Well, in truth social has been the most quick-fire way of distributing front line reports for some time. Just think about how long ago it was when we were commenting on Twitter usage during the Arab Spring.
The last few weeks have seen some interesting developments in the social media world, though, albeit only regarding the two most prominent platforms therein. Originally designed as a way to communicate and share ideas, it seems these communities are becoming increasingly interested in securing something of a reporter’s roll.
First up then we have Twitter, which has just announced a new change that allows you to see related links. This is quite a big step, as in effect it could see an increase in visitors using Twitter as a central point of call for news gathering- a site from which they then explore the day’s headlines in further detail based on the aforementioned related links.
Although we’re sure the last thing the newspapers want is another rival to deal with (especially one that’s already made a name for itself by beating broadcast and print media to the story, several times over), this is nevertheless an exciting concept. Especially if, like us, you’re already addicted to your Feed, and spend a great deal of time looking at conversations and sentiment surrounding news stories, as this will only add to the sources and opinions we can now check up on with ease. Although some people have already voiced concerns that they don’t want the network deciding what’s relevant to what they say.
On the other side of the playing field, Facebook has finally finished putting the alterations in place to allow for embeddable posts. In short, this basically means that any website owner, blogger, editor, or journalist can now take a Facebook post from their news feed, and embed it into their own content management system. On the webpage this will be displayed as a Facebook post would be, not only going some way towards authenticating the fact that whatever is being reported as posted was posted, but also saving a huge amount of time in copying out the posts.
Whilst this second example isn’t so much a case of Facebook looking to become a news source, although we’re sure the powers that be probably have that in mind, what it does show is a keenness to become part of a news distribution network by facilitating people’s jobs and amateur efforts in that field, at a time when the entire industry model is going through such change it really is very difficult to exactly how things will be done in 20 years time. An interesting summer in the industry then, make no mistake.