Reasons and type of use of social media by the main news agencies of the country

In this research, the reasons and type of use of social media by the main news agencies of the country have been discussed. This research was classified as qualitative research in terms of applied purpose and method. In this study, due to the lack of previous research and the exploratory nature of the research topic, in-depth interviews have been used to collect data. The statistical population of this research was the managers and officials of the important news agencies of the country. These news agencies include the country's official ones that use social media. In this research, eleven managers of the main news agencies of the country were interviewed and after these interviews, the researcher reached a theoretical saturation. The results indicate that news agencies use social media for reasons such as interacting with the audience, enhancing effectiveness, media branding, confronting foreign media, helping the news gatekeeper, responding to ambiguities, and so on. Also, issues such as social media indecision, poor media literacy of the audience, shortening the life of the news, publishing fake news, and ownership of the news produced are some of the challenges that news agencies face.