“IS FAKE NEWS THE NEW NEWS”

“IS FAKE NEWS THE NEW NEWS”NEWS IN THE TIMES OF POLITICS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

By Adam SmithMarch 3rd 2017

HARD TRUTHS

“The issue of “fake news” has become an urgent concern.”

“Fake websites are making money and discredit their political opponents”

“It is pushing the political agenda, while claiming to adhere to high standards of journalism

“It is changing the way how we consume media”

Reference: Canada Free Press

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NEWSPOLITICS

A NEW ERA

Photo Caption:The GuardianJill Abramson

All False Statements involving Donald Trump

Photo Caption:The GuardianJill Abramson

Kellyanne Conway: Don’t be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. What ... You’re saying it’s a falsehood. Our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that. But the point remains ...

Chuck Todd: Wait a minute ... alternative facts? Alternative facts? Four of the five facts he uttered were just not true. Look, alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.

ALTERNATIVE FACTS?

Photo Caption:Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump

“Trump tweeted an image packed with racially loaded and incorrect murder statistics.”

ALTERNATIVE FACTS?

Facebook and Twitter News Use is on the Rise

% of users who get news there

52%

63%

47

632013

2015

2013

2015

“59 percent of Twitter users said they follow breaking news on the platform, compared to just 31 percent of Facebook users who find breaking news there.”

FACT

“These different ways of connecting with news have implications for how Americans learn about the world and their communities, and for how they take part in the democratic process,”

Photo Caption:Amy Mitchell, Pew, Director of Journalism Research

“32% of Facebookers post about politics and government, compared to 25% of tweeters.”

“Facebook users are more likely to engage with political content than Twitter users”

“61 percent of Americans born between 1981 and 1996 get their political news from Facebook in a given week.”

BEHAVIORS

REAL-WORLD IMPACTOF JOURNALISM

MEDIA CONSUMPTION

Photo Caption: CNN Twitter

“Exploring how news consumption through social media can shape how people interact with, respond, and react to the news will be critical for news providers and others interested in advancing the real-world impact of journalism.”

NEWS,CELEBRITY

NEWS?

A NEW ERA

Celebrity news is highly dependent upon the services of the publicity and promotions industries

FACTS

Most news organizations are now choosing to compete on the basis of entertainment rather than informationThe redefinition of gossip as news, as it moves out of the social pages and onto the front pages

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Today we have magazines that present themselves as “news” magazines even when all they deal with is celebrity

Photo Caption:People Magazine

“If the standard, but decreasingly valid, version of the production of news has seek out information that would otherwise be hidden and which the public needs to know, then celebrity news is probably the direct opposite to this”

GOSSIP AS NEWS

Celebrity news reporters establish their credibility by way of demonstrating the quality of their access to the sources of celebrity news, rather than by their capacity to deliver verifiable, evidence-based reports.

THE RISE OF THE IMAGE Celebrity images speed the ability to reach a mass audience

(2011:522)

Photo Caption:People Entertainment Weekly

Just as in the coverage of politics, much of this reporting is openly speculative and virtually free of any requirement to provide supporting evidence.

It is their acknowledge distance from the facticity of news that actual makes what they do possible: no one is going to call them to account for making a wrong call because “getting it right” is not the point in this domain of news. It is the performance of the speculation, which invites a response – of further speculation – from the audience, that is the point.

Serious attention to the more old-fashioned news format such as political current affairs declines, then celebrity news may well turn out to have played a significant role in displacing the population’s interest in traditional forms of news.

(Couldry et al., 2007)

NEWSELECTRONIC A NEW ERA

& MILLENNIALS

How College StudentsShare News ThroughSocial Media

Students and Social News

“Reading newspapers has not been a high priority for this group, nor has watching television newscasts”

Sondermar, 2012; Pardun & Scott, 2004; Vidali, 2010

FACTS

Social media users tend to disseminate news items they find from online friends, but that they are more likely to do so if they indicate partisanship toward a specific political party or ideology

FACTS

53% Participants reported learning about news stories first though social media

20% Face-to-face information from friends

8% Broadcast Television Radio

How media college students first heard about news stories

MEDIA CONSUMPTION

Our findings indicate that this group of students is not using their mobile/portable technology with intent of becoming better informed citizens

FACTS

Students are not using social media to confirm information they first through that same social medium. Our findings further support the realization that even when becoming aware of news via social media, these students are tuning largely to the other areas of the Internet for confirmation of that confirmation.

Many students may be reading more news and not even know it; conversely, student may think they’re reading a lot of news when in fact it may be more gossip or entertainment oriented.

What would your thrust? Real Facts Vs. Facts

REFERENCES:

Nieman LabAmericans are getting news on Facebook Lichterman, Joseph

Journalism Is celebrity news? News?Turner, Grame

Electronic News Students and Social News: How college Students Share News Through Social Media Rosengrand, Dana and Mary Tucker – McLaughlin and Tim Brown

Canada Free Press Where “Fakes News” Meets Real News Lichterman, Joseph

PolitiFact All False Statements Involving Donald Trump Turner, Grame

US Politics ”Alternative Facts” are just lies, whatever Kellyanne Conway claims Jill Abramson