In the past twenty years, social media quickly rose in society and became an important part of many peoples’ lives. It gives people the opportunity to share and connect with others, and it can even be a career. However, a number of people have started primarily using social media to obtain information about real-world events and news. This may create new problems for the journalism and news industry, as well as the political climate of the country.
As Pew Research Center states, social media is “playing a crucial role” in providing American citizens with their news. According to a study they performed, “38% of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on Facebook, and 35% say the same about YouTube.” The internet, and specifically social media, is notorious for being unreliable and unrealistic. This means that people have a very high chance of being misinformed if they are using a social media platform to get information.
Despite this, several American citizens are now claiming to have less trust in national news media than in previous years, and according to Pew Research, “Fewer than half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (44%) now say they have at least some trust in the information that comes from national news organizations.”. Additionally, it says, “Democrats’ trust in both [national and local news] organizations has also fallen in recent months.” Lack of trust and reliance is not exclusive to any political party, and people in every demographic may feel that they cannot believe mainstream news services. When people begin to question the reliability of these organizations, it can lead them to turn to other sources of information, like social media. Ironically, however, use of social media can lead to more misinformation.
“It can be a reliable source, if you’re following a news outlet,” says Kiana Reid, Skyline Senior and Editor-in-Chief of the Horizon. “But a lot of the time, it’s just from some person’s video where they’re complaining about it in some way.” Any information that is not from a professional source is far more likely to have bias, and therefore, it is a lot less likely to be true.
Additionally, social media is constructed to maximize the attention and enjoyment of its user, and that means it will intentionally show you things you will like. “Our algorithms are designed to feed us what we want to hear,” explains Reid.
People will naturally respond more strongly to emotions, even if they do not realize it, meaning that anybody that unprofessionally creates news, even if they genuinely do want to be unbiased, may portray the information with a bias without being aware of it.
News spreading through social media can be messy and often muddled with opinions and emotion. Reid explains, “It’s like this weird telephone game where we’re picking out things that matter the most to us or offend us the most.”
