News Consumption on Social Media
As we dive in further in How social media is affecting politics, we start asking the question “How and Why do people consume news on Social Media?”. In the next few paragraphs, we shall answer this question from research made in past years.
Introduction
In the paper “Exploring The Role of Social Media in News Consumption” Pentina et.al (2013) investigate the process of present-day news consumption based on the qualitative content analysis of interviews from a varied cross-section of news consumers.
In their research, Pentina et.al (2013) argue that from their investigation, they revealed that current news and its consecutive transformation into public knowledge is sustained by the information overload coping strategies that increasingly employ new technology and new media capabilities. During their findings, Pentina et.al (2013) conclude that news consumption is characterised by two specific aspects of sense-making.
The first aspect being Screening News Stimuli, which involves a determination by the consumer of that source that he/she would view or attend to. As nowadays consumers have a busy lifestyle, the choice of information overload strategies (news avoidance, information load adjustment, etc.) is also affected (Pentina et.al, 2013). Social media shows this aspect by providing prompt and relevant information that is socially curated by similar users such as your friend’s list or followings. However, social media also complicates this aspect as it contributes to information overload due to the exposure to unverified sources (Pentina et.al, 2013).
The second aspect is Processing and Interpreting News Information, which involves path-dependent and socially-mediated negotiation of the provided news which is separated by a set of strategies to overcome information overload (Pentina et.al, 2013). These strategies contain in evaluating the reliability and trustworthiness of that source and its content. According to Pentina et.al (2013), social media offers views and opinions that are independent of the mainstream news media and allows user’s opinions and comments as well as unverified facts. However, social media can provide social legitimacy to the news-related opinions and aiding in incorporating the information into pre-existing mindsets. Social media also plays an important role in providing the diversity of opinions a news consumer is exposed to, thereby expanding the mental associations and facilitating the news information in greater assimilation (Pentina et.al, 2013).
News Consumption when it comes to Elections
When it comes to news consumption on social media regarding elections Mitchell et.al (2020), argue that adults (mainly in the US) may lag behind when it comes to attention regarding the election and other news such as the COVID-19 pandemic news.
According to Mitchell et.al (2020), a survey that was conducted by the PEW Research Centre shows that only 8% follow social media “very closely” for news regarding the 2020 presidential candidates. whereas the local television newsgroup are followed at 37%. An additional 28% of those who most commonly get political news from social media say that they follow news of the candidates “fairly closely,” again lower than local TV group which is that of 25% (Mitchell et.al, 2020).
On the blog post “Will social media’s impact on the elections be different this time?” Jackson (2020) explains that Social media has been shown as a political intermediary used to assert influence and achieve political goals.
Also, according to Jackson (2020) when it comes to social media, foreign influence and disinformation is still a threat. This was seen in the 2016 US election where an estimate of 126 million American Facebook users was targeted by Russian content over the course of their subversive campaign so that the outcome would be influenced. The main problem is not that people are getting their news from the internet, it is that the internet is the perfect forum for spreading fake news. And a rapidly growing number of individuals take at least some of this fake news to be fact (Jackson, 2020)
Jackson (2020) concludes that as social media is an “unreliable” tool to help manipulate the masses in an election, it can also be a tool for grassroots to mobilise against those in power.
Local News Consumption
When it comes to the Maltese scene regarding the use of social media for politics and elections one can argue that politicians use it frequently to give out their opinion to the public.
In the paper “Social Media as a Source of Political News”, Mercieca (2018) interviewed a total of 170 participants to capture all aspects of news consumption in Malta. One of the questions asked to the participants was if social media does have a role to play in local politics. From its responses, Mercieca (2018) concluded that the interviewed personally in local politics and journalism feel a strong relationship between social media and politics, however, the advantages and disadvantages of this relationship have also been addressed and taken into consideration. This further demonstrates that the interviewees are aware of the changes that social media is bringing to journalism and the political scenario in Malta (Mercieca, 2018). Another good question that was asked by Mercieca (2018) was if social media changed how politics is experienced. The responses from this question show that social media has changed how we experience politics, but it has a number of disadvantages that need to be tackled in order to protect all the different types of media.
Politicians demonstrate that social media is another way to have exposure in the competitive game rather than a way of increasing participation through posts and comments, or as a platform for information (Mercieca, 2018)
References:
Jackson, R. (2020). Will social media’s impact on the elections be different this time?. Big Think. Retrieved 2 January 2021, from https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/social-media-2020-us-election?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
Mercieca, E. (2018). Social media as a source of political news : a look at how players in local news organisations and politics view the role of social media in obtaining political news. University of Malta.
Mitchell, A., Jurkowitz, M., Oliphant, J., & Shearer, E. (2020). U.S. adults who mostly get news through social media lag behind others in attention to election and pandemic news. Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project. Retrieved 2 January 2021, from https://www.journalism.org/2020/07/30/2-u-s-adults-who-mostly-get-news-through-social-media-lag-behind-others-in-attention-to-election-and-pandemic-news/
Pentina, I., Tarafdar, M. and Covault, A., 2013. Exploring The Role Of Social Media In News Consumption. Lancaster University.
