Introduction

My name is Emily Groh. I am a senior, broadcast Journalism major. Although I know that journalism is changing before our eyes, I sometimes wonder if it is for the better? Our society has become incredibly fast-paced and people have adapted to this. However, because of their adaption, people want everything in their life fast; this includes the news. People are finding news on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. While every major news organization has a Twitter and Facebook account, these social media sites allow for “citizen journalism” where anybody can become a journalist. They can post pictures from some event they think is newsworthy and write a paragraph about what “news” just happened down the street from them. Do news audiences still find traditional sources of news as the best option or is someone who witnessed a house on fire just as good?

The answer to this question: it doesn’t matter because social media sites are not going anywhere, anytime soon. Poynter published an article directed to publishers and editors of news organizations telling them “11 Layers of Citizen Journalism.” News organizations are doing everything they can to keep up with social media and allow as much audience interaction as possible.