Recently, we have been discussing Indy Media and Independent Media Centers and how they have greatly impacted major news and media providers. The major news channels can no longer hide or change information to protect the image of a certain group, media providers play a smaller role in creating trends, and the people of the internet increasingly have more and more power over either of the two. In the age of the smartphone, everyday people have the ability to post videos, blogs, and tweets that give their own telling of a major event or even their own videos and photos of said event. With all of this happening, could we be transitioning to a time in which the major news is no longer relevant and instead people go strictly to social media to retrieve their news? I argue that we just might be.
As a college student and in turn someone who is pretty tied into the internet and social media I can attest to, as I am sure you can too, that I already go to social media sites when I want to see a video or photo of a major event that has just happened or is currently happening. For example, when there was an uproar in Ferguson we went to YouTube to see the video of Micheal Brown's death, we went to YouTube to see videos of mass rioting in the streets, and we went to Facebook to see videos of people video tapping violence from the safety of their hotel rooms or homes. In a generation where people are constantly on the go and the internet is readily available from our pockets, the television or newspapers are not the first place we turn. At the first sign of a major news update we run to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to find out what is happening and see the events as they unfold.
As our generation grows older and begins to have children, they too will inherit our habits of checking our phones to find information rather than turning on the TV. I think that in the future we will see major news outlets struggle to keep up with social media.
If you check out my blog, I have a post about Snapchat discover. It's a new section of Snapchat that has multiple media companies involved. This is another way our generation or the one after us to connect with the world and local news.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great feature on Snapchat. Check it out.
Good Topic!