Is there a difference between a blogger who has been granted permission to cover an event, sits next to a reporter from a newspaper and updates his blog every ten minutes compared to a person on Twitter who has a large following with a desire to report on the same event?
Determining if there are any differences is one of the first steps in deciding if someone who only uses a social media platform is a "legitimate reporter". That determination will most likely fall on the shoulders of public relations professionals.
Internet websites and blogs have pushed the news cycle from 24-hours to continuous. Social media platforms pushed the new news cycle even further from continuous to immediate. Personal opinions on what a "legitimate journalist" should be or the method of how they report flew out the window years ago when Internet websites and blogs became accepted sources of news.
If the general public continues to accept social media platforms as a source for breaking news, public relations professionals will have no choice but to accept them as part of the mainstream media.
As the communications revolution continues to unfold, public relations professionals must follow how trends are changing and be flexible with them, even if that includes accepting social media platforms as legitimate sources of media.
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