Is social media changing the news?

A social network is a way of staying in touch and making new connections. In the real world you can’t see the connections between people. In the online world you can immediately see who knows who, and who your friends are friends with.

Facebook, twitter and the rest of the social media family wasn't acted like this 5 years back what they are doing today, when the source of the news was TV, radio, news paper and news websites.

Social media or the new media has changed the things very quickly. It has now a very strong impact on our daily life. In recent past when in Egypt unrest was on,  a campaign of change was ran on the facebook by some bloggers and social activist and it really worked. The social media acted as active and live source  of the news for the rest of the world, there were thousands of tweets, facebook messages and videos were uploaded on Youtube by the Egyptians protesters  to update people about what's going on. After Egypt, Saudi activists start Facebook campaign for change in Saudi Arabia, calling for political and economic reforms.

Social media is now the fastest way to spreading news, the individuals has the opportunity to break the news in real time on Twitter or Facebook, before the news reporter does.

Now, News sources and publications have to make sure that their editorial staff is well versed in social media, they know how to spread the news around the social networks along with their prime source whether it is TV, radio or print.

Now journalist don't have that much time like they used to have longer lead times and deadlines. Social media changes all of this, and the news is posted much faster.

It reminds me the famous quote by Jeff Candido "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", but now in current scenario it should become something like this, "What happens in Vegas (now not really stays in Vegas), it stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook...".