Social media trumps TV as main news source
Health promotion senior Julianna Masabni listens to podcasts, does Google searches, talks to co-workers, clicks through Facebook or reads emails to get her news. However, the medium she rarely ever uses is television.
According to a survey conducted by journalism students for News Engagement Day, a day dedicated to analyzing and improving news consumption habits, 46 percent of students use their smartphones and 32 percent use social media to find news. Only one percent watch television. Masabni’s consumption of news on social media matches the overall trend of increasing engagement online.
The Pew Research Center reports that social media are surpassing television as one of the main sources of news. Forty- three percent of adults age 18- 49 get their news online and 50 percent of adults watch television, a seven-point gap. This gap was 19 points in 2016.
“[Today] news can be very biased, so I try to get my news from a lot of different places to avoid those biases,” Masabni said. “Since I started voting, I realized my role, and want to be informed of what’s going on.”
Another Pew study highlights the use of mobile phones and shows that 45 percent of adults getting their news from a mobile device, up from 36 percent in 2016 and 21 percent in 2013. Johnelle Sparks, professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, uses her podcast and Twitter applications on her phone before and between classes for news.
“[Digital news like podcasts] provide an opportunity for my mind to be engaged without necessarily being involved in the thinking process,” Sparks said. “It keeps me questioning things, but I can do it while I’m doing other tasks.”
Although accessing news via social media is a form of engagement, it’s also problematic because the news spread through social media may or may not be credible, said Paula Poindexter, journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin who helped found News Engagement Day. “It all started with Facebook… Facebook was social media not only for millennials, but it also embraced millennials unlike the traditional news media,” Poindexter said. “The truth is the press has a history of ignoring almost every generation when it’s in its youth, and the truth is that generation ignores the press back
Sharon Jarvis, professor of communication studies at the University of Texas at Austin associate professor, spoke at the Denius Symposium on News Integrity, an annual event sponsored by UT’s journalism school that focuses on trust in the media. “The internet is potentially the greatest democratizing tool in history but it’s also democracy’s greatest challenge,” Jarvis said. “By offering access to information that can support any position and confirm any bias, the internet has eroded trust in the everyday facts and what is shared.”
Nancy Barnes, editor and executive vice president of the Houston Chronicle said “social media platforms need to build a conscience. It’s not just about the business. There are corporate goals and journalistic goals.”
First-year business major Michael Becker, like many of his peers, never uses television to consume news. Rather he prefers YouTube. Regardless of which medium he uses, his overall goal is “be up to date and be able to talk with other people around about current events.”
The rise in social media and online preference may create problems but also may be a benefit in terms of news engagement. While it’s a widely held opinion is that print media are dying, a 2016 Pew report states that people who prefer to read news in print, are migrating to online sources.
“I think mobile is easier and our current lifestyle,” Sparks said. “We make use of devices… it’s easy to do that. Depending on how you want to use your time, it’s nice to take a break and read a little story sometimes.”
