Does Social Media Make Everyone A Journalist?

According the Journalism School at Columbia University, there are certain skills all journalists should have when it comes to social media.

The list created by Sree Sreenivasan, dean at the Journalism School, and one of his graduate students, Vadim Lavrusik, ranges from community building to business savy to understanding metrics. There’s also a need to be a great “pointer” and share content from yourself and others. This content should be either helpful, useful, informative, entertaining, or funny.

But doesn’t the majority of Twitter users follow these habits daily?

During a Q&A at the recent Future Jounalist event, Sreenivasan talked about the changing relationship between PR staff and journalists, and this led us to wonder whether these social media skills were applicable to everyone else in the various communication fields.

If you change the title of the presentation to your job title; The Future Art Director, designer, writer, artist, would these skills still apply to you?

Are journalists becoming more like everyone else, or does this curation, community building, and sharing make everyone more like journalists?

For more information on Sree Sreenivasan and his thoughts on journalism, you can visit his site: sree.net or follow him on Twitter @sreenet