Murdoch's way or the Highway

After a few long long long long weeks of drafting out my plans for major feature, I finally settled on a topic. For those of you who have read my earlier posts, I thought my heart was set on investigatig social media and the impact on crime and police investigations. However I've come to realise (unfortunately) that my topic had limited connection with the journalism course! Dam.....

So my new topic da da da dahhhh!!!!! How are local journalists relying on social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter) to gain 'real results'? I am looking into how local journos in my home town (Central Coast) use social media to source stories, gain leads, increase contacts and decide on story angles.

A survey conducted in the US revealed that 65% of journalists are comfortable in turning to social networking sites for story research. So of course, I wanted to discover whether or not there is an emerging trend like this in Australia and on a more localised level - the Central Coast. Over the holidays, I interviewed a range of journalists working in print and radio to gain an insight into this emerging trend. So far, I've discovered the longer a journalist has been in th job, the less likely they are to utilise social media as a tool in the newsgathering process. I was able to compare experiences from two quite respected journos on the coast, one having been in the industry for 40 years and the other a journo of only 3 years! They both contradicted each other in many ways, however I'm hoping this will provide an interesting answer to my question.

I asked the experienced 40 year print journalist whether or not he believes social media is changing journalism for better or worse and found his answer to be particularly interesting. Despite his reluctance to jump on the Facebook bandwagon he admitted, "Murdoch is embracing it as a way to the future, I certainly think there's a place for it, however it's definately not the be all and end all!"

And so it seems today is Murdoch's way or the highway! I suppose all I can say is good luck to the oldies who've upheld traditional journalism for 40+ years...