The Modern News Cycle
Journalism is moving faster than ever thanks to social media.
Once upon a time no one knew what was going on in the outside world until a person riding a bike would throw some paper at their house. Now, when that newspaper is on your doorstep, it is too late. There is a sense of urgency and impatience that social media has provided us and by the time the newspaper comes, we have already read all the news on our phones. The news cycle is faster then ever, with new information coming out 24/7. With all of this speed, journalists have the decision to make between writing thorough, well-put together, and verified stories, or getting the information out quickly enough to beat the other news sources and keep their readership up.
One of the issues with the 24 hour news cycle is the amount of misinformation, unverified claims, and false news sources that are distributing news just to provide content and gain viewers. Journalism is at a moral battle between the research and verification needed for credibility, and distributing the stories that will gain attention regardless of the truthfulness or reality.
With this increasing problem of fake news sources and social media journalism, there is one field of journalism that is becoming more crucial. Fact-checkers are working harder than anyone with the new news cycle to find inconsistencies and verify sources for everyone else. Sites like Snopes.com and FactCheck.org are taking the liberty to provide us with the break-down of all stories and the sources they come from.
With social media, we need journalists more than ever who are dedicated to the real stories, the news that is important, and keeping credibility as a high priority. A positive side of journalism transitioning to social media is that us, as readers, are able to keep the journalists accountable. Now, more then ever, we can directly respond to journalists and news stories and provide journalists with a level of feedback that has not been open in the past.
With more and more journalists switching over from the newspaper to the online news outlets, journalism is transitioning to better fit our needs as an impatient society. Not only has the rising misinformation spreading and the urgency of our needs to know what is going on is increasing, but also the amount of journalists who are staying true to their moral obligations are diminishing due to the desire to stay relevant and be apart of something “viral”.
In conclusion, is social media impacting the news? Yes, in every single way. The news cycle is 24/7, newspapers are too slow, journalists are switching to online formats, misinformation is spreading, and anyone with Internet access can become a journalist, themselves. With all of this, there is also a new opening for communication between journalists and readers, we get news with or without any type of subscription, and the amount of news that is reported on is steadily increasing on a daily basis. Many people refuse to shy away from the newspapers and prefer to refrain from social media news, but the majority are sucked in and updating their phones regularly in order to stay in-the-know. Social media is how news is distributed, consumed, and also how that news can get distorted within the voices of the rest of the world. We all have to continue to hold news outlets and journalists accountable for the news that they are presenting us and make sure to fact-check on your own before spreading untrue stories around.
If anyone is looking for a silver-lining in the 24/7 news cycle, it has provided us with an endless amount of blooper reels that this Mashable blog by Jess Joho provided for us.
