Social News: How Born-Digital Outlets Transformed Journalism

This book is the first to define and describe ’social news’, a new kind of journalism emerging in response to social media. Drawing on the author’s extensive research into news and social media platforms, Social News critically examines the rise of well-known outlets such as BuzzFeed and Mic in the US, and Junkee and Pedestrian in Australia. Hurcombe argues that these outlets became successful by strategically engaging with social media, producing sociable content personalised for millennials. Such outlets have been criticised for violating the rules of ’quality’ journalism. However, this book shows how social news has provided a platform for marginalised voices and has been able to engage readers neglected by legacy news. While social media is frequently seen as a threat to the news industry, Social News shows that digital platforms have been driving new forms of journalism: ones that challenge our understanding of what journalism is, can be, and should be.

Edward Hurcombe is a Research Associate in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Edward researches how news and journalistic practice are transforming in relation to the technologies, economies, and user cultures of social media platforms. His research has been published in leading journals such as Journalism, Digital Journalism, and New Media & Society.