Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Social media's effect on the quality of news being produced
I believe that social media has decreased the quality of news that we recieve. If we look at how social media is available to everyone and allows everyone to express their own thoughts and opinions, then we begin to see how this may affect the quality of news and information. For example, wikipedia allows users to make pages of information on topics that may or may not be reliable. If you visit a site that claims to have truthful and reliable information then you are taking a risk. The same could be said about news on television, except for the fact that not just anybody can write and report on stories for CNN. I believe that social media has increased the amount of news and information that we can acquire but has decreased the quality in the news and information that we can obtain online. I think that quality is much more important than quantity, so when I go online to look for information I make sure that I double check with multiple sources to see if I uncover similar information. This of course is still not a full proof way to find authenticity on some of these internet sites, but it's a start. Fortunatley some sites online are reliable sources for information and news, but these sites are usually already recognized in the mainstream media as legitimate and reliable such as CNN, CBCand Most newspapers.
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Hello, this was a very well-written blog and very insightful. I agree with your points regarding that social media has decreased the quality of news and how it is peoples opinions and not always facts. I also agree with how you said that quality is more important than quantity. If i could give any new insight I would discuss the idea of people getting all their new from the internet and not getting newspapers anymore. This was a very good blog.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog on all the negative effects that social media has on news today because I also share a lot of the same view points as you do. However, I do believe that you have to take the negative effects with a grain of salt and appreciate the benefits that come with how social media has increased the quality of news because the positives outweigh the negatives. You stated that mainstream media outlets have reliable websites for information, well, than if you are following them on Twitter, blog accounts, podcasts or facebook than you are using social media as an outlet to get your information that otherwise would not be received unless you caught the news broadcast.
ReplyDeleteHey there, I see that we have the same sort of view point on social media regarding quality over quantity. Authenticity is huge when trying to find information on the internet. So many people can alter information and news to be humorous or to state their opinion on an issue that may not necessarily be true. Websites that allows random users to post their own publications about certain news and information is indeed questionable. We have no idea who the person is and if they are being serious or not.
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