Social media has showcased an extreme dominance in the public landscape since its first iterations in the early 2000s. In 2019 alone, Facebook was the most popular with a reigning 2.4 Billion Users worldwide on its servers.
To put that into perspective, that is nearly a third of the population on the planet at the time, with many of the userbase having used the platform since its inception in 2004.
However, with a population of that size on a platform that has already had controversies with both the underhanded distribution of user data and recent rollback on policies that improve factchecking, a question comes to mind in relation to how honest that the news on such a large-scale platform can be.
The spreading of news is easier than ever with apps and other services that prioritize a rapid stream of content to grab the attention of their users–with every mainstream social media network now having an equivalent method of doing this, whether its Instagram reels or YouTube shorts, anyone anywhere can be sucked into this complex online environment.
This idea of journalism and integrity in news sources, since the incursion of both mainstream social media, and with the extreme popularity of short-form content-based 2 platforms such as TikTok, has further fanned the flames of fears over mass spreads of misinformation and overall harmful falsification of current events.
Not knowing whether or not an article can be trusted for what it’s worth, or if you can read in between the lines and understand that the platform that is used does not have the best in mind for their readers, is a very real fear, especially when people lack understanding of a touchy subject.
It is also imperative to acknowledge that the overall landscape for news and how people absorb it has also changed immensely. Around 60% of people often use their smartphone, computer, or tablet as their way to find out about their news.
Integrity in journalism and what constitutes as journalism has shifted immensely since the time of the popularity of the physical publication, and the accessibility of social media makes fake news extremely effective.
When 18% of people get their news from social media itself, this allows for mass disinformation campaigns that can then severely sully the truth in environments that often value the hyperbolized. From both of these sources, it is most important to understand how the large influx of people that flock to the news, and how they access it, can affect the probability of them finding information that is not sensationalized.
In relation to this, integrity in journalism is also crucial in the relation to this idea between the hyperbolized and what is true. It is no secret that people often gravitate towards news that is blown out of proportion.
In an article detailing an analysis into this negativity bias in humans by nature, it was found that most people often do find themselves instinctively clicking on the worst possible headline from a chosen list.
This relationship between the viewer and what they view has parallels with how this news is then sensationalized to draw attention to these horrible facts; however, when these facts themselves are not only exaggerated but embellished, it causes an even more poignant net-negative narrative that can then be spread like wildfire over the web.
In a response to the question of whether or not it is important to choose which platform you post news on, Co-Publisher Mark Jacobs of Adams St. Publishing states that one “must be cautious as news is often mixed with commentary and opinion, although it is not clearly delineated as opinion.” This is imperative to understanding the importance of knowing where your news is coming from and how social media can affect it, as when most people will actively go for what they believe to be the “worst” and what is often the most sensationalized, those behind said articles can then decide to not tell the whole truth of something, or actively embellish on what is actually happening. This further causes people to not care as much for truth in media, but rather strive for the opposite.
Knowing what you are reading and the voices behind it is crucial to navigating the modern media landscape. Rampant misinformation has the potential and full ability to cause things like smear campaigns and witch hunts, which can further help destabilize the truth.
Integrity in journalism offers an out to these common misconceptions that plague modern social media, especially social media that heavily reinforces short-form content and thus, can allow for obtuse amount of information to be shared publicly very quickly.
Living in a world that can actively prefer the worst possible articles, however, can make it feel impossible to find the whole truth in the matter. When people focus more on sensationalized news, being able to embrace the truth in journalism and the platforms that you decide to use is the most important thing you can do in order to not join those coaxed along by misinformation.
