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>These newspapers all have Facebook pages (and Twitter accounts) where they voluntarily post and promote their news articles. I’d venture they get a ton of free

>These newspapers all have Facebook pages (and Twitter accounts) where they voluntarily post and promote their news articles. I’d venture they get a ton of free traffic from social media companies and are far more dependent on social media than the inverse… I mean, isn't that where 99% of newspapers GET their stories? I was under the impression that the new newspaper cycle was: News Event > Social Media (Twitter or FB) > Journalist sees it > Story in Newspaper/online Newspaper

filoleg 4y ago
You make an interesting point that made me realize something. I already pay for a couple of (digital) newspaper subscriptions, but I am willing to pay double that (if not more) for a subscription to a news publication that explicitly prohibits their writers from using tweets as sources or evidence of anything in their coverage. I am very sick and tired of how often "news" is not actual news, but a "journalist" trying to pump out articles and harvest clicks by just searching for whatever tweet to make a point they want to make seem as "real" in the article. Imo people gossipping online isn't the news I want to read, and a sample of a few randos tweeting something that supports your point is not valid data. Rare exceptions apply where the tweet itself counts as material news, e.g., it was made by a leader of a country and it actually is some big news and the tweet itself is being the primary source (e.g., not just a link to an official press release). But it is so rare, it could be imo almost discounted. Also wouldn't apply to video footage sourced from twitter, because a video is a video, regardless of where it originated.