Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines
ABSTRACT
The social media has changed the conditions for the journalists. The journalists are followed by many people through the social media tools. Thus, the arena where the journalists work on is a global arena. The journalist before the social media era was local or national professionals. However, the social media has made them global journalists. Therefore, the journalists should take this into consideration while developing their career. There is a huge difference between writing locally and globally. It is the difference between giving speech to 100 thousand people in a city and giving speech to 6 billion people all around the world.
The Social Media and a High Level of Interaction
The social media was a useful application on the internet to share a few pictures and make connections with other people. However, it has been more than this. Many of the people on the world are using the social media applications. At average, a person is having more than 100 friends from different regions of the world and from different cultures on the social media networks. Also, we observe that people are creating set of believes together. An environmentalist in a Latin American country can easily contact another environmentalist or revolutionist in the Middle East. People, without knowing each other, can create a set of believes interactively. Therefore, the social media accelerate dissemination of news all around the world. The interaction between people online shapes the comprehension of the news.
All Journalist are Followed Globally
Taking the social media effect on the comprehension of the news by people into consideration, journalists’ responsibility against the public has changed. After publishing news online, it disseminates very quickly on the internet through the social media. The peer people on the social media make a lot of comments on the news. Subsequently, the journalists might receive a large number of responses to his or her news. Considering the immediate social influence on the journalist through the social media, the journalist needs to develop a communication strategy. From another view, the journalist has to be attracting more people to his or her news; hence, he or she can stay as a good journalist for people.
Communication Strategy for Journalists in the Era of Social Media
What kind of communication strategy a journalist has to create to be successful? The strategy should include the following main factors: 1) preparing a good presentation of the news to the potential followers on the social media, 2) staying away from vague information, 3) staying away from discriminating ideas, and 4) staying away from biased information favoring a religious view or an ideology.
First of all, a journalist should be aware of which people are following him or her on the social media. It is very essential information for the journalist because he or she needs to prepare and present news to the followers in a way that they can digest the information. Thus, the language used in the news should be picked carefully. As known, people from different education levels are using the social media. Thus, the journalist should show respect to every person following him or her.
The journalists should stay away from the vague information. News can be disseminated to a large number of people. Considering that all of these people have access to the search engines, they can verify whether the information given in the news is true or not. Consequently, some followers will always control the journalist. If the journalist is a professional who likes making false news to attract more people might face the criticism from the people. Thus, preparing false news does not contribute to the career of the journalist. Also, people might respond him or her negatively and he or she might face the risk of losing his or her job.
Conclusion
Before the social media, a local journalist could make any news without any fear of the followers because not many people would know him or her. However, nowadays, when a local person makes discriminating news, then it might disseminate to the people in the word easily. Thus, there is no local news. If news includes a hate or discrimination feeling in it, then the journalist should expect that a large number of people will be responding him or her.
Also, a journalist following a religious or ideological view might face many troubles because the people all around the world might be checking his or her news. Thus, eventually people will realize that the news is biased.
Finally, the journalists should be aware that they are followed by the entire world. Writing general things that does not disturb anybody might stay local; however, if a journalist writes about the vulnerable subjects, then he might get responses globally. From another view, a journalist can develop his or her career by making a good strategy which includes the effects of the social media. The social media is a place where journalists influence and are influenced.
