After reading Michael's post on how freedom of the press should be issued and how the government could take over, I began reading an article from the Center for Journalism Ethics of the University of Wisconsin Madison. This article mainly talked about the issues concerning offensive journalism and it had a relation to the discussion we had in class today. The article writer Sunny Dhillon included his views on Facebook, and I really wanted to find out if Facebook is indeed some sort of journalism. Sunny Dhillon says that "if we look at Facebook groups as advocacy journalism, as “journalism that advocates a cause or expresses a viewpoint,” often through non-objective means, then the idea isn’t quite so far-fetched." So in this case, the Facebook groups can be an act of journalism. For instance, a group fighting for Gay rights would be basically reporting on different issues that then turn into current events. Everyone on Facebook who chooses to join this group would then be getting a taste of news.
Do you find this sort of connection between Facebook and journalism? If not this connection, we surely did learn more information today from our guest speaker Mary in proportion to her job and how she basically promotes the Baltimore Sun's articles on Facebook and Twitter. What she does pretty much allows these such sites to sort of become a journalist website, along with the obvious fact that people's status's are citizen media.
What is your view on whether Facebook can be seen as a window to journalism with its millions of groups? The link to this article is available once you click on the title of this post.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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I think that there is most certainly a connection between Facebook and journalism. While there is very little professionalism involved in joining Facebook groups, a Facebook group “advocates a cause or expresses a viewpoint,” as stated in the definition of advocacy journalism in Shannon's article. It also fits in the "what people have in common" category of our class discussion of "What is news?" These groups allow people with similar interests or who support the same cause to connect and share updates on topics that have an "impact" (another category of news) on them personally.
ReplyDeleteJournalism is centered around communication, and, since that is what Facebook is for, I believe it can be considered a sort of amateur form of journalism.
The importance of Facebook in journalism is signified by the poll we took in class today about how people received the news of Michael Jackson's death. Many people simply looked on Facebook once they heard the news, or they first heard of the tragedy through Facebook itself. Facebook has become a major way that people can communicate and therefore has also become a major tool that journalists and newspapers should use to their advantage.
Facebook is a prime example of citizen journalism in a slightly more structured environment than that of Twitter. While Facebook is not currently and may never be a direct and accountable source of news (similar to the readings for tonight relating to Wikipedia's lack of accountability), it is certainly growing in popularity.
ReplyDeleteThe important thing to remember with both Facebook and Twitter is that there is a sense of community truth-making. With such a broad user base, these websites essentially police themselves. Surely, many people checked their Facebook home page to see if other friends were commenting about Michael Jackson's death after they heard the news from a text message or conversation. Facebook is quickly becoming a way to not only connect with your friends (the service for which the site is most famous), but also check facts and find out new current events.
As for Facebook groups themselves, I'm sure that some of them are informative and useful. However, in my personal experience with groups, most of the ones that I've seen have been unfortunately hate-filled and focused on fiery rhetoric, as opposed to sound discussions based on respect.
But isn't that the case in most political discussions in any context?
As an avid user of Facebook myself, I do believe that there is a direct correlation between both journalism and Facebook. Being connected to not only your friends and family, but also to a wide variety of causes and organizations, can greatly help the common person to have news delivered to them quicker than watching the news or picking up your local paper. For instance, I first heard of Michael Jackson’s death due to a status update one of my friends had posted, not from the media or radio. Checking your Facebook can quickly become a habit whether you intend for it to be or not, whereas watching the news or reading the newspaper may not be. Staying connected has become much easier within the last decade with all of the new technologies being created, such as Twitter and Facebook. With today’s society being so centered around do things as quickly as possible, people may not want to sit down and watch the news for a long period of time just to become up-to-date on what is happening in their local area or nation wide. Facebook can provide instantaneous updates, allowing you to gather the information you need and go on with your day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with mostly everyone here. I am a big user of facebook and that definitely connects to journalism. Just by going on Facebook you can see a new status update or group update and get information on it in a second. Facebook is just a quicker way to get news, rather then going to buy a newspaper, which most people of our age do not do that. People of our generation just like getting their information fast and Facebook seems to do that for us. It meets our standards of fast technology. Sure people still go out and get newspapers but majority of us have a facebook or twitter. People are doing anything to get faster information. Facebook absolutely does have a relationship with journalism.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great comments guys. I think we all concluded that Facebook is, in a small way, journalism.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's just me, or does it seem like MySpace is starting to lose its popularity? Or at least, Facebook and Twitter are being talked about a great deal more than MySpace, which may be why MySpace was never brought up in our discussion about how we get our news.
I personally deleted my MySpace after finding Facebook more interesting and easier.
What is the main difference between MySpace and Facebook, and could this difference be why MySpace is losing in the social networking race?