Newsroom Journalists’s Use of Social Media in Ghana

Abstract

Social media has become more than just a portal for friendly chitchat. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become serious aggregators of news not only for consumers but also for journalists and their organizations. Various reports indicate that news consumers are now heading to social media as part of their daily news routines. In effect these new platforms are changing how people receive the news often instantaneously and with regular updates of developments. This change is occurring quickly and in significant ways it is retooling and redirecting the practice of journalism. This study was designed using in-depth interviews and a survey to investigate the influence of social media among newsroom journalists and their organizations in Ghana. It was expected that the findings would provide enough insight into the use of social media by newsroom journalists in Ghana as well as give an indication of news organizations’ attitudes towards these new platforms. The findings revealed that the news media in Ghana were largely open to using social media as part of their news processes. Like their peers around the world Ghanaian journalists are also adopting social media for work purposes with many noting that these new media had to an extent impacted on the way they went about their work.