This semester I began my internship at KTAB, the local CBS affiliate station in Abilene. I’ve gotten a good experience so far of what a real world newsroom is like and all the stress, deadlines and caffeine that come with it. What I’ve also realized is how much social media plays a role in the newsroom.
10 years ago, reporters would just be worried about getting credible sources and turning in factual stories on time. Now, reporters not only have to worry about that but also beating other news outlets to it on social media. Twitter has become a major way for reporters or news stations to give out details on certain stories in real time. You can refresh your timeline and have seven new tweets from several different stations. Accuracy and timeliness add to the pressure to be the public’s first choice in news.
Facebook has also become a platform to help lead traffic to station websites. You can link a news article mentioned during a certain part of the show and then viewers can not only be informed on one particular story, but can now be informed on all recent ones. Facebook is also a way to get viewers involved by polls or questions. Lots of stations do giveaways as well, which is another incentive social media offers.
Another big one is the ever so popular Instagram. Now stations can post pictures of their anchors before a show or post a quick video if they’re at the scene of a fire or weather updates. Pictures are worth a thousand words and with society’s attention spans dwindling by the year, media outlets are catching on and catching on quickly.
Social media has allowed for news outlets to get information out quickly to the public while also staying informed themselves. Don’t be too surprised when you start seeing more news on your timeline. It’s most likely me retweeting news I find relevant. Don’t unfollow me.
JMC 367 Class Blog 
The debate about whether to break news on social media, the website, or on air is definitely a big deal. The question of how much time and responsibility individual employees should have for sharing news content on social media is also worthy of debate.
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I hadn’t really given much thought to how social media was affecting news reporters. It is interesting that they now have to compete to get their news on social media as well as their general reporting. I can’t imagine how stressful this is. I forget sometimes how social media has reached and impacted almost all JMC fields, not just advertising.
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