Nowadays, people can get news in many ways. Some people use social media when others use traditional media. Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information in virtual communities and networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and so on. Traditional media, as another way to get news, has been used for many years before social media appears. For example, newspaper, television, radio and magazines are some traditional media we often use. In recent years, more and more people start to use social media. Facebook, as a popular social media, has over 1.59 billion monthly active users and over one billion users log on daily. It is known to all that the development of social websites is really rapid and the information it includes become increasingly abundant. But still …show more content…
If someone want to get news, using traditional may cost much money and time. For example, to buy a newspaper or magazine, going outside and paying money is necessary. However, if we choose social media, everything will be easier. With the development of technology, more and more people start to use smartphone. By using smartphone, people can surf on the internet easily. So they can gain news from social websites conveniently. Twitter has become a convenient, cheap and effective beat for journalists in search of news (Marcel & Todd, 2013).To judge whether the news is good or not, freshness is an important factor. When event happens, people who know the truth put the news on some social websites immediately. It does not take any time for them to edit. So, people can get real-time news about the thing that happened even several minutes ago. Therefore, people use Weibo, Facebook and sources of other social media to know what happen worldwide immediately especially for breaking news, like Whitney Houston’s death which is broke on Twitter