EMAC graduate student Samuel Lo has been researching how social media influences established industries like broadcast journalism.

To get real answers, he goes to WFAA‘s Jason Whitely (@jasonwhitely) with a hard question: how will social and new media influence broadcast journalism? Samuel asks the senior news reporter to talk about his thoughts on how these new media forces will influence both the industry and the audience.

He decided to talk to Mr. Whitely because of both his extensive experience (roughly 20 years) and his daily interaction with the broadcast television industry. As he Samuel nears graduation, he plans to further research different industries and the changes they go through as social media becomes more pervasive and they are forced to adapt.

Video by Samuel Lo for Kim Knight’s Introduction to the Study of EMAC class, Fall 2010.

In his write-up for the project, Samuel notes that traditional media outlets like television are not seeing an increase in viewership (and print media is even seeing a significant drop in readership). “Internet, perhaps, is the answer, and it changes the audience news-consuming pattern and broadcast journalism industry.” Samuel, and apparently Mr. Whitely, believe the onslaught of new media outlets is not a bad thing for traditional news outlets – as long as they use it to support (instead of replace) their broadcasts. Mr. Whitely uses online social networks to give a preview of the content of the upcoming news broadcast “and attract more audience to watch his feature news story at the traditional 5pm, 6pm, or 10pm newscast. Moreover, he also says that the social media outlets are a good tool to maintain a strong network with the audience, and the mobile devices even strengthen this functionality because the audiences are now able to connect the journalists without the location constraints.”

Instead of seeing social and new media as the end of an era, Samuel believes perhaps the “social media tool is now leading the traditional broadcast journalism industry and the audience to another golden age.”