What
have you learned about your own media use and how you access news content?
Over the past year I have found myself looking for the news
instead of letting the news come to me. By this I mean, since I was old enough
to understand the news, I only ever read it (whether it was just the headline
or the whole article) when I stumbled across it, e.g. my mum had left the
newspaper on the kitchen table and I had briefly read the headlines whilst
walking past or when I was watching television and the channel 4 or BBC news
came on whilst I was waiting for Hollyoaks or Eastenders to start. However, now
I find myself actually wanting to be updated about what’s going on in the
world. For myself, I watch/read the news in a variety of ways including on the
TV via BBC, through the radio whilst I cook tea or I’m in the car on the way to
school, reading the newspaper (only when my mum buys it though) and obviously
now the most convenient way for me to access the news is by my trusty Iphone,
which I shall admit, is never out of my hand. I know this isn’t the case for
everyone though!
In terms of which source of news I think is the most reliable, it would 100% be BBC for
me. BBC is funded by the taxpayers and has a duty to inform their audience on
news stories whilst giving both sides of the story; basically meaning, they can’t
be biased! My family as a whole all tend to watch BBC news when it comes to
choosing a source of news and we’re not the only ones who think it is trustworthy.
Slightly more than six in 10 (62%) people who watched BBC News rated it highly
for being “accurate and reliable” and 58% gave it a good rating for being
“trustworthy” in polling conducted for Ofcom’s annual news consumption report.
BBC is a favourite of mine; specifically the BBC news app
because of its easy accessibility and it’s a user friendly app. It has a
variety of tabs to choose from if you’re wanting to search for news fast, e.g. ‘Top
Stories’, ‘Most Read’ and ‘Most Watched’ and you are even able to adapt the app
and create your own tab ‘My News’ which enables you to tailor the app to your
own interests. Over the summer I discovered this and within the tab I chose
some topics which I would like to read about. The main ones I check are ‘world’,
‘severe weather’ and ‘climate change’. Because of this app I have been able to
keep up to date on all news which I am interested in and have been informed on
the major fatalities happening overseas and domestically. For example, over the
summer there was an Earthquake in Italy and not only was I able to be informed
about this, the BBC also put updates on after a few days to bring up to date
the audience.
After doing a research task, I also found information about
how others access their information (news) and there was a lot of variety. The
majority of people I surveyed did mention big organisations such as, BBC and
Channel 4 and it was interesting to find a lot of people actually don’t read
past the headline of news. However, I found that social media has become a
predominant news source as a lot of people (mainly class mates around the age
of 17 years old) said they mainly only ever checked news unless it comes up on
their newsfeed on social media e.g. Twitter and Facebook. This is obviously not
a trustworthy sight in comparison to big media organisations because anybody
can post something on social media whether it is true, made up, or been misinterpreted
and spread around. Posts on social media can go from one extreme to another! By
that I mean, some may deliver great depth and detail which enhances the likelihood
of it being true, whereas some posts were just random people complaining or
giving their opinion on a certain ‘rumour’ and therefor making it not so
believable. When retrieving your news from social media you have to be very
careful what you trust. If it is a news account tweeting about a certain matter
then obviously there is a great chance it will be true, similarly, if there is
a hashtag (e.g. #blacklivesmatter which is one I came across over the summer)
that has gone worldwide then again the news/problem is likely to be true. But,
the internet has become so powerful and easily accessible that anybody can post
ANYTHING and it could get thousands
of shares and still be false information. This links to democracy and how
people can freely share their views online and cause debates and conflict in a
matter of seconds.
From my research I have become a bigger believer of Dan
Gillmor (the author of 'We Media' and democracy) and his theories saying that
media is changing because of the increase in democracy. We media and democracy
as a whole (as well as the advances in technology) is allowing people to put
their opinions, stories and views online because of how accessible technology
now is. Gillmor also stated that “the spreading of news will occur” more
frequently and this has been proven with my different examples of how people
access their news, including myself.
The developments in technology are crucial for both big and
small news organisations as it allows them to actually increase their audience.
They are able to do this by posting their news online so that their viewers don’t
have to leave the site to look for the news and because it is basically handed
to them on a plate there is an increased chance they will read it more often.
This works for some but not all; ‘The Sun’ is still the most popular print
newspaper but online ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘The Guardian’ are the most widely
read because they have adapted and now use social media, apps and often provocative
headlines as clickbait. However it is now scary and threatening how influential
not only the internet, but big news organisations are now becoming. Advances
have led to a change in media production and consumption and the way in which
content is distributed. This has instigated the creation of the web 3.0 which in
a nutshell means search engines and social media are now suited to the uses
interests and are tailored around us. For example a pop-up/advert that comes up
whilst I’m on the internet will more than likely be a clothes brand/website
that I have used in the past and this shows the increase in control that the
internet has and their ability to influence anyone and everyone. That is a lot
of power, in a very few hands.
Sav, 'That is a lot of power, in a very few hands' is such a good quote I would say now, use it in your exam!
ReplyDeleteA very thoughtful piece of writing which tells me that you have given this a lot of thought and prepared well in advance for this course. Some good references to theorists and the technological change which is Internet 3.0. It is interesting that you say you now actively seek out news rather than let it come to you. Part of that could just be a consequence of getting older but then a lot of older people take no interest in issues or events outside of their comfort zones. Tough question, but do you think the increase in content that can be curated to our own tastes is empowering or actually just a distraction?
You are right to say that the level of trust in the BBC is still incredibly high although it is often accused by people of left wing and right wing perspectives of being the other: maybe that in itself proves that generally it does its job properly! As you mention, the ability for anyone to post anything has its advantages and disadvantages but perhaps as the media landscape changes, trusted sources may become more important in a confusing world.
Thanks for this; I enjoyed reading it.