Professional journalism in the age of social media

Abstract

The article is devoted to analyzing the current state of professional journalism in the era of the flourishing of antisocial networks. The author emphasizes that the context in which professional journalism operates has changed in many respects in the 21st century. These changes are manifold and sometimes contradictory, but they can be summarized as transitioning from a mass media environment to a network environment. The article describes four main scenarios of the development and coexistence of social networks and professional journalism. There are the synthesis scenario, the supplemental scenario, the supplant scenario, and the substitute scenario. The author said that the implementation of the most probable scenario depends on many factors. The problems and strengths of social media are emphasized separately. The classical journalistic workflow is presented in the article. Its main components are disclosed in a particular process, product, platform, and public. The author concludes that professional journalism certainly has a future in the age of social media. This future largely depends on how much journalism and journalism education can adapt to a new digital environment. What is mainly needed is journalism that offers perspective and is willing to cooperate with and listen to the public. That would be an excellent response to the trend that social media is gradually taking over parts of what used to be the domain of news media, concise and fast news. Consequently, professional journalism should specialize in slower and more investigative forms of journalism. There lies the future for professional journalism in the age of social media.