Journalism becomes widespread with social media
When thinking of the modern age and the 21st century, social media is one of the first things that come to mind. Since the internet and how it is used has grown over multiple platforms, it only makes sense journalism expands as well.
Audience is a large part of what makes up journalism, making sure there is an active audience is all a part of what social media does to make the news widespread.
Before social media and the virtual world, the mass distribution of the news came from the printing press. When journalism eventually became digital, there was a larger audience met because media outlets were no longer constrained to physical copies and where they could go.
One-way communication and the passive audience were what was considered to be the ‘norm’, but after introducing social media, journalism was able to cover local, regional and national news that was catered to everyone.
Social media changed the audience for the better by widening the pool of those who received the news and engaged.
Journalists today make an effort to embrace the social media aspect to their work. This can be seen through journalists like Community Impact reporter Colleen Ferguson.
Ferguson shows a good example of using a platform, such as Twitter, to share her work with people who follow her page. She is able to engage with an audience while discussing the topics she is covering and making the conversation surrounding it relatable.\
Tweets from Ferguson show that journalists can have personality in how they advertise their work. Audience members who follow you will be more inclined to see what it is you wrote if you share it in an interesting manner.
Social media is an aspect of journalism that not only helps to build an audience but shows off a voice that one-way communication did not always provide in the past.