Social Network Uses of Newspaper Websites

In the 21st century the Internet became the broad information exchange network used by people in education, business, government, etc., besides also family members. Moreover, scholars discuss the Internet-based web-sources (e.g., websites, social networks, blogs, forums, microbloging) as a new channel for production, delivering and receiving information and news content. Despite the positive implications of users’ participation in news production and distribution processes with the use of the social, blogging and microbloging networks by news organization, trust in new media remains a problem. Meanwhile, this paper is based on a review of the literature examining the cultural shift that includes the use of CMC and the Internet in the production, distribution and consumption of the news. The focus is on news and information, objectivity, authority and the search for truths. This paper found that, with the development of social networks and social media, the news production and consumption processes changed from a one-dimensional, finished offline form to a multidimensional, continuing online form. Overall, the literature review did not find substantial evidence of studies that examine the credibility and trustworthy of news and information, from professional online newspapers versus independent individuals on social networks. However, this paper found evidence of the expanded uses of mobile technologies as a means of mobilizing the witness, promote, inform and share multimedia content, which in the future could develop a new community of news and information producers and consumers