TV Journalism in the Age of Media Convergence(Case Study: The Scale & Manner of Applying Social Networks by IRIB Journalists)

Despite the growth of Social Media, television is still considered the most important mass media. But nowadays, social media have become an inseparable part of journalists’ professional life. These media could have questioned the authority of traditional journalists to some extent including television journalists. It seems that they take advantage of social media as an important tool in their job. The aim of this research is to recognize the scale and manner of using social media in news reporting profession at IRIB. Consequently, this will clarify that what are the functions of these new media for reporters and what are their motivations to use such media. For finding the answer to these questions, the theories of media convergence & satisfaction were applied in collaboration with the views of IRIB News Agency & Young Journalists Club reporters. The findings show that the IRIB journalists apply social media to help them a better follow up of the news. They also use them for checking other media platforms in order to catch up news subjects and interact with their audience. The high scale of applying external social networks especially Telegram & WhatsApp in comparison to the low scale usage of internal social networks & Instagram are among other findings of this research.