From my viewpoint I believe that social media has both, increased the quality of news as well as decreased it. Before you jump to any conclusions as to why I am not choosing a side, hear me out. I am not one of those “fence sitters”, and after you read my points you will see that as long has you educate yourself, you too, may share the same vantage point.
By and large I do believe that news is issued to any individual as it has never before. Instead of the old, traditional way of waiting for the evening news to see what has gone on in the world, you can just click on your laptop, computer, or cell phone and quickly connect to any media web site. You can read the journalist blogs or watch their podcasts. This is vast becoming one of the easiest way for someone to access the daily news, as long as you are educated enough to know that the website that you are visiting is creditable. These news agencies make it even easier for you to stay connected by offering news alerts that are sent directly to your email, which means your phone, computer and/or IPad get instant updates. You can even set up the accounts on your facebook account or sign up for their twitter accounts. As long as you know that the information you are accessing is creditable than this is a huge step in the right direction. This is why social media has become a pillar in the news world.
There are however, situations where people use social media outlets to purposely misrepresent an issue or topic. This is why I believe that social media has decreased the value of news today. When people are not aware that the website or email they are reading is actually fiction. All of this reminds me of the “The War of The Worlds” broadcast. Although the radio broadcast was announced to be a story, people still believed it to be factual. Unfortunately, in today’s day and age, some people intentionally try to pass fiction off as fact and that is the down side to social media. Some people purposely send factious emails, post untrue blogs and make false edits to web pages like Wikipedia.
Does social media improve the quality of news or decrease it? Well, if I had to make a choice I would have to say that the good outweighs the bad. Social media is constantly finding new ways for people to access the world news. The times are changing and people are starting to catch on. News, now is just a click away and as long as you trust the source, than all the power to you.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Is-Wikipedia-Trustworthy-15597.shtml
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Is-Wikipedia-Trustworthy-15597.shtml
