Stay Engaged and Stay Relatable.

With the possibility to publish any sort of information (true or false) in everyone’s hand, there come many consequences. As a public, we can easily bring awareness to many situations that could be brushed off as unimportant or “risky to talk about” with just a click of a button. Many lives have been saved and quick safety precautions have been taken because of the immediacy social media has brought us. However, we can not trust the whole world with important news. This is where “fake news” and “trolls” can come into play. For attention and clicks, people will create any believable (but fake) story to cause a stir in social media communities. Therefore, news should only be published by professional journalists.

Not only has social media in the palms of our hands changed who can publish content, but it has also changed the way readers/viewers react to it. Before social media was around, it was harder for the audience to show whether they liked certain topics or if they completely disagreed with news stories. Now, not only can the public talk about what they think is being done right or wrong, but they can also tailor the importance of news stories based on their interests and what they talk about.

A good example of a journalist who posts about the important concerns of her community is Maria Elena Salinas. Salinas is an independent journalist but it is very obvious that her tweets involve big issues/events that happen in the US and she mentions the impact they have on the Latinx community often.

In the tweet above, she tweeted about the Coronavirus outbreak because she knew that it was one of the world’s most important worries at the moment. In the next tweet, she focuses on the impact Kobe Bryant’s death had on the Latinx community. By doing this she is pleasing her audiences’ topic preferences as well as reporting about big and important news.

Journalists and their audience have more of an intimate relationship than when social media was not around. Mentioned earlier, active audiences have made it easier for reporters to understand their viewers’ preferences. Also, the fact that the audience can follow journalists on any social media platform, makes it easier to see glimpses of their personal life which was not possible before. Factors like this can build a strong bond and trust between the viewer and the journalist.

Not only was Salinas speaking about something personal and relatable, but she also included both languages in her tweet to appeal to a more widespread audience. In this day and age, relatability is key. If a journalist can’t be relatable and engaging, their audience won’t connect with them and won’t go to them as a definitive option for news.

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