Social Media: An Emerging Reporting Tool for Working Journalists

Abstract

Social media has finally found an entry into traditional print newsrooms and it is also gaining acceptance among journalists for professional use. New posts like social media editors and mobile editors are also being created in the newsrooms recently. A digital-age journalist is expected to not just write bt also find innovative ways to sell the news sories on multiple platforms which calls for a topical study to explore the contemporary trends in Indian newspaper industry. The present paper is an attempt to know the attitudes of editors and reporters towards social media usage as a reporting tool. Survey with a sample size 70 was directed at editors as well as reporters to examine their reactions, skills needed to thrive as a new-age journalist and how this is impacting the field of journalism data was collected through snowball sampling technique. Majority of the senior editors contacted for the study from top eight English and Hindi language newspapers located in Jammu, India. Results indicated that social networking sites are being used by most of the senior editors to post news stories .84 per cent journalists agreed that they are using social media to the extent of even generating news story ideas. Apart from that, concerns are also raised by editors and reporters on the importance of field work and future of investigative reporting especially in the age of social media.