I am my own reporter

     

The world of media is changing. Information has become quicker and easier to access making it more convenient to get news.  Everyone can find out things on their own, broadcast it themselves, and limit it to what information they receive to things that pertain to themselves. With that being said, actual news papers, news radio stations, and news television stations are beginning to become obsolete. In other words everyone has become their own news reporter through word of mouth, social media, and research.
       Word of mouth is a form of information that has been around as long as information valuable enough to tell was. Word of mouth is not always the most accurate source of information but is the most convenient and often the most trusted. Why, might you ask, because it always comes from some one you know, like a friend or co-worker, that has the same concerns and values as you. Therefore, when they come to tell you something about the world outside of theirs, you know it is something that they think is information you may be interested in. The flaw in this source is that though it is trusted you never truly know where the person got the information which makes it about as accurate as a rumor. The person who you heard it from could have heard it from another person who could have over heard it wrong. Another possibility is that your source only got a part of the information and you may not know the whole story. This is why word of mouth may not be the greatest source but still the source that gets the most attention from listeners.

     Social media is very similar to word of mouth because it is still coming from people you chose to be in your social life but on a much larger scale. Social media sites have more recently been showing advertisements and news updates based off your post and search engine entries, making them more relevant to the user. When most people see new information on their social network timeline they often comment towards the post to ask the user who posted the comment to elaborate on the information rather than look up further information on the subject because they figured that either the person who posted the initial comment did their research and if not another user who did will either answer your question by backing them up or correcting them. The only reason this is assumed online more than in person is because they know the person who posted it has internet access which means they have the convenience and capability that a person walking down the street does not. This is why the third type of information source has become another preferred source of information.
 
      The third source of information people use to be their own news reporters is research. This usually is for the people who see a post, over hear a conversation, catch the end of a story and look up the whole thing. Its easier to do now a days because of search engines, online encyclopedia's, websites such as wiki-leaks, etc. These people usually look up current events to find out details so they can later be educated in a conversation or argument on the subject, if someone ask questions about it, or just to know how it may effect them. Regardless of the reason these people have the most accurate story and often go on to blog or post about it and become others primary source of information about the subject.

       This cycle of information swapping has caused the news papers and stations to be less and less relevant. So now instead of going by a newsstand and buying and reading a physical/ tangible paper they now can go to the news paper's website and only read the articles pertaining to their interest. Instead of watching or listening to the news on television or radio they just go look up clips on the website for channels that they usually watch. This all started with word of mouth then later moved to social media backed up by research which is easier to do with today's technology.