How Social Media Has Changed How We Consume News

It’s the age of “fake news” and gone are the days of waiting for the morning news for breaking stories or reading gossip magazines for the latest celebrity dirt. We now have all the information we need at the touch of an app and most people now get their news information online, specifically from social media.

Social media has become the main source of news online with more than 2.4 billion internet users, nearly 64.5 percent receive breaking news from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram instead of traditional media.

In a recent survey, 50 percent of Internet users surveyed said that they hear about the latest news via social media before ever hearing about it on a news station. Many internet users will see the breaking stories on their feed and go to the news sites to learn more. The survey found 57 percent increase in traffic to news sites referred from social media.

However, there has been a decrease in how much of an article that people read. Most people will just scroll through their newsfeed and stumble upon relevant news content but just read the headlines or a short video clip of the piece. An average visitor will only read an article for 15 seconds or less and the average video watch time online is 10 seconds.

However, social platforms have a control over what news and information we see. Our social media friends have become the “managing editors” deciding what we see. An article needs to be “liked” and shared multiple times before many people see it in their feed. Therefore social media and your social friends have control over what news pieces you see and what you do not.

There are also many “fake news” websites that compete for attention with sensational headlines and ridiculous storylines that tend to get shared more often due to the lack of readers fact checking or reading more than the headline. That means that authentic content is hard to come by now. In fact, fake news is actually more likely to spread than the truth.

Also, timely and sensational news does better like Buzzfeed who has 17.2 million subscribers. Content needs to be shareable and likable so often times it is overly exaggerated for social. Brands can pay more to appear in news feeds and get noticed. While syndication is nothing new, it is more prevalent in social media with so much information allowed to be given at once and 24/7.News happens fast now.

Today’s story will be tomorrow’s forgotten story. It is easy to miss things now because of how quick stories can get turned around and shared. While having so much information at our fingertips is great, it is worth always checking sources and not taking headlines as truth. With social media as our new news managers, it is up to us to be the new fact checkers for media.

Nicole Martin

Source: How Social Media Has Changed How We Consume News

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When looking at what constitutes “fake news” and how it gets shared on social media, there are two kinds of false information to be aware of—misinformation and disinformation. Researchers at Indiana University found these two types of information often go viral because “information overload and users’ finite attention span limit the capacity of social media to discriminate information on the basis of quality.”

Because social media is a public platform, anyone—including news outlets—can post anything without being accountable for fact-checking. It’s left to users to distinguish misinformation vs. disinformation in their feeds.

What differentiates misinformation from disinformation is the intent of the person or outlet sharing it. In the previously cited study from Indiana University, misinformation is classified as “false or misleading content including hoaxes, conspiracy theories, fabricated reports, click-bait headlines, and even satire.” Misinformation is not deliberately intended to deceive. Instead, it aims to shape or change public opinion on a given topic.

Disinformation can be spread using many of the same tactics as misinformation—hoaxes, click-bait, fabricated reports. Disinformation is created to deceive. Chadwick and Vaccari’s study found that 24.8% of their respondents shared a news story they either thought was made up when they saw it or knew was exaggerated.

There are a variety of reasons that individuals’ social media accounts or even business accounts might spread disinformation. It could be to increase their social media marketing effectiveness, boost their online traffic, build more followers for their page or business, incite an emotional response, or create a distraction.

Disinformation can be dangerous on social media because, as previously mentioned, the sheer amount of information there and the length of readers’ attention spans can allow it to go unchecked.

Combating fake news on social media comes down to understanding the goals of fellow posters and of the platform itself. Social media platforms make money by selling user datato ad companies, which is why you’ll often see ads tailored to your interests or search history.

This is important to know for context. As an individual, being aware that the news you see on your feed is filtered based on previously collected data can help you be more conscious of your own inherent bias. If you represent a business using social media as a marketing platform, it’s important to keep your posts consistent with your brand, and share things on your timeline that build customer relationships, line up with your values, or showcase original content.

Fake news on social media may be unavoidable. But you can help stop the spread by thinking critically. Maintain a healthy level of curiosity for what you read on your feed, understand how social media platforms curate what you see, and use investigative practices often. Social media is a powerful tool, for both businesses and individuals, when approached with appropriate intent and consideration.

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