Social Media
LSE IR245: International Journalism essay
Social media has made an enormous impact on the power and influence of mainstream news in the past decade. Journalists, once being gate-keepers and news-shapers, are now having their power stripped from them as civilians can create and release ‘news’ on their own. Through social media, journalism has become networked. Today, citizens have the ability to challenge official narratives and increase their civilian influence in the news by sharing their own content on social media platforms. On the other hand, the rise of social media has resulted in an increase in the spread of disinformation and an inability to confirm what is true from what is false. Social media has resulted in much more freedom for civilians, as they can contribute to the circulation of news, however in the process, these platforms have diminished the power of mainstream news and impacted the reliability of the concept of news itself.
Social media has created world-wide platforms on which anyone can contribute. Traditionally, people would only be able to get their news from mainstream media such as newspapers, radio, and TV broadcasts. Journalists used to control how news was shared with the public and everyone was dependent on these outlets to inform them on what was going on in the world. However, social networks have created spaces where news can be shared by anyone with the click of a button. This has led to a massive increase in civilian influence of opinion and has allowed for citizens to become a part of how news is shared with the general population. Now, people can challenge the official narratives posted by news outlets by sharing their own content for all to see. For instance, one of the most influential examples of this is the reporting of George Floyd’s murder. The official narrative shared by newspapers was challenged by a video of the arrest recorded by a civilian who posted the video online. Originally, the newspapers had left out many of the details that made this incident so moving and the release of this video exposed what atrocities had really occurred during the incident. This video became the catalyst of the Black Lives Matter movement. This movement quickly took over the United States and motivated many people to protest for justice. The power of one video going against a neglectful statement made by the mainstream media demonstrates the positive elements of social media as a way to keep the mainstream media’s influence in check, ensuring that they are reporting the truth and the whole truth.
However, social media has also resulted in many negative impacts regarding the portrayal of the news. Although social media increases civilian power, this is not always a good thing as it often results in the spread of disinformation. Social media has a very weak fact checking system unlike mainstream media, and therefore there are many types of disinformation that can be spread easily on various platforms. This disinformation can include deep fakes, made up stories, and other methods which fake news hides behind. One example of a very powerful civilian using social media to spread disinformation is Donald Trump. During his campaign, Trump disrupted media logic as a strategy. He started by gaining attention during his campaign, then he alienated himself and would not hold any press conferences, and lastly once he became President he began assaulting the media. Trump would accuse news outlets of posting fake stories and would also create his own narratives. This disruption resulted in many issues because it decreased the power of journalists and prohibited them from being able to determine what news is truthful and what news is not. When anyone can post news, it becomes increasingly difficult to source where that news is coming from and validate its truthfulness. Especially when coming from a President, journalists had a hard time claiming that what Trump was saying was not truthful even if they were almost sure it wasn’t. Disinformation can come from the outside, from politicians, and even from journalists themselves. Rafael Behr said it best, “the fundamental idea of who determines what is true changes.” Journalists no longer have the power to tell the population what is true or claim what is false so ‘news’ becomes a blurry topic.
Trump’s abuse of Twitter (now X) is a case of moderately successful spreading of disinformation, however social media does have some ability to fact check itself. An example of this is during Theresa May’s campaign for the 2017 election. During this campaign, she attempted to manipulate the media by posting a photo of a very well attended political rally in her support. She tried to use this photo to gain more supporters and show the world that her campaign was thriving. This photo was swiftly exposed as being staged by a different photo taken by a civilian. This image was of May’s ‘rally’ taking place in a photo studio outside of London. This series of images demonstrates that fake news is not always spread unchecked. Social media’s encouragement of freedom of expression allows for civilians to fact check each other as its users can operate as their own lie detecting system to stop others from reporting fake news.
Even though this example of Theresa May’s campaign photo being exposed demonstrates that disinformation can be uncovered as being untrue, the surge in the amount of disinformation being spread overwhelms social media’s ability to source it all. This imbalance leads to too much disinformation being fed to consumers, resulting in the reliability of news decreasing. As the concept of news becomes less reliable, people become less inclined to read the news which in turn further diminishes the power of mainstream news. Although the idea of keeping mainstream news’ power in check seemed to be a positive element of social media, in this case, diminishing mainstream news’ importance is harmful to the public. Mainstream news is much more reliable than news reported on social media and if it loses its influence, people will not be able to acquire fact-checked news in the same way that they used to.
Although social media allows citizens to contribute to news creation and provides them with more freedom, this freedom is not always beneficial. These networks have become filled with disinformation and their impact on mainstream news has been detrimental. Mainstream news has lost much of its power and influence, and while to a certain degree this may be a good thing, it has reached a point where a large amount of ‘news’ is no longer being fact checked by reputable journalists and outlets. Now, civilians are less inclined to visit mainstream media sources because they are consuming ‘news’ which aligns with their beliefs on social media. This loss of influence and importance is not only harmful to mainstream media outlets, but also the concept of news itself as there is so much ‘fake news’ and biased content being created that citizens can no longer be sure what news is true and which is false.