Abstract:
Social media has irreversibly changed television news and distorted the distinction
between professional and citizen journalism. This research investigated the
professional efforts in-house television broadcasters make to embrace social media in
newsgathering and broadcasting. This research’s overarching objective was to
establish whether the use of social media content poses a threat to news broadcast
authenticity. The research questions included; How do television broadcasters employ
social media in reporting? What does unchecked social media appropriation mean for
the scope and quality of news? How do citizen journalists and social media wield
their newfound power? How is user-generated content more appealing to broadcasters
compared to traditional newsgathering methods? The approach to the study is
qualitative and I used the narrative research method. My target population comprised
all media houses. These media firms comprise 3,220 Media Council of Kenya
registered journalists and 6,500 freelance journalists. I used purposive sampling to
select a sample size of twelve interviewees in Nairobi and used in-depth interviews
and document reviews to collect data. After thematic data analysis, I presented my
findings in a narrative format. This research’s findings confirmed that unprofessional
journalism on social media offers cheaper, relevant and strategically useful
information for news broadcasting. Broadcasters were implicated of unrestrained use
of unconfirmed and unregulated social media content, a risky practice to audiences
and stakeholders. Although social media offers swift, concise and interactive news
that broadcasters cannot ignore, it remains their onus to strategically compliment
social media content together with traditional newsgathering for rich, all-inclusive
news. This research recommends formulation of regulatory policies at national and
broadcaster level and also recommends social media appropriation skills training
curriculum development for journalists. From this study, broadcasters can appreciate
social media’s unique information mobilisation power and the dynamism it heralds
for television news.
