The Effect of Facebook on Journalist in News Writing

The “Facebook Phenomena” is growing greatly and without breaks in Malaysia. The particular social media has become the “one-stop centre” for almost everyone from around the globe with accessible Internet to share the information or moments they have come across, gained or reminiscing to the people they made acquaintance with or followed in the complex cyberspace. Today, modernization of technologies and us the Malaysians cannot be separated. We believe that Facebook is one of the best platforms that can be used to voice out our opinions or allegations. Thus, it is often being used by those who oppose a friend, politicians, entrepreneurs or even critics. As a result, it has become an unhealthy environment for both the government and the investigation team in searching for the right information and theorizing the situation as there is lack of befitting evidence or proof. The existence of Facebook has enabled the people to include media as such pictures and videos to the news they are sharing with the virtual community to which it is better than the analogue print media. This research aims to study the effect of Facebook on the journalists in delivering the news to the public. This research was being conducted through in-depth interviews with the individuals of the respective field of journalism who were being chosen through purposive sampling. The findings gained in this research were being analysed using thematic analysis to which it has given the researcher a better and deeper understanding of the respective topic as well as being able to contribute ideas for improvement that may give an impact to the journalists in their news writing.