Globally, social media has created platforms which enables people to share their opinions, perspectives and views on current affairs worldwide. It gives individuals a voice to scrutinize issues, causes and hold the elite accountable. ‘Social media, blogs and UGC are not replacing journalism, but they are creating an important extra layer of information and diverse opinion.’ (Newman, 2009, p. 2) Social media can provide society with new information, ideas and opinions which can alter their perspective regarding news content. According to Ofcom in 2019, although ‘TV is still the most popular way for people to access news, its use has fallen since last year from 79% to 75% of adults, while the use of social media for news has risen from 44% to 49%’ (Ofcom, 2020) showing that although the majority of people still rely on mainstream news and there is a slight decline, the usage of social media for news is slowly on the rise. This essay will discuss how social media has had a democratizing impact upon the range of news content available for audiences. It will also present arguments showing how social media can be misleading and inaccurate and consider the implications of this.
There is no doubt that social media can empower individuals and boost democracy, as it is easily accessible for everyone. It is a quick way to expose important events, for example the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. A BBC news article with the headline ‘Black Lives Matter: From social media post to global movement’ is evidence for this as it states ‘A slogan chanted by tens of thousands around the world, Black Lives Matter has sparked a hashtag, a network of grass-roots organisations, and a moral collective of activists.’ (Maqbool, 2020) The headline itself is self-explanatory as it clearly portrays the power of a social media post which resulted in a global movement. Therefore, it could be argued that before the matter came into the limelight of social media, there wasn’t enough news coverage on it from the mainstream media and industry. Social media took the advantage of exposing the matter during a lockdown when the usage of social media was at its peak, contributing to why it became such a big movement. It was successful for raising awareness as Instagram and Twitter had the hashtag ‘Black Lives Matter’ trending and the protests which many people attended worldwide. This in itself shows the power social media has on society.
The killing of George Floyd in the US generated these anti-racist protests, and if it wasn’t for the video which surfaced on Facebook first, this most likely would not have happened. Although the video was posted on social media, where news coverage can be highly subjective, it was real with no filter and clear proof of what had actually happened to Floyd. The Guardian explains in an article how ‘within days of Floyd’s death, the protests in the UK had begun’ and ‘by mid-June, more than 210,000 people had attended demonstrations around the country.’ (Mohdin and Swann, 2020) It is truly amazing how the click of a button sparked a movement not only in the US, but also across the world rapidly. This reflects on how social media has provided a voice for those to report news to a wider audience. Therefore, can make society perceive current affairs from a different angle. Social media offers content which is not ordinarily seen. It offers views which the elite doesn’t and provides unique opportunities for people, including celebrities, to self-represent. All which 17-year-old Darnella Frazier did with the recording of George Floyd and sparked a worldwide movement.
Another example which supports the idea of social media being a democratized platform is the exposure of the end SARS movement. All over social media, #endSARS hashtag went viral as well as insolence of the elite in Nigeria. It is argued in the book ‘News’ that ‘the internet allows injustice, cruel and oppression to be more easily exposed, cover-ups more easily revealed and non-mainstream news more widely circulated than ever before’ (Harrison, 2006, p. 146) The SARS movement is evident for this as it fluctuated all over social media as the hashtag was trending. Again, it could be argued that just like the BLM movement, if this hadn’t come into the limelight of social media it wouldn’t have had as much coverage. The older audience tend to prefer mainstream traditional media and since this was not presented, they would not have known about it. Therefore, social media has played a vital role to advocate this matter and had a positive impact with the sharing of news content.
People are still happy to gain news coverage from mainstream news organisations, such as BBC One which according to a special report from Ofcom, ‘remains the most popular news source, despite a fall in use since last year, from 62% to 58%’ (Ofcom, 2020) The BBC was the first broadcaster in the UK and has been around for 98 years, which considers it to be a more reliable source, in comparison to social media which has only recently been recognised as a news source. The older audience prefer traditional media sources, however, statistics show that during the coronavirus pandemic ‘in the UK, under-35s showed an increase in watching TV news of 25 percentage points compared with January’ (Newman, 2009, p. 11) This reveals that the younger audience also resorted to mainstream media during the pandemic, rather than their preferred news source of social media. The report goes onto explain that the pandemic caused an uplift in television news between January and April 2020, delivering temporary respite from a picture of steady decline. It is clear that the pandemic resulted in people sticking to traditional news sources, which questions whether social media offers the same content as the mainstream media.
Conversely, there is new ideology which suggests that the mainstream media has damaging and oppressive effect on society. The Reuters Institute for Journalism states that ‘18–24 year olds (so-called Generation Z) … are more than twice as likely to prefer accessing news via social media’ (Newman, 2020, p. 11) This could be a reason as to why audiences, particularly the younger audience, are swaying towards social media for news. A Guardian article discusses how the nature of news will make us think the world is getting worse. ‘News is likely to distort people’s view of the world because of a mental bug that the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman called the Availability Heuristic.’ (Guardian and Pinker, 2020) News can limit an audience’s perception on ideas and current affairs and when questions arise which cannot be answered, it sparks fear and anxiety. ‘Fear and anxiety can arise from situations where the outcome is unknown or where credible explanations from traditional sources are lacking or not trusted (like mainstream media or government officials).’ (Weeks, B.E. and Garrett, R.K., 2019, p. 239) To cope with this there is a tendency for people to fill in the gaps of unanswered questions. This is especially relevant with the coronavirus pandemic. Anxiety and depression are high in the younger audience, but have also increased in all ages due to the current pandemic, and so filling in gaps is an effective way to cope. It provides sense of control over the situation which is why it is explained that people may ‘turn to alternative sources of information online—including disreputable sources on social media—to reduce their anxiety and help make sense of uncertain times.’ (Weeks, B.E. and Garrett, R.K., 2019, p. 240) This questions the accuracy and effectiveness of news content within social media as it could be more of a comfort tool. People are only consuming what they want to see, rather than what they need to see. It questions the reliability and validity of news content on social media.
The issue with using social media as a medium for representing news is that it can lack facts, accuracy and truth. Not everything that is portrayed online can be considered a true representation of affairs due to the lack of validity. It can be biased, subjective and often have no statistics and which can distort news as false reality. Society is turning to social media as a primary source of news which defeats the professional journalists’ goal to present accurate news to all audiences. This is because it is ‘now challenged by user-created and shared content that is misleading, inaccurate, or blatantly false.’ (Weeks, B.E. and Garrett, R.K., 2019, p. 236) Subsequently, there is often misinformation which supports the idea that social media is not an effective way to present news to audiences.
Fake news is another issue which can be widely spread through the means of social media. Fake news is similar to propaganda which has been around for centuries and the internet is the newest means of communication to spread misinformation. Donald Trump used the term ‘fake news’ repeatedly to describe the legacy press. ‘Surveys of the 2016 US election showed that the most popular fake news stories were spread more widely than the most popular mainstream (i.e. fact-checked) news stories.’ (Curran and Seaton, 2018, p. 397) The book goes onto explain how the Trump Presidency embraced some of its tactics and techniques, particularly in the spread of fake news through social media platforms such as Facebook, where the posts worked in their favour. Thus, fake news is an issue which defeats the idea of social media being a democratized platform. ‘Fake news represent challenging and troubling dimensions of how social media platforms and algorithmic curation may affect the media ecosystem.’ (Napoli, 2019, p. 63) It can have a significant impact on the way which news and information flow and the effective functioning of the democratic process.
Social media can provide a very limited view of the world due to algorithms. Based on what we click, similar content will be appear which defeats the idea of social media being a democratized platform. Due to the pressure for profit on social media, it is uncertain whether individuals are consuming what they need to see or what they want to see. The UK is currently a democracy, and statistics show that the younger audience are becoming less engaged with the mainstream media and are increasingly attaining news from the internet, including social media. It tends to be the older audience who are engaged with the news shown on television. Ofcom shared that ‘TV is most prevalent among the 65+ age group (92%), while the internet is the most-used platform for news consumption among 16-24s (79%) and those from minority ethnic groups (74%)’. (Ofcom, 2020, p. 3) Subsequently, this could lead to less engagement and awareness for voting which potentially poses a danger that the future could be a less democratic society.
It is interesting that 74% are from ethnic minorities, which could suggest that this audience could have less trust in the mainstream media. This could be due to false representations of ethnic minorities in the media. For example, the mainstream media has influenced the idea of ‘Islam as a ‘violent’ religion’ and relates it to terrorism on many occasions. (Freedman and Thussu, 2012, p. 18) Although the facts may remain true, the framing compared to a white man involved with a terrorist attack generally differs. The white man will tend to have mental health issues or justification in the headline, whereas the Muslim man’s religion will be clearly shown through the means of a picture or headline. Ultimately, this changes the audience’s perception on the religion as whole and generates a stereotype that all Muslims are from a violent religion. Thus, the way the mainstream media represents certain ethnicities and religions can result in these audiences having no trust in the media. Consequently, they would resort to more diverse and subjective news sources such as social media platforms.
People on social media want to be the first to announce news, as soon as they have heard about something. Social media is fast paced therefore can lack facts. In contrast to the mainstream media, for example the BBC, there is a longer production process to broadcast news as it requires scripting, editing and fact checking. Thus, the UK mainstream media is an objective way to represent news, making it factual and unbiased, two of the professional standards for real journalism. However, Ofcom are to be given more powers to regulate social media which reinforces the fact that it is becoming a highly influential platform. The BBC stated that Ofcom ‘will have powers to impose penalties on a range of content including bullying, child abuse, terrorism and fake news.’ (BBC, 2020) This poses that social media could be the future of news representation, as the regulations will ensure that there is factual information being delivered. Journalists are beginning to embrace social media similarly to mainstream media organisation as ‘guidelines are being rewritten; social media editors and twitter correspondents are being appointed; training and awareness programmes are underway.’ (Newman, 2009, p. 2)
In conclusion, social media has played an important role to advocate serious matters which all audiences should be aware of. Despite the subjectivity it holds, it does provide people with a different perspective of current affairs and issues which can empower people to form their own decisions and opinions. Therefore, it has positively impacted the range of news content for audiences and could be a verified, unique news platform in the future.
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