Hi, and welcome to my first post.
Is social media's role in politics and news helpful? After reading some articles on the subject, it seems that many people think it is just too early to tell. Kevin Curry of the Washington Post says: "it's hard to believe that this is only the third presidential election since Twitter was launched and since Facebook opened to the public, both in 2006." (Curry) What we do know is that more and more people are relying on Facebook and other forms of social media for news. As Curry goes on to tell us that "35 percent of respondents between 18 and 29 said that social media was the 'most helpful' source of information about the presidential campaign" (Curry) The problem with this trend is that not all sources as equal. While some of the news that you may read in your feed may be credible much of it may not be, and Curry says that we tend to remember snippets of information without paying attention to where it came from. "That means social media might make it easier to spread false information and manipulate voters." (Curry)
Social media also makes it harder to find news that is objective, because we follow people that have similar views as us we see a news feed that is tailored to our beliefs. We often scroll past stories or shared articles that go against what we agree with. Also because anyone can now be a producer of content without verifying their information we should be cautious of the news that we obtain from unfamiliar sources. The article later goes onto state an active role that social media may play in politics citing the 2014 European Parliament elections "found that citizens who were less interested in news and politics became more politically engaged online after coming across news and political information on social media." (Curry) So, the flip side is that young people may be exposed to more information that they would be in everyday life since many young people don't tune into news networks and don't trust the established media.
Below is a chart showing "Social Media as a Pathway to News," clearly Facebook is the leader in this table from 2013, it will be interesting to see how during this current administration if this chart changes and if Twitter becomes more of a major player in the social media news race.
Sources:
Anderson, Monica, and Caumont, Andrea. "How social media is reshaping news" Pew Research Center. 24, Sept. 2014. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/ Accessed 19, Aug. 2017.
Curry, Kevin. "More and more people get their news via social media. Is that good or bad?" The Washington Post. 20, Sept. 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/09/30/more-and-more-people-get-their-news-via-social-media-is-that-good-or-bad/?utm_term=.a949162e3de8 Accessed 19, Aug. 2017.
Is social media's role in politics and news helpful? After reading some articles on the subject, it seems that many people think it is just too early to tell. Kevin Curry of the Washington Post says: "it's hard to believe that this is only the third presidential election since Twitter was launched and since Facebook opened to the public, both in 2006." (Curry) What we do know is that more and more people are relying on Facebook and other forms of social media for news. As Curry goes on to tell us that "35 percent of respondents between 18 and 29 said that social media was the 'most helpful' source of information about the presidential campaign" (Curry) The problem with this trend is that not all sources as equal. While some of the news that you may read in your feed may be credible much of it may not be, and Curry says that we tend to remember snippets of information without paying attention to where it came from. "That means social media might make it easier to spread false information and manipulate voters." (Curry)
Social media also makes it harder to find news that is objective, because we follow people that have similar views as us we see a news feed that is tailored to our beliefs. We often scroll past stories or shared articles that go against what we agree with. Also because anyone can now be a producer of content without verifying their information we should be cautious of the news that we obtain from unfamiliar sources. The article later goes onto state an active role that social media may play in politics citing the 2014 European Parliament elections "found that citizens who were less interested in news and politics became more politically engaged online after coming across news and political information on social media." (Curry) So, the flip side is that young people may be exposed to more information that they would be in everyday life since many young people don't tune into news networks and don't trust the established media.
Below is a chart showing "Social Media as a Pathway to News," clearly Facebook is the leader in this table from 2013, it will be interesting to see how during this current administration if this chart changes and if Twitter becomes more of a major player in the social media news race.
Sources:
Anderson, Monica, and Caumont, Andrea. "How social media is reshaping news" Pew Research Center. 24, Sept. 2014. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/ Accessed 19, Aug. 2017.
Curry, Kevin. "More and more people get their news via social media. Is that good or bad?" The Washington Post. 20, Sept. 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/09/30/more-and-more-people-get-their-news-via-social-media-is-that-good-or-bad/?utm_term=.a949162e3de8 Accessed 19, Aug. 2017.
I feel the Facebook percentage in the graph seems low (50% of users getting news from the site). I would be interested to know if that number has increased since the poll was taken in 2013. Facebook has played around with placement of the "Trending" section a lot over the last few years and seems to finally have settled with placing it over on the right column, which makes me think they have decided that is where it prompts even more interaction. Also with the more recent trend in short auto-play video posts on Facebook, I can see that also prompting an uptick in the sharing and consuming of news on social media since 2013. Considering that social media is such a casual forum, I agree that news read on social media is unlikely to sway one's political beliefs. Social media as we currently know it is geared almost 100% towards facilitating interaction with people we already know, as well as suggesting pages and people that algorithms say we may be interested in. As you mentioned, we are just more likely to have people on our feeds who share our views. Many are simply not using social media sites for engaging with people, especially strangers, posting news or views that challenge already-held perspectives. You made some excellent points, thank you for this interesting post!
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to believe that Facebook leads the race as an online platform for receiving news. The social media site is the largest one after all. With so many people posting their opinions for everyone to see, bias information is definitely going to go around. Finding objective information is hard to find for that reason. People have unintentionally grown the habit of avoiding information that does not coincide with their perspective. Social media is made to connect, share and entertain, not to put up walls that keep people from expanding their horizon.
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