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A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON NEWS REPORTAGE AND AUTHENTICITY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background of the Study

For the last few years media executives and consultants seem to be concerned with only one issue: How traditional news outlets can prepare themselves for what ought to be one of the biggest changes in recent history of distribution and potential market growth – the online business. Not only has digitalization brought new possibilities of reaching audiences as well as clients all around the world, but actually changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. This also means that news distribution itself has to face a new environment: Readers, listeners and viewers are not passive consumers any more but actually engage with news sources and play a growing role in the shaping of what the news business of the future will look like.

One key to this new game are social media platforms. It seems crucial that media firms engage with these new forms of communication in order to stay competitive and follow an old rule: to be where your consumers are. But while this looks like a tough task for media outlets like newspapers or broadcasting companies, for news agencies it could prove even more difficult, especially if they mainly rely on a business to business model. How can news agencies use social media and at the same time maintain their core business of selling news on a subscription basis? Nobody will deny that social networks play a very important part in the development of future communication markets, as the figures speak for themselves: At the end of 2012 close to 1.9 billion people were using social networks in one or the other way.

These users are able to interact with one another, as well as with countless news companies who have entered the social media world. Thus journalism not only has to cope with what shaped the last decades in regards to changing work flows – from the first computers and content management systems to new means of gathering and distributing news via online channels – but it is also confronted with a new type of audience. People are able to gather more news from many different channels than ever before, using traditional sources like newspapers, television or radio alongside online sources or apps on their smart phones. This means nothing less than the need for news companies to rethink the way they handle information, deal with commentary and engage with both their audiences and their customers. Many traditional players have developed strategies to deal with these challenges. Whether it is a more focused approach to their core potential whilst distinguishing the key benefits of old media or an attempt to serve both worlds, the analogue as well as the digital. But still there are big differences if a media outlet tries to distribute its news via a website – regardless of whether it is behind a pay wall or not – or via social media channels like Facebook or Twitter. Whereas the website can almost be categorized as a safe environment as all the power over its content lies in the hands of editors, journalists and IT people, social media is something completely different. Here, the power lies with the user – at least to a certain extent. As soon as a posting has been made, the linking and sharing can start, being probably the most powerful tool for the audience. This can be identified as the biggest potential for reaching new recipients.

At the same time there is the danger of losing control over the usage of certain amounts of information with the link to the original posting always being present. “Social media is a term used to describe the type of media that is based on conversation and interaction between people online. Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.” - Wikipedia For almost two decades, the web has changed the world and revolutionized how information is stored, published, searched and consumed. The ripple effect has spread so wide that it impacts not just businesses and industries but crosses over into politics, medicine, media and breaches geographical locations, cultural boundaries and ultimately, affects people’s day to day lives. The great wave of web innovation since Google in 1998 has been in social media. Social media is about networking and communicating through text, video, blogs, pictures, status updates on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or microblogs such as Twitter. What makes social media of particular interest to journalism is how it has become influential as a communication and news-breaking tool. In June 2009, the U.S. State Department asked Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance on the service because it was being used by protestors angered by the results of Iran's disputed presidential election. In July 2009, a Twitter user in Jakarta beat most major news companies by tweeting about the Bali bombings. More recently, Google and Microsoft began integrating Twitter messages into their respective search engines, a new feature described as real-time search of the problem

1.2      STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Nobody will deny that social networks play a very important part in the development of future communication markets, as the figures speak for themselves: At the end of 2012 close to 1.9 billion people were using social networks in one or the other way. These users are able to interact with one another, as well as with countless news companies who have entered the social media world. Thus journalism not only has to cope with what shaped the last decades in regards to changing work flows – from the first computers and content management systems to new means of gathering and distributing news via online channels – but it is also confronted with a new type of audience. It is in view of this that the researcher intends to investigate the influence of social media on news reportage and authenticity.

1.3      OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to critically appraise the influence of social on news reportage and authenticity; but for the successful completion of the study, the researcher intend to achieve the following objective;

i)             To ascertain the influence of social media on news porting in Nigeria 

ii)           To investigate the impact of social media on the authenticity of news reported

iii)          To evaluate the role of social media in enhancing real time reporting

iv)         To ascertain if there is any relationship between the new media and the old media.

1.4      RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

To aid the completion of the study, the following research hypotheses was formulated by the researcher

H0: social media does not have any influence on news reporting in Nigeria

H1: social media has a significant influence on news reporting in Nigeria

H02: social media does not have any significant impact on the authenticity of news reported

H2: social media has a significant impact on the authenticity of news reported in Nigeria  

1.5      SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great importance to the print media as the study will help them evaluate their professionalism in comparism with news reported on the social media like the twitter handle Facebook Instagram etc. the study will also be of important to the ministry of information and communication, as the study seek to bring to the limelight the benefit of true journalism and reporting that is not doctored. The study will also be useful to researchers who intend to embark on research in similar topic, Finally the findings of this study will also be immense benefit to government, academia, scholars, researchers and the general public.

1.6      SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study covers an appraisal of the influence of social media on news reportage and authenticity, but in the cause of the study the researcher encounters some constrain which limited the scope of the study;

a)     AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material      available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study.

b)     TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider         coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities        and examinations with the study.

c)     FINANCE: The finance available for the research work does not     allow for wider coverage as resources are very limited as the        researcher has other academic bills to cover.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Social media  

Social media are computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. The variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available introduces challenges of definition; however, there are some common features

News

News is information about current events. Journalists provide news through many different media, based on word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, and also on their own testimony, as witnesses of relevant events.

New media

New media most commonly refers to content available on-demand through the Internet, accessible on any digital device, usually containing interactive user feedback and creative participation. Common examples of new media include websites such as online newspapers, blogs, wikis, video games and social media. A defining characteristic of new media is dialogue. New Media transmit content through connection and conversation. It enables people around the world to share, comment on, and discuss a wide variety of topics.

1.8 ASSUMPTIONS

There is the assumption that the media hardly have any influence on the elections. This believe stem out of the fact that government feel it is the face to face contact they make with the populace that really influences the disposition of the masses during elections. Another assumption that is related to this study is the feeling that there’s no relationship between the political apathy and the extent change in mental disposition towards election as a result of the influence of the media. Lastly there’s the assumption that media exist only to entertain and inform the public on the happenings in the country, which is of little or no effect on the outcome of election.

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