Social Media Taking Over Classic Journalism
Social Media is now taking over newspapers and the radio. Most people nowadays are getting their information on the news out there from social media apps, such as; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Some newspaper companies have actually stopped creating newspapers and decided to transform the news to their website instead. This is because, online usage is a lot more prominent now than it used to be. So many people would rather just go on their phone or computer to hear about the news that is going on rather than getting newspaper delivered to their house.
According to statistics, most people are getting their news from television and the internet. The internet has become a diverse place where people can actually look up want they want to read about. For example, when someone is listening to the radio, they don’t have the option to choose what topic they are hearing about. The radio limits people to topics that they are interested, and instead they are talking about topics that they think most of the population already knows about.
The use of internet as a news outlet has gone up 83.7% and the use of print newspapers has gone down by 25.6%. Also, the use of print magazine has gone down by 19%. This goes to show that the use of technology is increasing, while the use of paper is decreasing. This is because we are in a highly technologically advanced era.
Social media has now become a contributing network. People can share videos that they agree with, and even add commentary if they would like. This goes to show, that anyone can say contribute to any form of news out there. That is why it is important to check the credibility of a source in which you are getting your information.
This aspect of getting news from social media is discerning what is authentic, what is real or fake, what is commercial or non-commercial, what is sponsored or what is not sponsored. So, there is no top down authority that is editing or deciding what is real. Therefore, we are all responsible for this content since anyone can contribute.
All in all, Social media is becoming much more popular for news rather than classic journalism. The rates of the internet and social media apps is rising while the use of paper magazines/newspapers and the radio is decreasing. The credibility on social media for a news outlet can be untrustworthy though. Many people can contribute to something, and they may not even be a credible source. There is no top down authority to decide what is real and what isn’t on social media. So, it is important to use the tools such as; “Fakey”, to decide what is a trustworthy source and what isn’t.