Witoubou Newmai
There have been discussions for some time now that social media have come to rule the roost in disseminating and sharing news.
The Oxford University Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism observed that young people have been using ‘social media’ as their primary source of news for several years now. These young people want ‘breaking news’ and social media does just that – ‘break news’.
Social media have become very popular to share news the users approve of, as well as the news they do not like. Furthermore, many also use social media to further their propaganda.
According to a new study from the Pew Research Center, 62% of Americans get their news from social media. However, to check the authenticity of the information on social media, many go back to traditional media such as newspapers and their websites and televisions.
According to the Pew Research Center, the very same people who are either "accidentally finding news on these platforms or purposefully turning to them each day for news, also pay attention to traditional media". 39% of Facebook users who go to the platform for news watch the local news while 15% of them read newspapers. In contrast, only 8% of Twitter news users still consume content from print media, the Pew Research Center finds.
Stung by bad experiences social media users are today more cautious and wait for newspapers, news portals or television news before they act on the information. The connotation of this trend is to say that traditional media and their new avatars are here to stay even though there is a clear indication that the “trend of people getting news from social media will continue and expand”.
This trend has also elevated the dignity and importance of the traditional media although their mode and style of disseminating information are fast evolving. This, in fact, is almost to say that it will always be the traditional media to give the ‘go ahead’ signal to the social media users on information they get.
It is pertinent to note that traditional media have come up with their competitive gears to checkmate the onslaught of social media – in effect, also addressing issues thrown up and about in social media.
With environmental issues overwhelming policies and plans of countries around the world, and also with emerging technologies making products even more convenient for consumers, the era of paperless newspapers is not too far away. In such event and time, confusions created by social media will be put to rest.
