Use of social media for sourcing and verification: Journalistic practices in Pakistan

Abstract

The adoption of social media by journalists is in transitional phase, but the dependency on it for sourcing can have significant implications for the profession. With more reliance on social media for sourcing, journalists could end up handing over the power of agenda-setting to the sources. In addition, use of information from social media poses a huge challenge of its verification. This study examines the use of social media for sourcing and verification by Pakistani journalists. By using hierarchy of influences model, this study attempted to find the best predictors of use social media for sourcing. This study also explored different verification methods being adopted by Pakistani journalists to verify the content they find on social media platforms. The study found that journalists in Pakistan heavily rely on social media for sourcing and they also use social media for verification purposes. Twitter is being used for both sourcing and verification more than any other social media platform. Routines were the best predictors for using Twitter for sourcing purposes. The presence of organizational policy and reward system were the best predictors of using Facebook and Instagram for sourcing. This study also found that journalists use social media for purposes that represent information subsidy, which can affect the power relation between sources and journalists. For verification of social media content, journalists remain within the social networking sites and go outside using traditional methods and digital tools to authenticate the information. Positive attitude towards social media and trust contributed towards its use for sourcing and verification.