Social Media as a Source of Newsbreak: the Problem of Information Verification

The search for newsbreaks is an integral part of journalistic work. In the last 5-7 years social networks are the source of many newsbreaks. As a rule newsbreaks are generated by newsmakers on their pages in social networks. However, there is a trend of generation of newsbreaks by simple users. And this trend is developing more and more. In this regard there is the problem of the distribution of fake information and the importance of verifying information from social networks. Within this research a hypothesis that the use of information from social networks is possible only after verification and the verification of such information requires special tools and methods was put forward and proved. To prove the hypothesis and implement the tasks, which are set in the study, sources devoted to changing the structure of the journalist's work in the digital age; sources that characterize the interaction of professional and civic journalism, as well as sources dedicated to verifying information were analyzed. Also interviews with leading media market experts, such as media expert Vasily Gatov; deputy Editor-in-Chief of “ITAR-TASS” Alexander Kupriyanov; chief editor of “Russia Beyond The Headlines” Vsevolod Pula were conducted. Also the journalists from “RIA Tomsk”, “Russia Insider”, “Reuters”, “RIA Novosti” and “Russia Today” were questioned. In addition there was conducted a survey on the platform “Facebook” and “VKontatkte” in which 28 people took part. They are journalists from federal, regional and local media. The analysis based on interviews and questionnaires was carried out and helped to achieve the main goal of the research, namely the specificity of the journalist's work with social networks as a source of newsbreaks was revealed and a typology of tools and methods used by the journalist for verifying information from social networks was made.