Social Media Changes the Way we receive News
Over the time I have been writing blogs about social media, I have noticed that social media has done a lot in our public lives since it’s creation. Starting from MySpace, to BlackBerry Messenger, to Facebook, to Twitter, and to the newest social media site, or what I can consider social media, Snapchat, social media has been the source of what goes on in everyday life. No matter what, in my opinion, social media spreads news about events faster than news companies and organizations, newspapers, and other original methods of spreading news can do…
Social media has really impacted how news gets spread around lately and they do it faster than what newspapers and television programs can do. I remember when children used to go missing, or Amber Alerts, there would be flyers on electric poles or pictures of the child inside Wal-Marts (which Wal-Mart still does) next to their entrances and exits. Now-a-days, everyone gets a (loud) alert on their phones on the child that went missing along with location, name, and an image of the child.
One thing I can see faster than news stations can report is sports games and what happened to sports players. I can see who won the latest baseball game between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees before ESPN can present what happened during the game in that same night on Facebook. What I found funny was that Major League Baseball player Craig Breslow had found out that he was getting traded to the Arizona Diamondback through Twitter. He had found out about his trade through social media before his manager even told him about his trade.
Other times, I can find out what happened in politics faster than NBC News or FOX News can cover over on Instagram. I can see photos of some events that happened and/or are going to happen in public, like riots and/or marathons over on Twitter before the News can cover the event and take pictures themselves. Apparently, and I did not know this myself, but President Barack Obama had used social media to spread news about what he had done in the White House and in his daily life before the papperazi or news cameras can catch photos of him. He had posted these pictures on Twitter for all to see.
Some other news that spread faster on social media than were told on television are shocking, yet terrible news events. If you find disinterest or emotional upset after reading the following sentence, then please stop reading because some of the events that I will be discussing are a bit touchy or sensitive to talk about.
Does anyone remember the Aurora Movie Theater Shooting? I do (and hopefully some of you Medium Users and/or Followers of mine remember). Here is a link to what happened in the Aurora Movie Theater Shooting, including some sub-links: ( http://www.denverpost.com/theatershooting ). I had actually found out that people were posting to social media what was going on during the shooting before the news crews could even get anywhere near the scene, which I found both interesting and crazy.
Another event that still impacts some of the people in America today is the Boston Marathon Bombing. So, in case some of you guys don’t know what the Boston Marathon Bombing was, here is another link to the background history of the marathon and what happened during the bombing: ( http://www.history.com/topics/boston-marathon-bombings ). Now, of course, this is not as good of an example of social media being faster than news reporters and live television can be, but in my opinion, I actually believe it represents social media being faster because whilst I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, I was suddenly hit, not literally, with pictures and tweets about the bombing and what had happened. I had tuned the channel towards CBS or whatever channel was broadcasting the marathon and it had not been broadcasted for about half a minute before it was broadcasted on national television.
No matter what, in my opinion, social media spreads news about events faster than news companies and news organizations.
