Free Essay: Social Media Defamation and Libel

The overall use of social media to obtain news has drastically increased (Martin, 2018). Often, the news acquired over social media is not edited or undergone any procedural activities. Access to news via social media has vastly affected the public relations of everyone that arises from the news consumed by the public (Martin, 2018). The public relations of most of the population have been altered since people quickly access the news; therefore has ease of giving their feedback. With social media, most people's public relations have been improved, given that they are fed with different types of information every time they access social media platforms (Martin, 2018). The use of social media to access media has `contributed to a rise in citizen journalism and participatory news where the population engages itself in relaying information to the entire community (Jurkowitz, 2014).

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The citizen population has made it easy for state officials to detect problems and offer a fast response that enables people to have a better community (Jurkowitz, 2014). The increase in citizen journalism has made many professional journalists use social media platforms to address breaking news. (Jurkowitz, 2014) The use of social media to address breaking news has been so because most of people are working and don’t easily access televisions, radio, and newspapers as most of them use mobile phones. The use of mobile phones enables most people to obtain information by subscribing to various channels; they get notifications that allow them to access information with ease (Jurkowitz, 2014).

On the other hand, reporters have changed their modes of receiving and sharing their ideas and information (Jurkowitz, 2014). Most people at the scene mostly take recordings and share with the reporters. People at the scene capture data and share it to the various reporters, therefore, increasing the amount of information that most reporters have. Reporters have an increase in the information they have because they no longer have to travel to the place of the scene to capture the data. Various people are sharing information increase the amount of data that the reporters have, therefore increasing the amount of information that the reporters share to the public (Martin, 2018). Information on the hand is shared with the respective reporters because they have platforms with a large following; therefore, sharing the information to a broader audience. Around 6000, tweets are shared to the public per second; consequently, this data shows that more than half of the world population can access information per second (Jurkowitz, 2014).

However, unparalleled access to the internet and how frequent content is published causes a rise in cases of publishing fake news since nobody looks at the story before it is published (Poortvliet, 2017). Publishing of content considered libel has devastating effects on the publishers, individuals involved, and businesses affected by the news. Journalists are taught on different ethics, but most of the junior journalists tend to forget this and publish some content that is considered libel for fame or to be recognized as controversial but forget to acknowledge the effects that it carries. All journalists must understand the risks associated with the laws' defamation to ensure that they work according to the ethics guiding the field (Poortvliet, 2017).

Journalists globally have forsaken the laws and caused an increase in the cases of defamation by23% in the past year (Poortvliet, 2017). The rise in defamation cases has been due to content published both on websites and social media platforms. The increase in defamation cases is attributed to the fact that the content creators who act as the moderators for online behavior fail to comprehend the potential legal implications regarding defamation. The rise of defamations is a clear indication that both publishers and content creators fail to understand that they are supposed to act within the dictated laws even in the cyberspace environment. This research aims at addressing the various factors that have caused an escalation in the cases of defamation and how best they can be solved including mechanisms such as avoiding relying on anonymous data and stick on being objective by reducing the number of hashtags attached to a single post on social media platforms (Poortvliet, 2017).

The evolvement of social media made the dissemination of traditional news evolve (Martin, 2018). The change of consumption of news from the former print and television news affected the news organizations in that they are forced to reallocate resources to social media platforms. The transformation by news organizations is quite challenging as they are forced to try their best to retain their print and broadcast audience since as much as more people are on social media, there is still a considerable audience that appreciates the former means of communication. The consumption of news has increased as more audiences prefer to use social media to consume news (Poortvliet, 2017). In America, social media sites have recorded a vast percentage of news audiences, surpassing the broadcast and print media audience. Radio and television broadcasting is slowly reducing the audience as many people are currently favoring electronic mediums in specific mobile phones.

20% of the American adult population, 1 out of every five adults, consumes news via social media, which is slightly higher than those who use print media. The existence of users of print media is slowly reducing. Employment in American news organizations has fallen since 2008 (Grieco, 2020). The reduction in employment opportunities amongst the American news organization is due to the decline in the population that consumes news through print and broadcast, which are the fields that require a huge team that will ensure that the story reaches the audience. The reduction is also attributed to the fact that only a few news anchors are necessary since the number of airings has been reduced because more people are now receiving the news online (Grieco, 2020). However, the employment pattern has been balanced by an increase in other news producing sectors. Native organizations use most of the new news-producing industries.

The reduction in employment in traditional forms of news production fields has been countered by the rise of employment opportunities in the digital spectrum. In America, the number of staff in digital newsrooms has increased to over double the first number from around 7400 workers to 16100 in 2019, establishing a 117% increase rate (Grieco, 2020). Professional and participatory journalists are currently enjoying the freedom that has risen from traditional media to online reporting, as it has a centralized focus on a new target audience (Grieco, 2020). Professional journalism mainly focuses on audiences based on the specific geographical area based on their news outlet. Unlike professional journalists, participatory journalists enjoy the freedom to report on any area that piques their interest hence overcoming barriers set by borders. Reporting on any area differs from their previous duties where they were only limited to the confines of op-ed pieces, or guest features by way of traditional media.

The freedom of expression has vastly aided the transition from traditional reporting to online reporting, and the use of social media has allowed for information to be dispersed and consumed faster over a large geographical area in a format that accommodates responses (Newton & Scalia). Speed is a critical factor in how news is disseminated because new information ought to reach the audience immediately; it is received in the news organizations. Therefore, a slight delay by news organizations denies them an audience as people often shift to organizations that share information fast enough.

Social networking platforms allow content to be published perpetually. The allowance for content to be published permanently makes it possible for writers to write at their convenience. The more journalists publish information, and the more relevant they remain (Martin, 2018). The relevance of most journalists helps to build their reputation. Currently, any standard newspaper contains new features such as Facebook and Twitter handles, where readers get a chance to interact with the journalists. In the social profiles, readers and journalists share unfiltered thoughts based on their personal beliefs. The interaction between the journalist and readers creates a loyalty relationship such that the journalists move with their readers from one job o the next.

Social media platforms such as Facebook prioritize videos, specifically live stream videos that have been captured recently directly to the social media platforms (Newton & Scalia). Prioritizing Live stream video enables the audience to view actions just as they occur without filtering. Facebook has also prioritized stories that are published directly to the network. The Sharing of news via Facebook enables Facebook to retain users as the users don’t have to turn to other websites to obtain news (Newton & Scalia). Facebook's distribution power helps publishers change the content they create alongside where they want the material to be posted online. Facebook is not changing what journalists refer to as news, but it is changing where everyone finds the news and the form in which it is delivered.

Facebook is a revolutionary medium of reporting (Newton & Scalia). Comparing Facebook to traditional mediums of reporting, you realize that Facebook is a faster means of dispersing information. Breaking news in conventional ways of reporting still had to go through crafting in the newsroom, but Facebook publicly shares it as fast as it arrives. This doesn't imply that information retrieved via Facebook does not go through crafting. Still, the info undergoes minimal procedures compared to traditional modes of reporting before it is shared with the public. The additional features such as the ability to live-stream content on the newsfeed as it occurs in the current real-time allow consumers to receive news fast and in their raw form to show the extent of the situation at hand hence enabling the consumer to receive real-time updates. Fast relaying of original data has allowed the consumers to change their general perception of journalisms as a whole.

The fast sharing of information by Facebook, however, gives rise to cases of distortion of news to occur. In other cases, the consumers have subscribed to numerous channels. Therefore in some cases, the news update arrives at once, limiting how the consumer keeps up with the arriving updates. The Facebook news feed sometime is faulty in that it doesn’t refresh the news in chronological order. Rapid publishing of news on Facebook sometimes causes traffic where new information is surpassed by older information hence subjecting the consumer to consuming outdated information. Shared information on a friend’s timeline may be outdated in the sense that the user might have already read about it.

Social media is evolving, so is the means through which news is being disbursed and consumed. Journalists should adopt new and modern technology resources that will enable them to turn into advanced technologies such as online mediums (Grieco, 2020). The transformation of reporting mechanisms from traditional forms to online has seen many professional and participatory journalists frequenting social media platforms since that is where more of the audience is situated. The aforementioned has permanently changed the state of journalism as an industry, but it can affect journalism ethics as well, allowing for the intrusion of libel.