Social Media is the New Media

When the internet first began to proliferate across the world in the mid-1990s, traditional media sources immediately began to feel the heat.

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Pretty quickly, new sources of media and news reporting began to steer people away from newspapers and the 24-hour rolling news networks and on to independent new sites that were not constrained by corporate interests or wealthy paymasters.

One of the earliest and most famous examples of this is the rise of The Drudge Report in the late 1990s, which was instrumental in breaking the Monica Lewinsky scandal involving the then sitting President, William Jefferson Clinton.

The tables turned with that event, and many of corporate media’s oldest news hounds found themselves glued to a computer screen for the first time; visiting Matt Drudge’s website for the latest breaks in this huge story.

Since then, online media has only grown in stature and importance, and modern social media has created a venue for any citizen reporter to get their news story out to the masses without being filtered or edited by corporations that have their own agenda

Here we are going to look at a few ways anyone can start their own social media news stream and begin shaping the stories that make the world turn.

Having a Facebook Account Can Be Like Running Your Own Newspaper

Millions of people around the world, maybe even billions, use Facebook as their primary news source.

Building a Facebook Account that is focused on news and views can give anyone the opportunity to get the stories that matter to them out into the world and on to the screens of millions of people as the stories are shared and reposted by loyal followers.

Instagram Can Give You Insta-Fame

Instagram has become one of the top news sources in the world. Many people use the platform to build a profile and break stories. There is also a lot of opportunities to cross over into other media.

Insta-stars like Ashley Liz Cooper have managed to leverage a strong social media following into acting and reality TV roles, increasing their exposure and income and even receiving lucrative product endorsement opportunities.

Anyone Can Use Twitter to Join Big Conversations

From only a short series of tweets, anyone in the world can start, join, and steer the conversations taking place online between traditional media personalities and government officials.

The right tweet at the right time can make a citizen journalist a household name overnight, and bring important stories and narratives into the light that traditional media sources simply don’t have the time, or inclination, to bring to the masses.

Many people have very quickly built up a social media profile and begun to challenge the established narratives of the elite, with some even being invited to the White House by President Donald Trump to offer their views on media today and how more citizens can challenge the established, traditional media.

These new avenues of social media can be a powerful tool for any citizen to bring news stories to millions of people that traditional media barely reports or doesn’t report at all.