Social Media as Distribution Tool

Abstract

In social media, media contents are in constant flux. For journalists and media organizations social media is a key channel for the distribution of their content. Social media is indispensable when media organizations make efforts to extend their reach among the audience. An important manner in how media organizations distribute content in social media is the direct mode, such as when they publish content on their own pages or feeds in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, only a share of media content on social media is accessed via the direct flows from publishers, as for a large part the media content in users' personal social media feeds consists of material shared by friends and other contacts. In addition to these human nodes of content distribution, algorithms utilized by social media platforms also influence to a great extent the media content that is visible to the social media users.