We Media and Democracy- Eloise Neath

What have you learnt about your own media use and how you access it?

Over the summer holidays, a wide range of new stories came to my attention which I may have glanced at on the social media. This method of news isn’t always reliable yet can be more interesting.

While not everything that happens in society has an impact on the news, organizations outline certain subjects to attract different individual social groups. This is one of the many reasons why stories that are shown on news programs at night are far-reaching and varied. The same applies to even the local newspaper, which divides its pages into a variety of different sections, including local, national and world news. The News is such an I mportant factor in today’s society, yet the way we view the text has massively changed as individuals now download apps on their devices or discover the information online rather than the ‘old fashioned’ newspapers.

When keeping a track on what kind of new subjects I am actually interested in day to day life, I was very surprised with what I find out. A large percentage of what I read was UK and celebrity news related. As I don’t usually search for these subjects, I believe that the things I watch on social media such as Facebook and Twitter, connect to some news apps which then bring up this content on my media page. Also, as some of my apps that I have downloaded have been improved and updated, meaning news stories can be shown on the social apps, attracting the young target audience to read about these and become interested in the world. Social media is a one of the most popular ways of researching the news, it’s become faster way of finding out incidents within the UK and the World yet can be found inaccurate. For example, sites such as Facebook share pages representing The Sun newspaper which catch individual’s eye whilst they scroll through the social media site with their bold, over exaggerated headlines. On average only half of the population continue to read past the title as the other half either don’t find the story interesting or won’t find the source of information very reliable.

Even though I find new stores shared onto social media over the top and blown out of proportion, I have to admit that I do read beyond these headlines and on occasion share them. This way of researching news has influenced young people and the way in which they view and act upon genuine news in the World. As I got more into this subject of news and how I view it, I wanted to find out how my peers come across their news and what they are interested in. A questionnaire was the best way to find these results out. I asked 10 individuals with varied ages questions which would provide me with the mixed answers I was hoping for. We all downloaded the BBC news app and had a week to discover our most searched news topics and most interested stories. A high percentage of my aged peers found UK and music news the most interesting and decided to read beyond the headline as that is what they enjoyed to read. Even though I downloaded the BBC news app, I only flicked through the stories a dreadful once/twice a week. The stories did interest me yet I found, I became bored and distracted as all the stories had the same background. Social media knows my interest meaning it will bring up my favourite stories. On the BBC news app, I chose subjects which included music, sports, entertainment and social media. Even though I chose subjects that didn’t include politics and terrorism, I still find them interesting if I hear them on the news on the television. Whilst finding results out from my peers, it had clear pattern of what the 17 year olds had been interested in to the older individuals I also asked. For example, terrorism, music and UK news was the most popular subject within these individuals and when asked “did you ever search for the education or politics section” there was a clear no, showing that the young generation don’t enjoy these subjects yet when I asked two older individuals (24 and 41 years of age) they chose education, politics etc. This shows to me that different stories attract different generations of individuals, creating a divide in the news sections within society.

One story that has happened in the recent news that I have been very interested in was the Earthquake in Italy which took place on the 24th of August 2016 and destroyed several major areas of the country. Around 247 people were reported dead as a consequence to the incident and half of the surroundings of where the natural disaster hit. This story was brought to my attention by the BBC News channel on the television; I then became interested to find out more. I glanced through a few stories that had been shared on Facebook but I didn’t find them very reliable. This is why I then googled the story and find out the full story on The Telegraph website. These kinds of stories get released onto the social media before families of the victims even find out. This has been a negative effect of the internet as real life matters are being manipulated and the public aren’t receiving the correct facts. I believe Dan Gilmors theory on ‘We are the media’ shows to have some truthful factors within the story.

I believe most of the public in this generation are being more democratic as the internet has changed the way we view certain news matters. I believe the high percentage that buy the local newspaper or watch news channels are from the older generation and individuals from this age group receive the new stories from social media which has impacted the way they think dramatically.