a lot of the information I had received from Twitter wasn’t available to me through the mainstream forms of journalism. The newspapers couldn’t give me the personal insights of terror that I got from reading the tweets of those who worried for loved ones in Japan; the sort of insight that gives you a fuller, deeper understanding of the extent of what has happened. The news programmes took days before they mentioned the ways in which you could donate to Japan’s rescue mission. What was happening here – had social media taken a massive leap over the mainstream news channels?

Is social media taking over from the traditional practices of journalism?

Not quite. Of course, many people still tuned into the news programmes for their information, or bought the newspapers to read up on what was happening. But this, obviously, was not the first time that social media sites had acted as news distributors.  Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis write in their paper We Media of the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. They talk of the ways in which people turned to social media sites such as blogs, chat groups and forums for information when the major news sites crashed under the massive demand for information.  Dan Gillmor explains in his book We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People for the People that this turn to social media on 9/11 was profound. Because of the Internet, news was being produced by regular people who had something to say or show, and people were interested in this citizen journalism because it was news that the American media couldn’t or wouldn’t provide.

So, with people turning to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook with every big news event, is social media reshaping journalistic practices? Richard Sambrook, the director of the BBC Global News Division was quoted in The Guardian in 2009 with the opinion that Twitter provides you with information; but information is not journalism. “Journalism needs discipline, analysis, explanation and context.” he said. “Journalism is still a profession.” Frederica Cherubini published an article on Editorsweblog.org in March this year in which her opinion echoed that of Sambrook. She explained that while a blog post, a Facebook status or a Twitter update are all forms of sharing the news, journalism is about much more than this; it is indeed a profession.

But is the profession of journalism under any threat from the rise of social media? Laura Casewell is the senior features writer for the country’s oldest press agency; Birmingham based Caters News. She has written for magazines such as Reveal and Closer alongside having articles published in The Telegraph, The Mirror and The Sun. When I posed the question to her – “Do you think social media has reshaped journalistic practices?” – her answer was an indisputable “Yes.”

“In news breaking situations, every journalist wants to be the first to get the story out there. In one sense, sites like Facebook can be extremely helpful to us. We use them to quickly source photos or family details, even in some cases phone numbers and addresses. But the problem is that a story can be broken on Twitter by someone who isn’t a professional journalist. To our audiences, this might make our profession seem a little redundant!” Despite Laura’s concerns, she went on to tell me “In terms of features, Twitter and Facebook are nothing but beneficial to me. I use them as a means of finding case studies and stories. I can reach so many people through Twitter, and Facebook is great for searching groups and talking to people online who might want to share their experience.”

Laura then, it seems, like many journalists now, is embracing social media as a tool to enhance her journalistic practices. Whether it’s a case of being almost forced to do so by the overwhelming use of such sites isn’t clear, but one thing that is becoming ever more so  is the power social media harnesses in relation to journalism. In an interview with Cindy Kim which she published to her blog in 2009, Del Jones, reporter of USA Today, stated that he joined the social media craze when he realised the rate at which Twitter was growing. When asked whether social media was helping or hindering the journalistic profession he answered, “Helping those who are good at employing it.”

Will we still tune in to watch the news, or will we simply turn to Twitter for information?

So it would seem the way forward for journalists is to embrace the effects of social media as it strengthens its connection with their profession. From a personal opinion, I am confident in saying I will look to Twitter for my news and information for the foreseeable future. It is, and will be for a while, the first place I turn when a story breaks, on the basis that I will be provided with citizen journalism alongside the mainstream, professional updates. This is an undeniable sign that social media has indeed reshaped journalistic practices. Surely then, as many more people adopt the same internet habits as me, journalists should embrace these changes and employ social media tools to the best of their ability, to make sure we as readers are receiving news and information in the best ways possible.