Communication Has Gone Digital: Technology Has Changed How We Receive News

 Communication Has Gone Digital 

     In the wake of digital platforms and social media algorithms, journalists and organizations have learned to adapt their communications strategies to keep up. In news media, organizations have not only branched out into online platforms like Facebook, but journalists have reconfigured how to package news to continue grabbing the audience's attention and delivering important messages faster and preferable, first. Today, printed articles, video clips, and multimedia stories can be adapted to suit multiple online platforms to inform the public of the latest news stories.

  Facebook for News 

     As of 2014, Facebook also became a popular way for American to receive news. According to a Statista graph, Facebook is still the most popular social media platform around the world with over 160 million users as of 2019.

 

 (Statista Graph 2019)

Consumption of news media has no doubt increased over the last decade, with over 30% of adult Facebook users consuming news on the platform according to PEW’s Social Media Fact Sheet. It is now easier than ever to spread awareness of global issues with easily shared digestible news articles and videos. 2022 research states that social media post that included a video resulted in the highest engagement of likes and comments. (Robson & Banerjee)

 

YouTube for News

    Similarly, news media can be shared via videos on YouTube where audio and video integration attracts a large younger demographic where news outlets compete with online personalities. According to PEW, 26% percent of Americans receive their news from YouTube, where about half of the channels are news organizations and the other half are independent You-tubers. The study revealed that viewers that  watched independent channels preferred those with longer videos and felt a connection to the creators personality. One downside to audiences retrieving news from YouTube individuals are the concerns surrounding misinformation, monetization biases with the platform, or political affiliation. While independent news channels are also more likely to cover conspiracy theories, the majority of Youtube subscribers do not see a problem collecting news from the site. PEW's YouTube study also revealed that the majority of the news video watched on YouTubers "help them better understand current events (66%) and expect them to be largely accurate (73%). And a similar share (68%) say the videos keep their attention and that they typically watch closely, rather than playing them in the background."

    To keep up with the convergence of online journalism, Journalist must adapt to new medium of disseminating the news, how to compete with less professional news reporting, and how to continue to re-package news to be fist the needs of their audiences. 

 

References 

 

Amsource. (n.d.). How Has Social Media Changed the World? Amsource Blog. https://amsource.io/blog/how-has-social-media-changed-the-world-

Pew Research Center. (2022, September 20). Social Media and News Fact sheet. Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/

Robson, S., & Banerjee, S. (2023). Brand post popularity on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn: the case of start-ups. Online Information Review, 47(3), 486–504. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1108/OIR-06-2021-0295

Statista. Published by (2022, July 27). Top U.S. mobile social apps by users 2019. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/248074/most-popular-us-social-networking-apps-ranked-by-audience/

Stocking, G. (2020, September 28). Many americans get news on YouTube, where news organizations and independent producers thrive side by side. Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/09/28/many-americans-get-news-on-youtube-where-news-organizations-and-independent-producers-thrive-side-by-side/

Umair, S. (2016). Mobile Reporting and Journalism for Media Trends, News Transmission and its Authenticity. Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism. https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/mobile-reporting-and-journalism-for-media-trends-news-transmissionand-its-authenticity-2165-7912-1000323.pdf