Justifying Journalism through Social Media

Kathryn Cook 

kc133410@ohio.edu

Journalism majors are constantly hearing about the concern of the future of journalism. Where will the everyday newspaper go? Will everything be able to be accessed online? And how will it affect jobs in the field of journalism? 

"Fundamental Values State of the Media: Judge Clarifies That Bloggers Can Be Journalists" by David Carr, and "Digital Media Ethics" by Stephen J.A. Ward give journalism majors in all the areas of journalism confidence that as the media world grows so will its employees.

"Digital Media Ethics" by Stephen J.A. Ward concentrates on the questions of who is a journalist and what is journalism?. The question of what a journalist is allows multiple forms of issues to arise.

If a citizen Instagrams or tweets a video does that make it journalism? Take, for example, the tragedy that occurred on Ohio University’s campus on Homecoming weekend. A video of male and female students outside of Chase Bank performing sexual acts took over all social media sites, not only in Athens but other college campuses. This video is not journalism but it creates journalism for news stations everywhere, showing the effects of Ohio University students conducting bad journalism.

The case that most of us witnessed first hand here at Ohio University leads to another point made in "Digital Media Ethics" by Stephen J.A. Ward: speed, rumors and corrections. 

The case described above caused rumors to spread at a rapid speed around Ohio University’s campus as well as other college campuses, all thanks to social media. Fundamental Values State of the Media took a survey of correspondents in the journalism field. When asked about the Internet a solid majority (57 percent) said the Internet is “changing the fundamental values of journalism." 

I believe a large percentage of these correspondents are referring to online publications more than social media. The correspondents also stated in the article that, “The focus is more on getting the news out before checking its accuracy, and this is weakening journalism’s credibility.” Social media is weakening correspondents' credibility due to the lack of accuracy on social media when a story first is leaked. Take a look at this article for example. 

As controversial as social media posts made on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can be, I don’t consider the sites I stated a form of journalism.  I believe this because of the lack of accuracy that can occur and not only cause harm but humiliation, hurt and controversy. That being said I do believe people have the write to state their opinions, as it is the First Amendment.

The article "Judge Clarifies That Bloggers Can Be Journalists" by David Carr focuses on a controversy surrounding a citizen’s blogs post on Obsidian Finance Group. I agree and disagree with the judge’s decision in this article; I do believe blogging is journalism to a certain extent. 

The blogging that was focused on in this article is equivalent to a citizen writing a review for a restaurant on Yelp, which is not journalism to me. This citizen’s comment is not credible compared to a blogger on Word press who focuses blogs on specific topics.