Social media sites have a
critical role to play in terms of the manner in which consumers interact with
digital news. Engagement can be achieved
in social media but news is not the primary motivation for the consumers to
visit the social media sites like Facebook.
At the
very outset, I have disagreement that people visit the social media for news.
It is important to understand that people who regularly visit social media
sites are most likely interested in the socialization or other leisure aspect
linked to the site. This is precisely why entertainment news is taking up the
major proportion of the attention of the visitors. If a person was to be really
interested in news, he/she would rather visit the news website directly.
But
there is agreement that there is more engagement when it comes to news through
Facebook. For instance, in the news article it is reported that 50% visitors
shared，reposted news stories, images or videos
and 46% discussed a news event. This engagement helps people to feel more in
control of things and can be very helpful in the event of a major crisis like a
terrorist attack.
People can write a post, share their views, make a video and
make it reach a larger audience through social media sites. The traditional
news delivery model was more of a one-way track in which the news reporter
would read the news and the audience would just listen and discuss among
themselves later.
Now, the social media sites have provided a better platform
for engagement. For instance, a person can report that he is a part of the
kidnapped group of tourists in a hotel and this could prove as the first source
of more information on the event. Or a person can even tweet or write to the
Prime Minister or President about a certain pressing issue and get a response.
It is
safe to conclude that social media websites result in high level of engagement
but they are not having visitors who want to read serious news. The type of
news that is being viewed on social media is entertainment and sports. Social
media sites like Facebook have an important role to play when it comes to
spreading an important message, finding missing persons or reporting a critical
event that has not been otherwise found out by the mainstream media. They must not be viewed as an important place
for business news or financial news.
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