Social media as a new trend in Sri Lankan digital journalism: a surveillance

In the last five years the rapid growth of social media that has been observed is indicative of its importance and its integration into the daily lives of many people in Sri Lanka. In parallel with this, there has also been considerable growth in digital journalism through the online medium. But the reachability of social media is very much high with comparing the traditional online mediums. As the result social media is converted as an online news media and overcomes the existing media in digital journalism. This pilot study explores the new trend in digital journalism with the presence of social media and carries out empirical research to understand the effectiveness of social media as a news medium and an effort has been made to propose expansion strategies of social media in maximizing the effectiveness in future digital journalism in the Sri Lankan context.