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Do you believe the day will come when Social Media will replace television as the main news source? Or is time already there? What about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, for example? They were communicated more quickly on Social Media sites than on the TV screen. According to Mike Elgan “the only thing TV news does better than social media is to display higher quality pictures and video. Otherwise, TV news is just like the Internet as a news source, after you take away user control, alternative opinions, timeliness and 99% of the stories.” (source) Do these examples show that Social Media has become a ‘competitor’ of traditional media?

Findings on the relationship of traditional and social media

Let’s take a look at some interesting findings of the “Analysis of the Increasing Impact of Social and Other New Media on Public Relations” by Donald Wright and Michelle Hinson, Institute for Public Relations, to get a better understanding of the relationship of traditional news media and social media. A sample of public relations practitioners from various parts of the world took part in this fourth annual trend study (overview):

On the one hand, 85% of the respondents believe that social media complement traditional news media, 92% think blogs and social media influence coverage in traditional news media and 88% believe blogs and social media have made communications more instantaneous. But on the other hand, the findings also show that traditional news media receive higher scores in terms of accuracy, credibility, telling the truth and being ethical than blogs and social media (source). Interestingly, respondents where especially uncertain when asked: “Do you agree or disagree that social media (including blogs) tell the truth.” (53% were uncertain about the answer). Generally, many respondents think that traditional mainstream media and social media influence each other.

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Complementation instead of conflict

In a nutshell, these findings of the “Analysis of the Increasing Impact of Social and Other New Media on Public Relations” show that Social Media and traditional media seem not to be in conflict with each other. But Social Media enhanced its influence in recent years: “Since first appearing about five years ago, social media networking sites have become increasingly popular each year. Bill Tancer (2008), the general manager of global research at Hitwise, the world’s leading online competitive service, says social media have overtaken pornography as the number one use of the internet.” (source) Nevertheless, the findings of the discussed research show that Social Media still has a long distance to go before it will be equal to traditional media in terms of accuracy, credibility, truth and ethics.