What is the role of social media in the field of journalism-LITERATURE Term Paper

What is the role of social media in the field of journalism-LITERATURE REVIEW - Term Paper Example acquire more traffic especially from the young generation, media corporations have also followed their consumers onto online space by creating social media sites. Apart from generating traffic, media corporations have also embraced social media forms of journalism in a move to be at par with competitors (Kerrigan & Graham, 2010). Apart examining values of journalism, the study will also analyze its contribution to the online community. In the current generation, it would be quite unfortunate for journalism corporations not to embrace the rapidly growing technology, especially in social media. This is due to the fact that social media is of great importance to the journalism network. Embracing social media is no longer an option since it is one of those things that are a â€Å"must have† for all journalists. Unlike previous generations, the current one is quite literate and normally spends most of the time seeking information on the internet; this is clear indication that it is rare for them to get information from hard copy materials such as books, magazines and newspapers. Because of this, journalists ought to change the ways in which they relay information to the public. Since most people depend on social media for information, journalists have no option but embrace them too. Studies so far conducted show that apart from Facebook, other common social media platforms include twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace ( Oh, Agrawal & Rao, 2013). The 21st generation is quite inquisitive to the extent that it is not possible for them to wait until the next day so that they can read about a trending story. To them this is a long time for a generation normally yearning for information. Therefore, by embracing social media, journalists are in a position to post up to date information on what is trending not only in the US but also globally. By doing so, people will become interested with journalists and media corporations that post instant news hence resulting to traffic that is