Literature Review: Journalism's Transformation Through Social Media

This literature review explores the evolving relationship between journalism and social media, drawing on academic articles and books to analyze the transformative effects of digital platforms on news gathering, dissemination, and audience engagement. It summarizes key arguments from Lewis & Molyneux (2018) regarding the assumptions and challenges journalists face with social media technologies, highlighting the shift towards interactive dialogue and broader reach. The review also examines Bruns' (2018) perspective on gatewatching and news curation, emphasizing how social media has democratized news access but also introduced challenges like fake news. Personal opinions are integrated, reflecting on the ease and speed social media brings to journalism, while also acknowledging the negative impacts of misinformation and trolling. The review concludes by referencing various sources that further investigate the dynamics between social media and journalism, emphasizing the need for responsible reporting in the digital age. Desklib provides access to this and other student contributed assignments.

Running head: JOURNALISM TO SOCIAL MEDIA
Journalism to Social Media
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Journal Article
Lewis, S. C., & Molyneux, L. (2018). A decade of research on social media and journalism:
Assumptions, blind spots, and a way forward. Media and Communication, 6(4), 11-23.
Summarising the Article
The article helps in describing the role of the journalism and the significance of the
same on social media. The article suggests that the journalists in the present scenario are
facing the different kinds of challenges with the usage of the new social media related
technologies. Broadly, this has helped in the overall analysis of the digital transformation
wherein the different kinds of surveys have been conducted which helped in understanding
that the journalists in the present scenario are using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook
and Snapchat which are treated as the different forms of the engagement between the
journalists and the audiences (Lewis & Molyneux,2018).
There are different assumptions which have been taken into consideration in the
article wherein the first aspect is that the social media is of net positive usage on the
journalists which will be beneficial for the bringing of greater transparency. This has been
noticed that the social media in the present scenario in journalism studies mainly focus on
change which will be for better achievement. Social media should allow journalism to create
a broader scope in the business environment as the it plays a vital role in circulating the
breaking news.
Social media is helpful in reflecting the reality which will be advantageous for
bringing the new characteristics such as interactive dialogue along with social interactions. It
is essential for the journalists in providing their views on the different kinds of aspects

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through Twitter. The logic behind the usage of Twitter is the actual modern version of
analysing the interviews which were conducted on streets that assisted in managing the
different viewpoints of the individuals. With the help of the social media aspects, this can be
seen that social media helps in bringing new kinds of characteristics such as interactive kind
of dialogue along with social interactions which will be beneficial for the overall success for
the journalisms in becoming more unique in sharing the information effectively.
Personal Opinion
In my personal opinion, I felt that journalism has been made easier in nature with the
implementation of social media tools in a suitable manner. In the last few years, this has been
noticed that social media has become dominant along with the growing source of news and
information for hundreds and millions of individuals around the overall world. The social
media concept is fast along with free which helps in making the story to reach to the different
individuals within a little period, and this is effective in becoming more competitive in the
respective world as well.
Secondly, this has been seen that digital journalism is dependent heavily on
advertising wherein the readers get free types of subscriptions on different social media
channels such as Facebook which is the primary traffic drivers for publications to receive the
news in a second and this is being delivered by the journalists to the individuals in the entire
market in an effective manner as well. Social media such as Twitter has allowed the
journalists by providing them with a chance to build a public profile which can be difficult in
the last few years.
However, in the present scenario, this has been seen and analysed that Facebook
along with Twitter allows the journalists to weigh on different topics and this helps in
recognising the different readers to put the face to a name in an efficient manner as well.

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Book
Bruns, A. (2018). Gatewatching and news curation: Journalism, social media, and the public
sphere. Peter Lang.
Summarising the Book
The book deals with analysis of different kinds of usages of social media websites and
the various social media platforms in making the lives of the journalists simpler in the present
scenario. In the particular book, this has explored the different roles wherein social media has
come into play in sharing the breaking news discussion of the news in an effective manner.
Moreover, this has been noticed that social media or the digital era has introduced
instantaneous ways of accessing through snippets of the report on the social media platform
(Bruns, 2018).
Furthermore, in the digital era, the news is not limited to the printed kinds of
publications or the recorded types of broadcasts of television. In the present scenario, this has
been analyzed that people are tech savvy and they have the overall access to different news
correctly as the reporters can report live now along with notifying their followers which helps
them inappropriately receiving the real time coverage. In the current environment of social
media, the majority of the different users are engaged in sharing the different kinds of news
which is positively affecting the overall situation.
On the other hand, the book has helped in sharing the different viewpoints of the
individuals who do not know the social media channels or the technological advancements.

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This has been noticed that in the present scenario that due to the technological advancements,
professional journalism along with the news media have come fully to the different changes
and this is better for the growth of the overall economy in a positive manner as well.
The transformation has been one of the fundamental aspects which have been taken a
central base on the social media platform. The social media has shown kinds of drivers of
these kinds of transformations wherein there is a new introduction to the new newsgathering
technique which is beneficial for the overall success of the informative news media.
Moreover, in the conventional news organizations, the gatekeeping remains essential as this
still yields considerable power of networking as the journalists have to select the different
breaking news and sharing it with the different viewers as well.
Personal Opinion
From the book review, I tried to analyze that journalism has been able to become
successful with the help of the social media aspects in a positive manner. Social media has
different kinds of tools which can help in improving the reporting along with the different
objectives of the brand as well. Social media has impacted the overall environment in such a
manner wherein the people receive the news through different social media channels scrolling
through various media headlines. Technology has been helpful in improving the convenience
of the individuals in accessing the mixed story. This has further allowed individuals to have a
proper voice through the different tools which are available on websites and social.
However, due to the advancement in technology, this has created substantial negative
impacts on the different kinds of reporting as the fake news phenomenon has become more
challenging. Journalists are being responsible for sharing the different types of news which
are known to them in such a manner which will attract the individuals, and this will be
increasing the distribution of the various social media channels and websites as well. Social

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media has changed the entire shape of the information throughout the world wherein there are
different kinds of trolling which are taking place on sites and portals, and this is affecting the
overall efficiency of the journalism negatively as well.

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References and Bibliography
Bruns, A. (2018). Gatewatching and news curation: Journalism, social media, and the public
sphere. Peter Lang.
Campbell, R., Martin, C., & Fabos, B. (2018). Media essentials: A brief introduction.
Bedford/St. Martin's.
Chakraborty, A., Ghosh, S., Ganguly, N., & Gummadi, K. P. (2016, January). Dissemination
Biases of Social Media Channels: On the Topical Coverage of Socially Shared News.
In ICWSM (pp. 559-562).
English, P. (2016). Twitter's diffusion in sports journalism: Role models, laggards and
followers of social media innovation. New Media & Society, 18(3), 484-501.
Gerbaudo, P. (2018). Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto
Press.
Ju, A., Jeong, S. H., & Chyi, H. I. (2014). Will social media save newspapers? Examining the
effectiveness of Facebook and Twitter as news platforms. Journalism Practice, 8(1),
1-17.
Kim, Y., & Lowrey, W. (2015). Who are Citizen Journalists in the Social Media
Environment? Personal and social determinants of citizen journalism
activities. Digital Journalism, 3(2), 298-314.
Lewis, S. C., & Molyneux, L. (2018). A decade of research on social media and journalism:
Assumptions, blind spots, and a way forward. Media and Communication, 6(4), 11-
23.

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Paulussen, S., & Harder, R. A. (2014). Social media references in newspapers: Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube as sources in newspaper journalism. Journalism Practice, 8(5),
542-551.