A Voice for all Found in Social Media
In 2019, thousands upon thousands of people rallied together to march for the right of life for the unborn children in America. Similarly, in the same month the selective right to life rally occurred. The problem that presented itself was that the latter of these two marches was plastered on nearly every news channel on the TV as well as most online news websites whereas the former march got next to no air time and virtually no mentions on any news websites. That’s where Social Media comes in; because these platforms allow citizen journalism, more stories can be told that major companies selectively ignore which allows for shared information and a full picture of a viewpoint.
In this Tweet I shared a link to a blog about how News Channels send us the same stories over and over and we continue to watch it. But, Why? This is Facebook post (tweet) showing how the major news channels chose to not cover one of the biggest rallies in the nation. Does social media help to allow more stories to be shared?
Stories like this (tweet) should be shared, and the news isn’t doing it. Social media is to thank for allowing citizen journalism to occur to share stories that would otherwise be left untold.
Matt Walsh made this Youtube video that shares yet another instance in which the media drops something important, or doesn’t cover it in the first place. When voting and politics is involved being able to see the whole picture is important and social media allows this. Kristan Hawkins, a Pro-life activist shared this photo of the rare time that a story on a pro-life speaker hits the news, but as she points out it has a deeply negative slant. This extreme bias or complete ignorance doesn’t allow each person to make an informed choice on what they stand for. This video from the popular channel ‘The Daily Wire’ shares some other possible lies that the media selectively chooses to share. These types of things affect how we think, and act which shows just how important they are.
This article goes into things that the mainstream media doesn’t share with its viewers. I think this particular blog can be a little extreme in some cases, but the theories behind still stand.
After all is said and done, nearly every piece of news shared by humans is going to have some form of bias to it. Having social media as a platform that allows citizens to share their side of the story to counteract the major news sites that only share their versions, allows more stories to be told and more sides to be seen. As I mentioned above, it’s especially important when it comes to politics and voting issues in this country to be sure that you have the full view of a story. I truly believe that social media platforms have created that opportunity. Journalism through social media has allowed people to exercise their right to speech and the ability to learn more about concepts that otherwise would only get one side told. Balance has been restored.