Social media and the Internet have radically changed the capabilities of the public in media. Everyday citizens now make important contributions to the media agenda through their sightings and public opinions. At the forefront of contributors, citizen journalists stand out as people reporting and gathering evidence without being formally trained in the art of journalism. Citizen journalists create a major amount of stories and evidence that gets broadcast to a wider audience through television news and Internet articles. The major media companies of today sometimes rely on contributions that come from citizen journalists in forming stories. Most recently, accounts of police brutality, racial issues, and other stories trained journalists couldn’t
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For the first time ever, strangers could talk and share information in their common interests that soon became a tool that the modern world relies on every day. Media companies sought to take advantage of the rapidly evolving system by sharing their articles and shows online. Helping major news networks move online was “The Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("Telecom Act") ... relax[ing] national and local station ownership limits.”(Dicola, 103), which allowed them to own a domain to go along with their other methods of distribution. So as many people were switching to digital media, so were the major networks. In the 21st century, the availability of computers, digital cameras, and internet connectivity became more widely available which enabled the creation of citizen journalism, signaling the biggest change in media since the television. How people responded as a result forever shifted the future of ownership of media for the 21st …show more content…
Citizen journalists do not have to put in as much effort into sharing their news as the people who think it is important. It is not uncommon for stories to get circulated through main accounts and social media posts while people neglect to research if the information is correct or not before they share it. It would seem convincing to see a post in which thousands of people have commented or shared on as enough proof of its own that it is legitimate information, but the only way to know is to research the subject independently. In a study done on university students social media habits, they found “About two-thirds of the respondents (n = 116, 67.8%) reported that they themselves had shared misinformation on social media” while “Nearly all respondents (n = 162, 94.7%) reported having seen their friends share misinformation on social media.” (Chen et. al. 25) causing users of social media to believe rumors. Once people read information that is not true, there is very little chance that someone will tell them that it was false. Misinformation on broadcast news has the ability to be corrected because people are familiar with the sources they are receiving their information from. With social media, people do not think of the source because there are so many different possibilities as to where it could have come from that it does not matter who is giving out the information. The
For the first time ever, strangers could talk and share information in their common interests that soon became a tool that the modern world relies on every day. Media companies sought to take advantage of the rapidly evolving system by sharing their articles and shows online. Helping major news networks move online was “The Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("Telecom Act") ... relax[ing] national and local station ownership limits.”(Dicola, 103), which allowed them to own a domain to go along with their other methods of distribution. So as many people were switching to digital media, so were the major networks. In the 21st century, the availability of computers, digital cameras, and internet connectivity became more widely available which enabled the creation of citizen journalism, signaling the biggest change in media since the television. How people responded as a result forever shifted the future of ownership of media for the 21st …show more content…
Citizen journalists do not have to put in as much effort into sharing their news as the people who think it is important. It is not uncommon for stories to get circulated through main accounts and social media posts while people neglect to research if the information is correct or not before they share it. It would seem convincing to see a post in which thousands of people have commented or shared on as enough proof of its own that it is legitimate information, but the only way to know is to research the subject independently. In a study done on university students social media habits, they found “About two-thirds of the respondents (n = 116, 67.8%) reported that they themselves had shared misinformation on social media” while “Nearly all respondents (n = 162, 94.7%) reported having seen their friends share misinformation on social media.” (Chen et. al. 25) causing users of social media to believe rumors. Once people read information that is not true, there is very little chance that someone will tell them that it was false. Misinformation on broadcast news has the ability to be corrected because people are familiar with the sources they are receiving their information from. With social media, people do not think of the source because there are so many different possibilities as to where it could have come from that it does not matter who is giving out the information. The