Social Media Journalism

Over the course of the past decade, journalism has become a career for the common man. This study observes how through the rise of social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, influencers have become trustworthy news sources. Today, social media is the rising foremost way to produce and distribute news, if handled properly. We explore our thesis through comparison of social media being the go to platform for acquiring news when it was first introduced to society and how it has increased or decreased over time. A 2018 survey by the PEW research center found that more than 62% of Americans use social media to access their news. Our research displays explicitly how Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram have become more or less the precedent way of receiving news information. Social media influencers like Tomi Lahren, PewDiePie, and Shane Dawson have followings in the millions (among thousands of smaller yet still prominent individuals), which allows them to dominate portrayal of information. We discuss how social media influencers may play a role in how an audience receives news and also how they will interpret that information. We refute the belief that journalism is a dying career, it is just being reincarnated through social media and for many has become a steady and lucrative source of income