Do we still need journalism/journalists in the age of social media?

 Many of you will rush into answering this question without thinking deep about it. Social media is very effective today and it seems like everyone, more especially the youth rely on it as a source of news and a platform to explore what is happening around the world. The problem with this issue is that many people do not understand the real definition of the term “journalism”.  Journalism refers to the practice of investigating and reporting events, issues and trends to the mass audiences of print, broadcast and online media such as newspapers, magazines and books, radio and television stations and networks, and blogs and social and mobile media.

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So now you can see that journalism does not refer to writing for traditional media only, even majority of the news pages that we like on our social media accounts and rely on for accurate and fresh news, are written and published  by journalists. For example News24.

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So the answer to this question is yes we still do need journalism in the age of social media. Journalist help to provide newsworthy stories that are of public interest, interesting, prominent and proximity. Because journalist are highly trained on how to gather and publish news therefor even in social media we do need them to feed us with factual information.  I strongly believe that without the help of journalism the stories we get on social media won’t have direction and anybody will just post whatever he/she feels like its news and by this we will always believe misleading information.

Another important point to remember is that not all people rely on social media for news, our parents and grandparents still rely heavily on print media. So if we can say we no longer need journalists we are not being fair to some people and their way/style of living.

Key Points to always remember

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What does a journalist do?

The main intention of those working in the journalism profession is to provide their readers and audiences with accurate, reliable information they need to function in society.

Main Duties of Journalism

Researching stories.

Writing hard news and feature stories

Shooting photographs and video.

Editing stories.

Checking facts.

Planning issues.

Laying out pages.

The effectiveness of advertising in public relations.

Back in the days before I decided to pursue a career in Public relations and communications I used to think there is no difference between advertising and public relation , I just thought Public relations was just a fancy or mature way of saying “advertising” and there is no difference at all.



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Just like me, I am quite sure that many of you even today still wonder if there is a difference between Public relations and advertising and if there is, how do they relate to each other and is advertising really effective in public relations?.

Well! Public Relation is the professional maintenance of a favourable public image by a company or other organization or a famous person. And on the other hand advertising refers to describing or drawing attention to a product, service or an event in a public medium in order to promote sales or attendance.

 

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So in organizations advertising works hand in hand with public relations, where advertising attract customers or consumers and public relations makes sure that they are satisfied and they have a good, effective two-way communication with the organization so that they can send feedback about the products/service they saw on advertising and decided to purchase them, then by this, the PR look in to the feedback, evaluate it and make sure that the customer’s needs are met and satisfied at all times.

Resolving the confusion!

The public reacts very differently to an advertisement than to a newspaper article or a TV report. They know very well when they are reading or looking an advertisement and the information they are communicated is perceived with a certain degree of uncertainty. They know that the advertisement wants to persuade them to buy a particular product or service and will either believe or disbelieve the information they are communicated. But when they are communicated news about a new product or service through a third party for example a newspaper or online article they perceive it as informative and worthy of their attention. A press released for instance does not directly encourage them to buy it often achieves just that by creating a positive image about the product/service or its manufacture, or both.

The use of Advertising.

 

So it clearly shows that public relations and advertising are interdependent and without advertising you will only have a positive image of a product/service and people not buying it and this will result in the organization not reaching its financial objectives and may lead into disaster, so advertising is very effective in Public relations.