As we have been discussing in class, social media has become a milestone in our communication practices as time has passed; and it looks bright in our future. Social media has also had a significant effect on the way individuals choose to view their news as well.
In the light of Occupy Wall Street, a protest advocating “equal economic treatment/justice,” http://www.thestreet.com/story/11274879/1/what-occupy-wall-street-wants-in-30-seconds.html social media has played a huge role in getting the word out. There seems to be a lack of major news stations getting out the information on this event, especially in the western states; thousands of miles away. The majority of the coverage I have seen on Occupy Wall Street is due to citizen journalism, Youtube.com being my major source for information. However, through researching this movement I’ve found other great sites that are home to citizen journalists and have become my primary way of receiving my news. Although, to figure out the validity of the news, research needs to be done, making it more time consuming. This site, http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-citizen-journalism-websites-crowd-sourced-news/, outlines a few of the sites I use. “Citizen Journalism websites gives us an opportunity to speak as interested observers. It is freedom of speech without any censorship in its unadulterated sense,” stated the author.
In addition, having citizen journalism increase in popularity at such a rapid pace; I feel that news stations are beginning to lose their effectiveness, especially in the younger generation. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook are becoming a more popular way of receiving news, as well as news aggregators like Pulse and Flipboard.
This article, http://news.yahoo.com/social-media-aggregation-comes-occupy-wall-street-204006749.html, also talks about Occupy Wall Street and the approach social media has been taking towards the issue. “Keeping tabs on the latest development has now become simpler with the launch of Occupationalist, a social media aggregator that combines constantly updated content from Tumblr, Twitter, Google Video, Meetup.com and Foursquare into a single page.” Best of all, the webpage is made and operated by college students at the University of Colorado; perhaps those most familiar with the social media movement in today's society.
I think social media is one of the greatest innovations of my time, and thanks to the internet for making it all possible. I also am proud to see other citizens acting as journalists with the intention of bringing everyone closer together and becoming aware of what goes on in the world. Major media groups would have most likely overlooked the police brutality videos captured at Occupy Wall Street. Social media has had a huge impact on my life, I can’t wait to see what it has in store for future generations.
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