Over the years, journalism has adapted to fit the times, meaning that journalism is no longer just newspapers and newscasts anymore. With the rise of the Internet and smart phones, journalists are expected to get information out on websites, Twitter, Facebook, and any other apps their audience may be using. Though the entire field was notoriously slow to take to the Internet, every facet of media has seemingly embraced the next new wave of technology, putting the “media” in social media.

For our project, we decided to look into just how social the media was becoming. By interviewing people involved in news, sports, music, and television/movies, we gained understanding into how social media is being used by specific outlets.

To make better sense of our findings, first we must look at the history of social media. According to the surprisingly detailed Wikipedia page, there are six different social media classifications: collaborative projects, blogs and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game-worlds, and virtual social worlds. Media outlets tend to focus on social networking such as Facebook and blogs and microblogs such as Twitter to reach the maximum number of users.

The concept of social media really took off in the mid-2000s, with Myspace’s establishment in 2003 and Facebook’s founding in 2004. While Myspace has lost popularity and is being rebranded as of late, Facebook has over one billion unique users. Yes, one billion, as in one-seventh of the world’s population. One out of every seven people currently on Earth has visited Facebook at least once.

The latest wave of social media has been focused mostly on apps for smart phones. These took a bit longer to become as popular as Facebook or Myspace. Twitter, founded in 2006, reached 500 million users in 2012, just after rejecting a $500 million offer from Mark Zuckerberg. According to that article, Twitter’s value is now estimated at $11.9 billion. Instagram was one of the faster growing facets of social media. Founded in October 2010, Instagram has over 150 million users just three years later.

New websites and apps are popping up all the time, so the media has to react quickly to stay on top of things. Some things like Twitter lend themselves more easily to media outlets, but Facebook and even Instagram help media outlets to spread news and glean information for stories. In the following pages, you will discover just how certain facets of media use social media.

– Madison Romine