Social Media News

The revolution of twenty-first century social networking media exposes the fundamentals of user-generated content, in 2009 user-generated content surged by more than 300% a direct result of modern day revolutionized social media; the most rapid of that surge is being charted on mediums such as Twitter, Friendfeed, Digg, Youtube, and Tumblr — all with target objectives that bring people together, creating a network to share information. In a globally diverse interconnected society each social media user, who generates content; has the ability to create, modify, control, censor, share, and delete content at will. By definition, those who create user-generated content are referred to in the world of technology as “end-users”, simplistically meaning the product user — for example, if one has a Twitter social account, he/she is an end user; or consumer of the Twitter product. Under the categorization, user-generated content, a concept introduced into technological society in 1995, is any content put publicly on a web interface by a user or business; including text, video, audio, images, slides, and more. The idea of free public content has existed for decades in radio and television; increasing in 1995 with a new medium called the Internet and spiking with the new introduction of social media.

A target of such a wide spread growth, is that of online journalism and freelance writing. Online journalism is the reporting of facts, produced on and distributed to the populace of the Internet; using various methods such as social networking sites, blogging, podcasting, mobile i-reports, captions of images, and/or digital video. With such growth, in 2009, studies have found that an increase in Americans obtain their news via the Internet instead of by printed newspaper –- as an incentive, this yields a reduction in carbon footprint as it saves the timbering of forests at a small percentage rate. Most popular news mediums, such as Fox, CNN, and some local newspapers,  have joined the revolution of social media; posting their content for the benefit of the consumer, viewer, and Internet social media user. With a leg up on the competitor in print, the Internet poses challenges to those traditional news organizations in several ways; one of those is that Craigslist poses a major treat to newspaper classified advertising –- as a free service for the trade of goods and services. Many professional journalists, with various types of degrees, use the Internet exclusively or for a secondary outlet for their content. Online journalists must be clear on their content and research it well, as they do not hold the same First Amendment rights as print or television media; unless working in conjunction with these sources for those online journalists, based out of California, anonymous protection in liabilities of sources was ruled for both online and traditional journalism. Online journalists also have the incentive of writing under a copyright, either bought or purchased by the company they work for; reducing the stealing of their content and ensuring that if the content is stolen legalities are placed in force.

A freelance writer, or freelancer, is a self-employed person who indulges into a profession of writing without a long term commitment; over 80% without a degree in journalism. Freelancers write for views and are not contracted for a single pay rate per job; this is just one of the major draw backs of freelance work –- as most offer low payment scales, merely pennies for ten to twenty site/page views; a secondary drawback is that scams run high in the freelancing area. While in 2009, the Internet has created a matrix for freelance opportunities in expanded global markets; freelance employment has been a common style of writing as well as developing software, website design, website developing, graphic design, consulting, translating, copyediting, proofing, and more. Freelancers do not have the same opportunities as those in online journalism,  and can be seen as two separate but similar paths; lacking health insurance, paid vacations, retirement plans, bonuses, paid holidays, and in some cases stock options into a corporate technological companies. They work, most time, without agendas or deadlines. Egotistical a bit, many freelancers pride themselves as having a greater source of income due to the various mediums to write for; however, the loss of a single medium can be precarious for their employment benefit. With no protection to viewers, there are no controls on freelance; to ensure the information is correct –- very few sites care about syntax, spelling, and grammar as they gain great money for views yet pay out cents to their employees/users. So often with freelance, it is noted to take the information with a grain of salt and fact check with accredited sources; as all of these freelance sites explicitly state they are at no liability for the spread of false or misstated information.

(Copyright © Social-Media-News 2009)