The unique union of social media and the news media is going to change the way people relate to news and each other. As the mental landscape of the young generation is molded by their peers and their media, social media will have significant effects on how and what news to which they will be exposed. Being of a generation, often characterized by the “information overload,” this process of social media opening up users to relevant information is more important than ever.

To help flush out this topic,Arielle Emmett, a former Temple University journalism professor, wrote the article “Networking News.” Published in American Journalism Review, this article reflects interests of the audience. She quotes main figures of the media connection of social media, ranging in representation, from NASA to the NY Times, to PBS. She discusses the effects of online exposure in social media like Twitter and Facebook for business models of institutions that relied on specific advertising that isn’t really there in the internet. A main component in the online trends of news and entertainment is something that Emmett refers to as “social filtering” which is the “word of mouth” strategy digitized.

 Nicole S. Cohen, a PhD student in the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at York University in Toronto, writes “within this discourse, Facebook positions itself as leader of interactive, participant-based online media, or Web 2.0, the descriptor for websites based on user-generated content that create value from the sharing of information.” Her position on the subject comes from looking at a the social-economic picture and treating the relationship between medias as a discourse to be solved by negotiating the role of consumer and producer and often a new role created by the users of social media that she refers to as “prosumer.”

 The authors’ expertise and audience determine the style each of them used. Emmett’s article relies on the credibility of other people’s observations and points of view. By using these people in the field, she creates the effect of having a great deal of connections and authentic predictions of what these new innovations might mean for old institutions. She highlights their name and position within the company to show her readers her research, where as Cohen uses more discrete citation methods, giving more emphasis on the information itself, rather than the person. With a sprinkling of numbers, whether it’s a number for amount of users or subscribers or a percentage or date, both authors use concrete statistics to convey that the technology has been adopted by many people and continue to grow rapidly.

Emotion plays a role in the reception of technology. Emmett’s article highlights the individual more than Cohen. “Networking News” takes a closer look at companies affected by the shift of business model that the online networks have caused. The different quotes from people in the various businesses allow the reader to sympathize with their feelings about the unpredictability of new media’s effects on old media. Cohen’s approach is more detailed, but offers less variety of voices.

Each article demonstrates a point of view. While Emmett takes the perspective of the predecessors of social media, like PBS and NY Times, Cohen’s resource for a great deal of her insights comes from the creator of Facebook. In her article, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook offers his take on the issues relating to the effects of social media and why it functions the way it does. Cohen’s article also related the complex roles that the users play in the structure of online media.

Both perspectives, Cohen and Emmett tell a bigger story about the new trends in media. I chose these articles because they approach a story from different points of view. Emmett looks at how news corporations are exploring new ways to use the Internet’s capabilities. Cohen delved into the details of the capabilities of Facebook and its features that certainly complicate the previous view to media. It is interesting and vital to get two sides of the same story and it becomes more important to look towards the future of our growing networks, but also remember that it is not machines that we are ultimately dealing with, but thoughtful human beings.

References

Emmett, A. (2008, December). Networking News. American Journalism Review, 30(6), 40-43. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

Search query: “Facebook” in EBSCO, specifically Communication & Mass Media Complete database

Cohen, N. (2008, Spring2008). The Valorization of Surveillance: Towards a Political Economy of Facebook. Democratic Communiqué, 22(1), 5-22. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

Search query: “Facebook” in EBSCO, specifically Communication & Mass Media Complete database, narrowing down results to “academic journals”