Sunday, October 10, 2010

Social Media and ABC News

With the onset of social media several years ago, many traditional news outlets including television/ radio newscasts and newspapers have explored this potentially viable new frontier. ABC News, for one, has used popular social media networks MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter as new platforms to connect with their viewership more intimately. MySpace and Twitter users for instance can catch up on the latest headlines from ABC News. Those who follow the news outlet on Twitter actually receive these latest headlines in the form of tweets.

ABC News' relationship with Facebook goes even farther. In addition to hosting their own page on Facebook in which they post links back to their website under the "information" tab as well as posting news videos and stories with hyperlinks again back to their website, they have actually partnered with the social media giant in news coverage. The best and most groundbreaking example of this new relationship would be the 2008 United State of America presidential debates between Republican  candidate John McCain and eventual winner, Democratic candidate Barak Obama. Most recently, ABC News again partnered with Facebook to cover the mid-term United States of America senatorial election debate in Florida between Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek, Republican candidate Marco Rubio, and independent incumbent Charlie Crist. As one of the features of Facebook, viewers may "comment" on ABC News' postings and express their opinions.

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