Chapter Goals

  • Identify how mobile devices and social media are fundamentally different from past technologies such as television and the printing press.
  • Discover how mobile devices and social media allow two-way conversations between the audience and journalists versus the old one-way model of mass communications.
  • Learn how social media has led to the public’s active role in the news production process and changed how audiences consume information.
  • Understand that while journalists retain discretion on what makes the “news,” an “active” audience plays an influential role.
  • Explore the three areas in which mobile devices and social media are impacting journalists’ work: newsgathering, distribution of news, and audience engagement.