A Political Problem
Has An Increase In Quantity Resulted In A Lack Of Quality?
Politics is confusing at the best of times, but with all of these claims of “Fake News,” and an overwhelming amount of content to choose from, the question can be asked; has the development of the media landscaped caused a change in not only the quantity of political information but also the quality?
While traditional media outlets such as newspaper publications and broadcast media like television and radio have played an integral role in democratic societies as the fourth estate, the introduction of new media, specifically social media, has transformed the political media system, and redefined the role of political journalism.
Research shows that social media may provide incidental exposure to political information even for those not interested in politics through Facebook features such a the “Newsfeed,” where users are shown possible content they might like to interact with depending on what their online friends like, and share. Therefore, successful campaigns will reach those swing voters who may not have a definitive stance on politics. Overall, political posts account for 11% of U.S. adults’ typical social media posts, with 7% of social media users responding that they often engage in political discussion on social media.
Due to the affordances created by new technologies such as smart phones, it can seem that we are subject to an endless amount of content. Social media facilitates the creation and distribution of content, therefore allowing everyone to critique, construct, and contribute to content. As a result, this impacts both the quality and quantity of the information available. For example, with the diversity of the content distributed by social media opportunities such as the ability for more voices to be heard, are created.
You see, as the quantity of content has increased, the quality began to lack and consumers have had to wade through more and more opinion pieces and targeted marketing campaigns to find the informative content that was once the fourth estate.
Although social media sites such as Facebook weren’t founded as new sites, a 2016 study showed, 44% of U.S. adults got their news on Facebook.
Due to the nature of social media, it facilitates an environment for content creation. When it comes to politics, this content creation can often blur the lines between deformation and opinion. The ease of access facilitated by social media then means that this wrong information — or fake news — could be shared by anyone.
In fact, the current landscape of media within social media relies heavily of the amount of traffic an article garners. The more people that click on an article, the more profit a company gets. Therefore the title of an article has become more important than ever. However, this need for “clicks” has created a form of fake news called Clickbait, where the headlines are designed to trigger your interest, but consequently are extremely exaggerated or just flat out lies. These Clickbait articles are commonly shared, and gain traction with audiences. It is often not until they become widely popular, that they are fact checked, and this can often be too late to save the reputation of a parliamentary member.
Furthermore, with the rapid expansion of the number of news outlets and distribution channels available for consumers there have become added economic incentives for media outlets when projecting political news. The result of this is more targeted news, where organisations isolate certain markets and provide what their audiences want to hear. For example Fox News, present and extremely right view of politics that appeals strongly to their target audience. However, if an uninformed viewer were to watch their content they might accept these opinions on face value and not as more of an opinionated review.
So to me it seems, whilst social media has changed the traditional landscape of media, its effect on political communication isn’t as positive as its made out to be. Whilst it has given us vast quantity of information to choose from, the quality of that information is not as streamlined as more traditional media types.
