Read the excerpt from "The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings" by Heather Brown, Emily Guskin, and Amy Mitchell. Passing along information is an important part of the news process. Earlier [Project for Excellence in Journalism] research finds the role of Twitter in disseminating breaking news is not limited to the Arab uprisings—the death of Whitney Houston, for example, was announced on Twitter 55 minutes prior to the [Associated Press] confirming the story. Twitter, Facebook and other new media offer ways for the Arab-American news media to reach audiences, but also pose a threat to smaller outlets. In addition to keeping up with the online presence of larger news organizations, Arab-American media are forced to compete with user-generated content that is rapidly available to audiences. The utility of social media in accessing information became clear during the Arab uprisings and events such as Egypt’s parliamentary and presidential elections. However, [Suzanne] Manneh of New America Media points out that the credibility of this information is difficult to verify "depending on where it’s from, to whom it’s attributed, [and] especially when various events are happening very quickly." What reasons do the authors give to support the claim that social media both helps and threatens smaller media outlets? Choose two correct answers.
Answer
A
News organizations must compete with one another and with social media to reach audiences.
B
Small news outlets experience challenges when trying to compete with larger news outlets.
C
Information is sometimes shared on social media before it is released by traditional media.
D
Both small and large news organizations also depend on user-generated content.
E
Both social media and traditional news organizations cover Egypt’s presidential elections.
Explanation
The excerpt shows that social media can help spread news quickly: Whitney Houston’s death was announced on Twitter 55 minutes before the Associated Press confirmed it, which supports C. It also says smaller Arab-American outlets must keep up with larger organizations and compete with rapidly available user-generated content while trying to reach audiences, supporting E.
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