Instagram Entering the World of Journalism

As  news organization, it is already known that social media is running the show.  We have found in the past that Facebook and Twitter have been great ways to distribute the news stores to m ore viewers faster than ever before.  What about Instagram, the app that allows you to upload pictures and 30 second videos in an instant?  Would that be another beneficial tool to use in the news world?


Yes it would be a beneficial tool to implement in news organizations.  Instagram is an app that people can use to upload pictures and just recently, short videos.  Under these videos and picture a few sentences can be written describing what is going on it the post.

In my opinion news organizations should add Instagram to their social media list.  It is just another great way to grab user's and viewer's attention. Not only can you post this picture to Instagram, but Facebook just bought Instagram about two years ago and now Instagram gives the option to post a picture or video not only to its site, but to Twitter and Facebook all in one step.  This would be efficient because it would be reaching 3 different fan bases in one easy shot.

Journalists can be out in the field and snap a picture just as the news happens.  They can get a clear shot and upload it to Instagram within a few seconds; and with the teaser it should draw people in.

Guaranteed, Instagram cannot post a link for a full story, but it has enough room for a few teaser lines.  With the teasers and the picture, the viewer could then go and check out the story if they want to read the full version.

According to Pew Research, 73% of adults online use social media sites. As of September 2013, 71% of adults used Facebook,  18% use Twitter, 17% use Instagram, 21% use Pinterest, and 22% use LinkedIn. These social media sites give people the option to read the article, watch a video, and even have the option to participate in open-discussion boards.  From August of 2005-2013 the percentage of adults between the ages 18-29 went from 9% to 49%.

Graph of Social Media users- Pew Research (Note: site and data
are updated when new data is available.)

As shown in this graph, over 8 years the percentages have increased.  People are always on the go.  Many use their mobile devices (cell phones, tablets, etc) to catch up on the news happening around the world. Facebook and Twitter being the top ways social media that people check.  Instagram is starting to climb that ladder as well.

There is one question that many journalists have come in contact with as social media sites have developed: How are journalism professionals going to bring the traditional journalistic values into the constantly changing social media world?  It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Facebook and Twitter has been shown to be beneficial to other organizations.  Instagram, through it is only used for pictures and short videos, can be vital to the journalistic field.


According to Sabel Harris, an author for TrackMavin, videos weren't always a part of Instagram.  On June 20, 2013 video was introduced to Instagram and within 24 hours gained some popularity with 5,000 videos uploaded.  However, they can only load 30 second videos; which would be good  for news.  And as of October of 2013, Instagram only being 3 years old, had over 150 million users, 16 billion photos shared, and one billion likes happening per day.

In my own experience, the only issue I have found with Instagram is the videos.  Being a journalist, videos usually need context and to be edited to look more professional.  I found it hard with videoing in Instagram to make it look more professional.  When taking a video with a cell phone outside of the Instagram app can be a little bit of a pain.  The video has to be edited into a square to fit Instagram.  However, I believe that journalists should just use videos on Instagram more for a breaking news story rather than something that has to be edited and modified to fit Instagram and still follow the rules and professionalism of journalists.

Instagram does have a web profile.  This was made for people to view their profile, but nothing can be posted through the web. It is just a mobile app.  While this may be good for journalists in the field, it doesn't seem necessary to have a web profile if there isn't an option to post from there.  However, the web-profile can be beneficial.


 According to Ryan Lytle on "10,000 words, Where Journalism and Technology Meet,"

"When Journalists or news organizations have shared Instagram photos to Facebook or Twitter for example, web users have only been able to see just that one image-so if a user wanted to see a full gallery of images , he or she would need a mobile device to see more. Leading users to exploring more content can lead to three desired outcomes: likes, comments, and shares.  News organizations are in Instagram to build communities and then to engage in these communities."

This would give users the opportunity to interact with a some platforms;which could lead to greater opportunities to new audience exposures.  Not only can journalists get a picture on the spot and tease their viewers, journalists can also use Instagram as an opportunity for crowd-sourcing.  If a Journalists isn't at the scene to get a good photo, but somebody of the public did, they could hash tag the news organization so they could get information on the public's view.
This Video below explains that especially in times of tragedy, people post more pictures.  For example, this video talks about Hurricane Sandy.  So many pictures flooded in of the storm and of the damages the storm had caused, this is a type of crowd-sourcing; and out of the many pictures there were only very few that were fake.  This is where the skepticism comes in.  We would have to be able to decipher whether or not the picture is reliable or not. Once that is established then pictures can show the story.

As a person who works with a news paper and from my own experience with using Instagram for news stories, Instagram can work out to be a beneficial way to distribute news to more viewers. Photos can tell a story. Although, Instagram is not where stories or links can be posted, it can be a good place for a teaser. People who don't use Facebook and Twitter as often as Instagram, it can open the floor for crowd-sourcing and open sourcing. Journalists will have to judge whether or not the picture is accurate, but it is a good way to get the people's point of view when a journalist isn't on scene. Instagram should be implemented into this news organization.