The Impact of Social Networking on Society and the Media Landscape

This essay examines the multifaceted impact of social media on society. It highlights the benefits, such as rapid information dissemination and the ability to connect individuals with shared interests, as exemplified by the speed with which news of the Aurora, CO theatre shooting spread through social media. The essay also acknowledges the role of social media in job searching and recruitment. However, it also addresses the drawbacks, including the spread of misinformation and the potential for stress and relationship problems, as evidenced by false rumors causing panic and studies linking social media use to increased stress levels and offline conflicts. The essay references various sources to support its claims, providing a comprehensive overview of the complex relationship between society and the media.

Running Head: SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA 0
SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA

SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA 1
1) Social networking helps in grouping of individuals into specific groups having similar
interest, activities, backgrounds, or morals. There are various social networking sites
where the individuals interact and share information on a continuous basis such as
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
One of the major benefits of social media is that social networking sites spread
information much faster than any other media. Most of the breaking news first hit 50
percent of the people on social media. Moreover, for the purpose of store searching,
Facebook and LinkedIn are the most popular sites to be used by 65% of traditional
media reporters whereas 52% use twitter. For 27.8% Americans, Social media sites
are the major news source and this ratio is close to newspaper (28.8%) (Roy,
2012).On July 20, 2012 Aurora, CO theatre, there is a mass shooting occurred during
the mid-night screening of the film. This incident took 12 people lives and injured
around seventy people. However, before the news crews could arrive at the location,
many twitters and Youtube users already report on the social sites with news and
videos. Moreover, with the help of social media sites, many witnesses inform their
family members that they are safe (Sutter, 2012).
Social media sites also help the organization and employers to find adequate and right
applicant for the job position. This makes job seekers to find work and earn respective
livelihood. It is ascertained that 64% of organizations make their presence on two or
more social sites so that they can get right employee for their job position. For
example, LinkedIn has an efficient searching capabilities and this makes 89% of job
recruiters to do hiring of employees from this site and 26% recruiter hire employees
through Facebook. Moreover, the credit is also given to social media by one in six job
seekers. Therefore, it makes the life easy of both i.e. recruiter and job-seeker by
settling up a meeting effectively.
2) Although Social media sites are doing well for society, however, there are certain
drawbacks also by which much individual and organization are exploited. Social
media allows the spreading of unreliable and false information. It is ascertained that
49.1% of people acknowledge several false news via social media. A panic situation
was created on Sept 5, 2012 when false rumours of shootouts, fires by gunmen were
spread with social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. More than 3000 phone calls
were placed in the local police department and also many schools and universities get
closed (Foxnews, 2014).

SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA 2
Social media sites also lead to stress and offline relationship problems. A research is
made in University of Edinburgh Business School and it is ascertained that an
individual will be having more stress in using of Facebook if he had number of
Facebook friends. On February 9, 2012, Pew internet report is generated and it shows
that 15% of adult social network users believe that social media cause their friendship
to end, whereas 12% believe that it results in a face-to-face argument and a physical
confrontation was reported by 3% of adults (Lenhart, 2011).

SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA 3
References
1. Morejon Roy. June 28, 2012. How Social Media is Replacing Traditional Journalism
as a News Source [Infographic]. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-
social-media-replacing-traditional-journalism-news-source-infographic
2. John D. Sutter. July 20, 2012. Theater shooting unfolds in real time on social media.
https://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/20/tech/social-media/colorado-shooting-social-
media/index.html
3. Foxnews. November 20, 2014. Tweets of false shootouts cause panic in Mexico City.
https://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/20/tech/social-media/colorado-shooting-social-
media/index.html
4. Amanda Lenhart. November 9, 2011. Teens, kindness and cruelty on social network
sites. http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/11/09/teens-kindness-and-cruelty-on-social-
network-sites/