ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the challenges and opportunities social media can offer broadcast journalists in newsgathering, sourcing and disseminating the content they produce. New platforms offer opportunities for the distribution and creation of broadcasting content. The chapter explores the democratisation of the media which allows ordinary citizens, who may have been excluded by the dominance of elite sourcing, to express their opinions and share their views on an equal footing with established mass media organisations. It also discusses the potential pitfalls of unmediated, often biased forms of mass communication and the challenges that poses for finding the 'truth' or in some cases for distinguishing fact from fiction. The chapter focuses on the evolving nature of the journalism content itself. The social media revolution offers more than just a series of technological platforms for driving traffic to an existing online version of a story.