Friday, February 10, 2012

Social Media: How it has impacted the quality of news & information


Do you wake up watch the news on TV, read a newspaper, check your Facebook or Twitter everyday on either your phone or computer? I know that I sure do!

With the advancement of technology over the years the influence of social media has grown tremendously. With this new social media trend it has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors and publishers of news and information of all sorts, which has in turn impacted the speed of how fast news travels. There are many pros and cons to this.

PRO: I recently had a friend die in a car accident and because of social media sites almost everyone knew within hours of the accident what had happened. It was all over facebook, twitter and even newpapers had already posted articles and pictures on the web. It all happened so quickly.  In this case I am very grateful because instead of asking loved ones for the painful story that they would usually have to tell over and over back in the day, you can now find out for yourself on social media sites and already know most of the information. This helps so you can just be there to support the friends and family instead of putting them through the pain of continuously re-living the story again and again. This is just one example, in my opinion there are definitely many more pros then there are cons though.

CON: You and your boyfriend breaking up and it being plastered all over Facebook saying “so and so has went from being in a relationship to single” Not so appealing for how fast the news will travel! With that being said there are less cons then pros. If the information comes from an unreliable source or if the information is false that is the biggest con. This rarely happens, but when it does it’s no good.  

In my opinion, I believe that social media has mostly increased the quality of news and information.  We live in a society that thrives off of communication, news and information to keep us going. The advancement of technology and fast growing social media has just made it easier and more accessible for people to deliver and receive all of these things anywhere, anytime, off anything. (phone, computer, tablet, the web etc.) As long as we use it correctly it will definitely continue to improve the quality of news in more ways then even we know possible.

2 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more with your post! I love how you did the pros and cons about how social media has impacted the news and information that travels around. Another example is that it's hard to believe how fast an incident could happen in the middle of the day, then be out on newspapers hours later, ready for thousands of people to read. More pros to this can also be on the live nightly news how they can suddenly report any breaking news within seconds of it happening. There are so many ways how social media has increased the quality of news and information we hear, the list could go on and on!

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  2. I completely agree with your post Brittany, my condolences to you and all your friends, but back to the post, you have completely shown the increase in social media.

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