Is Social Media Replacing Traditional Journalism?
For Gen Z news consumers, the “morning paper” has transformed into a dynamic scrolling experience, with thousands of pieces of information flowing in every minute. While social media is undeniably a powerful tool, it is not a cure-all for PR problems. The impact of social media doesn’t negate the value of traditional PR practices. It’s tempting for communicators and marketers to champion social media as the ultimate solution, given its trendiness and ability to quickly reach a broad audience. A robust content calendar will not fix all your problems, but should social media replace traditional journalism? Is journalism really dead? Let’s explore how to effectively combine both to develop a cohesive, integrated media strategy that meets your communication needs.
The Role of Social Media
Social media has forever changed how media is consumed, gathered, and disseminated. Still, there is an information gap in the workforce on how to use different social platforms to meet communications or marketing objectives. According to Sprout Social’s 2023 State of Social Media Report, a survey resulting in feedback from 750 leaders in social media marketing, customer care and communications from a cross-section of US and UK businesses say they seek to better understand how they’re investing in social media and its impact throughout their organizations. Under a social media strategy, there are varying objectives like awareness, engagement, and the looming conversion metrics that your boss pays a little more attention to.
Social media is always a huge part of newsgathering for journalists who monitor online communities for newsworthy, relevant, and timely content. When crafting a social media strategy, you must consider the audience you are trying to reach, the message you want to convey, and the call to action that should be tied to a business goal of some sort.
Image sourced from Medium.
The Role of Traditional Journalism
Compared to traditional media advertising, media coverage earned through PR activities is entirely organic. Top-tier media, in particular, have a higher search engine domain authority making placements in BBC, CNN, or Bloomberg so much more valuable to businesses.
With the right story, at the right time, and in the right place, earned media coverage is key to increasing recognition, credibility, and online engagement. There is an inherent value to earned media in elevating a message and engaging with business communities through thought leadership above the heads of social media users. Journalism is the highest level of public discourse that can shape the reputation of your organization if used correctly.
A Symbiotic Relationship
Journalism exists under the jurisdiction of editorial control as opposed to social media which is inherently collaborative and accessible. As the fourth estate or power of our society, the role of journalism is to inform and educate the public by disseminating the news. Social media rattled journalism’s claim to the news and disrupted an integrated network based on tradition. How they work together is the question of today’s world. It comes down to crafting an integrated plan to use social media and traditional journalism to complement and elevate each other by sharing content. If you establish yourself as a thought leader, you should be joining the conversation online. If you establish your credibility, you should form relationships with key stakeholders in the media to open doors to increase online mentions and create a lasting brand.
Social media and traditional journalism should work together to create meaningful and lasting stories. The best practice for digital storytelling is to know your audience, know your story, understand the campaign objectives, and diversify how you are telling the story to reach the right people at the right frequency.
About
Tina is a senior studying Advertising & Public Relations with minors in Marketing and Middle Eastern Studies. After a semester with GrandPR as an Account Executive, she now serves as the firm's CEO for the 2024-2025 school year. Tina spent her summer as an Internal Communications Intern at SpartanNash. She will remain at SpartanNash during the school year as a Public Relations & Social Media Intern. After graduation, she hopes to one day work internationally in Public Relations or Brand management.