Will The Real News Please Stand Up



Where do most of us get our news from? Chances are you and I go to Facebook. Although when we get our news from Facebook it is most likely tailored to us from behind the scenes. Facebook has created entertainment news, news that is click bait. Homepage hits have dropped drastically like the article states Thompson 2014. In the last twelve months, traffic from home pages has dropped significantly across many websites while social media's share of clicks has more than doubled, according to a 2013 review of the BuzzFeed Partner Network, a conglomeration of popular sites including BuzzFeed, the New York Times, and Thought Catalog. Audiences get new stories from all sorts of outlets, the local news on tv, news app on our smartphones, newspapers, and tabloids. While the news we get on television is mostly accurate, you can bet some of the news on the internet has some false information inserted into it.

But chances are that we see these headlines that interest us while we shop, and they are located where we check out. That’s right supermarket tabloids, they are tabloids that are focused on celebrity gossip, crime stories, and astrology. Many of the facts in these tabloids are called into question but they still entertain us much like social media does. What we read in the internet is always correct, right? Not everything that is displayed on your screen is the truth, but we sure do like it. Say for instance Facebook has a lot of evergreen stories. March2017 “The word evergreen is most often used by editors to describe certain kinds of stories that are always of interest to readers. Evergreen content is content that is always relevant—much like the way evergreen trees retain their leaves all year around.”  Facebook does this a lot with pages that start with “You won’t believe what so and so wore to the red carpet”. But since they just show us a glimpse of some legs and a red-carpet people become curious. Well in my eyes I would be curious too, hmm who are they talking about and what are they wearing.

The news feed on our Facebook is not what it seems like. The new feed is directed more towards entertainment news. News that pulls the audience into never ending likes, liked pages that advertise pop ups and gather information that steers us to other web pages, it’s a never-ending cycle that swallows into the deep abyss of Facebook. On my Facebook account I actually follow the local news stations.  Since most of the time I do not have time to sit around at home and watch tv, but I do have my phone with me always, it is easier for me to get my news that way. The other way I get news is through community pages like, Las Cruces Community Watch. Its news that gets out first sometime even faster and more accurate than the local news.  But as the article states social media tends to steer you into other not so important news.
Citations:

Evergreen stories March 2017  -google.com



Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 4, 2017 at 10:07 PM

    Lorenzo, I personally find very difficult what to beleive or not to believe on social media! Fake news is kinda like an epedemic and it affects us all. The huge impact social media has on us all present day is very concerning. Good blog!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brother KurtNovember 5, 2017 at 10:47 AM

    That's quite a generalization about what people share or don't share on their "news" feed. It isn't necessarily entertainment that we see on Facebook; if you recall from previous readings/videos, you know that your own searches determine what you are most likely to see. The issue pointed out in the article is about the reliability of the so-called news we see there.

    Let's face it; Facebook is ok for news but it doesn't replace real news sources and it is littered with fake news, debunked nonsense and conspiracy theories. The fact that you have to fact check pretty much everything on there makes it a suspect source for information.

    Again, the key always seems to be critical thinking on the part of the reader.

    ReplyDelete

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