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Abstract
This research explores the challenges many journalists face in integrating social media tools into their daily workflow. Using a qualitative approach, 25 journalists from a variety of media backgrounds provide insights into what obstacles kept them and others from seeing the practicality of social media tools. Results point to four main themes including concerns about quality and accuracy, the increase in workload and job-related stress created by social media, the competitive environment of breaking stories via social media, and the age and experience of the journalist. Results are considered within the framework of Rogers' (1983) diffusion of innovations theoretical model.
Keywords: Social media, Journalism, Social media integration, Convergent journalism
Introduction
The Socially Challenged: Exploring Obstacles to Social Media Integration in Newsrooms
The proliferation of social media into newsrooms across the country has created a shift in the way journalists go about their daily business. For some, the practicality of social media was immediately evident and quickly integrated into the workflow. For others, older journalistic methods seemed more useful than untested promises made by proponents of the new technology. There is little debate that social media has seismically changed newsrooms, creating in its wake a new communication model for newsgathering and news dissemination. Some news outlets were visionary in recognizing how social media could add to or replace old methods. Within those outlets were journalists who grasped how these tools could improve communication channels between the journalist and the public at large. Other journalists were guarded, acknowledging some of the drawbacks that emerged. Using interviews with journalists across the country, this analysis explores the obstacles many of them have faced as they began using social media tools in the workplace. It begins with a brief look at the history of digital technology integration within the news media and is followed by an in-depth analysis of the challenges that emerged when journalists, often mandatorily, began using social media. It concludes with a discussion of how the findings assimilate with proposed theory.
Literature Review
The academic community has already turned considerable attention to the new forms of media emerging in the Internet age. Much of that research has explored the role technology has played in changing the way journalists do their jobs. Reddick and King...