Journalism vs. Social Media
I think the ideal relationship between journalist and reader looked how it did before social media. The time where journalists told us what the news was and that was it. I think this because while social media has allowed news to be spread faster than ever before and allowed people to tell their own stories, it has given rise to something that wasn’t nearly as rampant and didn’t have a name before: fake news. In the past there were times when the government has lied to the American people but these days fake news is far more prevalent and can be written by anyone at any time. The time it was talked about the most was the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Social media also gives rise to content filtering. Facebook and other social media platforms control what news shows up in user’s feed by using an algorithm that predicts what will appeal to individuals. An example of how social media isn’t the best for journalism is an example from “Mobile and Social Media Journalism” by Anthony Adornato. There is a line that states, “Even though journalists and newsrooms can post their own content directly to Facebook, it doesn’t always make it through “the gates”.” It goes on to say, “The Facebook algorithm places only certain stories in followers’ feed” which shows another reason why social media and the news shouldn’t mix. It heavily focuses on certain news points without mentioning other points.
This article explains how just because its information does not mean it is journalism. Richard Sambrook, the director of the BBC Global News Division says “Journalism needs discipline, analysis, explanation and context, he pointed out, and therefore for him it is still a profession”. I think this is a good quote to show how social media being used for journalism sounds good but in reality it doesn’t do anyone good. Social media has given more people a reason not to trust the news and therefore not trust journalists. I don’t think it adds very much for all the harm it is doing.
A good article I found talks about another problem social media has brought up concerning news. It allows for too much news and once again it brings up the issues of people wondering who they can trust. This article also discusses how 64% of Irish journalists said information on social media can’t be trusted. This makes sense as I stated before, anyone at any time can make a page or post and it doesn’t have to be true. At one point the question was who is a journalist? Now people have to question who wrote an article and who published it? Yes social media has helped spread news faster than ever before, but is it worth it to have people not trust, or not know what to trust, what they read an article that looks like something newspapers would print? All of these things make me think the “old” way where people read the newspaper or watched the news and that was it is better than how it is now.
A good article that shows how social media isn’t good for journalism is this one:
I found this tweet about the journalist who fabricated stories for years and what people thought of journalists as a result of what he did.
I also found this article about Adam Housley who used Twitter to talk about the “one million body bags for South America” for Corona virus. He took it down at some point after the outrage it received and later apologized so I couldn’t find a link to the twitter post that started all of this, and thus the engagement as a whole.
Unless you did some heavy digging on this reporter or constantly watched what he did you may never know about what happened. If a person was an employer he or she may know but the average person who doesn’t follow him never knew he did this.
This also brings up another issue. People who mess up on social media can delete what they did. Most people will forget about it and move on after the person issues an apology and then, after enough time has passed, the person can delete what they did. Social media opens up a new way for people to mess up. Stating something to thousands of people to see, or far more if what you say gets enough traction, compared to far fewer people can cause far more damage than ever before.
This is a good example of a relationship that isn’t ideal because he can take down any evidence he ever did it from twitter making him less accountable. People move on to the next scandal or issue quickly because of the temporary nature of social media which may lead to a lesson not fully learned.
