This Just In: The Diffusion Of Social Media

As social media overtakes traditional media in this new technological age, news organizations and journals have sought to keep up with today’s trends in order to maximize their revenue and maintain traffic. Social media, unlike traditional media, has an interactive factor, allowing users to comment, share, and critique. As Clive Thompson states in his article titled This Just In : I’m Twittering, he mentions that “the power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse. And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading” (Thompson 270). As a result, news environments are rapidly changing for the better to adapt with the diffusion of social media in order to promote their news products and

As social media becomes increasingly popular and important for corporate practices, it suggests that these are becoming less useful and relevant to society. Everyday activities such as watching the news on the television, reading the daily paper, and listening to the radio are practices that are either becoming ignored or changed. Even though the outdated form of ‘news media’ is losing its importance, it still exists in our society and is being transitioned into forms of the modern ‘social media’. An important difference between these two types of media has to do with its distribution. The distribution of social media is purely digital and received through the internet, smartphones, and etc. Drastically, this has been able to reduce costs for communication and the amount of time for receiving

One of the impactful qualities of social media is the speed in which information delivers about an ongoing event. While network news on television can cover one story at a time, social media have the ability to simultaneously to post articles and updates covering them. Another element of social media that differs from traditional media is that allows potential participants of protests to plan events actively, something that isn't of a concern of traditional media. Unlike other sources other than social media, people are able to search for information and data specific to their own person need. For example, if a person wanted to keep updated on where protests were being held regarding the Ferguson incident, using the search function that Twitter provides makes it possible to do this action in mere seconds and able to provide enough details on exactly where the protests are being held. A significant difference that separates social and traditional media is that users of social media are able to share any sort of information that traditional media may choose not to cover. A case that had to do with this is when the “Turkish version of CNN famously aired a documentary about penguins while CNN international covered the protests occurring within the country” (Tucker, “Tweeting Ferguson”). Governments have the power to control what is being shown on