Social Media: Increasing or Decreasing the Quality of Today's News and Information?

            In today’s world, social media is used for absolutely everything, including the spread of current news and information. Individuals today do not need to turn on the television to know what is going on in the world at that very moment; between friends, family, and acquaintances, news items are posted constantly, sometimes even before they are released in the media by professional news reporters. In my opinion, social media has increased the quality of news and information, but discretion is most definitely needed as we cannot believe everything we read.

            To explain, I believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information because it is now so readily available and at our finger tips; people are so eager to get the news they hear out there to the rest of the world that we can access accurate news and information before we hear it or see it on the radio or television. For example, just recently, there was a teacher that went missing in the area; this teacher was one of my high school teachers. It was such devastating news to hear but I was able to learn of this news through Facebook before anywhere else. So many concerned friends and family were posting about this sad news and sharing news articles and I was able to access the accurate information much earlier than I would have if I was just relying on the news on television or the radio.

            As with everything though—including what we see on the news from professional news reporters—we cannot believe everything we hear, see, or read; we have to be cautious of personal and even professional biases. With news being posted on social media, there is a chance of distortion of truths and postings of inaccurate information. I do not believe however, that social media has decreased the quality of news because as mentioned, this can happen from anyone, including professional news reporters. As with everything in life, we have to use our own discretion, judgement, and research to ensure that we are getting accurate information.

            No, I don’t believe that social media alone can be relied upon; as mentioned in our readings, as mentioned in our readings, one study done by PEW Research Center's for Project Excellence in Journalism (2010) stated that social media and traditional media embrace difference agendas, meaning they are not always going to be sharing the same stories. That being said however, this can be a positive thing; social media provides us with stories that may not even be covered in traditional media; cell phones with video cameras and data plans allow people to be “citizen journalists” and spread the news themselves.

           It cannot be ignored though, that traditional media has even started to use social media to spread their news. We can see things like YouTube Direct, and even social media sites like twitter who have companies such as CBC news affiliated with it, spreading their news through twitter. According to PEW Internet and American Life Project Report (2010) 75 percent of people say that they get information and news forwarded through their email or through posts on social networking sites; 52 percent of people say that they share links to news articles with others through social media sites. It is official, people rely on social media to spread the news; this has not decreased the quality of the news, only made it more accessible.