Journalism & Politics: The Perfect Duo

The topic I will be exploring is the flow of social media in journalism, specifically in regards to politics. With the presidential elections becoming a popular topic in the digital world, it is clearest to track the development of connected discourses. The idea came from the influence of social media in traditional journalism as explored in Week 5 of the semester. With networking platforms allowing further dialogue outside of the tradition confines of journalism and politics there is much to observe and participate. Some of the mediums that would be used are live tweeting during debates and joining discourses surrounding Facebook and political blogs. The goal of the project is to see if there is a breakdown in the makeup of traditional journalism and politics when social media is added. The platforms that will play a major role in my research are:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Wikipedia

With the increase in media based journalism, election based stories are being distributed faster and disregarded with a similar speed. However, when looking at some of the comments included in news reports on different platforms there is a level of discourse that is new to the political world.

Possible questions:

  1. How can I explore this topic in the best way?
  2. How have politics, culture, and media started to blend?
  3. Where is the divide between traditional journalism and how is that boundary becoming less effective?