Social Media Communication

10 Social Media Reshape the News Industry

LEARNING GOALS

This chapter will help you understand:

• How do social media change news consumption habits?
• How do social media redefine what news or fake news is?
• What are the major differences between social media and mass media?
• How do social media transform news practices and the news industry?
• What lessons do social media offer to journalists and media practitioners?

KEY CONCEPTS

Agenda setting

Algorithm

News decision making

Misinformation

THEORY HIGHLIGHT

Agenda Setting Theory

Overview

Although social media create ample new business opportunities, they simultaneously pose endless challenges to the business world. Both the opportunities and challenges have fundamentally altered the ways business is conducted. Some businesses like retail and marketing are heavily disrupted by social media, while others like news and publishing industries are largely redefined. The changes represent “one of the most transformative impacts of information technology on business, both within and outside firm boundaries” (Aral et al., 2013, p. 3). In the business world, many have realized that “We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it” (Qualman, 2012, p. 262).

Today’s news media started with the world’s first newspaper that was published in 1609 by Johann Carolus (1575–1634), a German publisher (Figure 10.1). Since then, it has taken the news media over 300 years to grow into mass media and reach millions ...