Week 7: Social Media and Journalism

First of all, I thought that this week’s presentation was really interesting and enjoyable, and I enjoyed the video about social media most of all.  I have seen videos like that before, and the numbers behind these websites are truly staggering.

            As usual, I read two different articles on the subject of the week.  The first article was published by the Huffington Post and can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/how-social-media-is-suppo_b_3239076.html .  It is a really good article, and it talks about how social media is forcing journalism to shift its paradigm/view, because social media is HUGE.  The article was pretty short, but it contained some awesome information on the subject.

            The second article that I read is located here:  http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=101882 .  THIS article comes from Harvard, and it talks about journalism’s place within social media.  I like this take because I feel like it assumes social media as the larger, mother practice, and journalism needs to fit within the larger, mother practice of social media.

            Personally, I feel like journalism’s place in social media is being put in the hands of the people, and taken out of the hands of official journalists.  The industry is being hurt by social media, and unless people can find a solution to this issue, I don’t have tons of hope for journalism.  Hopefully it works out though, I want to be able to keep journalism alive!