Social media has allowed everyday citizens to become authors, editors, and publishers of news and information. Do you believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information or decreased it?

 

I believe that social media, has caused the quality of news and information to decrease.  Social media allows anyone to post what they would like, from cold hard facts, to false information they would like to pass along to others viewing it.  In the past news would be facts of information that one has learned about, and has written about, but today social media is taking over the news world in my opinion.  Having social media available provides people with the chance to share their stories.  While some may think personal opinions in the news are important, I think it can cause a lot of problems.  People online cannot be trusted to give accurate information about things they know little about.    How many times have you heard a story be told multiple times, but every person telling the story, each having their own version of what may or may not have happened?  This is caused by people getting their information from unreliable resources, and continuing to pass it along, possibly adding in their own little changes to the story, which in the end make up a completely untrue story.  There are people who go to school, and get an education in publishing and editing for a reason.  People with an education in journalism are trusted to be honest and reliable by the readers.  There are some social media sites out there that allow others to edit their information. With this tool available, people able to edit and add false information to the source, which can be viewed by anyone.  I don’t think there are many positives of everyday citizens being able to publish news and information, and I think it has caused a large decrease in the quality of information being published. Qualified editors that write newspapers, magazines and informational websites are being questioned on the accuracy of their information they are published.  Social media can only continue to decrease the quality of news information, since there are many unreliable sources out there.