NEWS IN THE TIMES OF POLITICS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

1. “IS FAKE NEWS THE NEW NEWS”
NEWS IN THE TIMES OF POLITICS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
By Adam Smith
March 3rd 2017

2. 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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3. NEWS
POLITICS
A NEW ERA

4. Photo Caption:
The Guardian
Jill Abramson
All False Statements involving Donald Trump

5. Photo Caption:
The Guardian
Jill 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?

6. Photo Caption:
Donald J. TrumpVerified account
@realDonaldTrump
“Trump tweeted an image packed with
racially loaded and incorrect murder statistics.”

7. ALTERNATIVE
FACTS?

8. 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

9. “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

10. “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

11. REAL-WORLD IMPACT
OF 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.”

12. NEWS,
CELEBRITY
NEWS?
A NEW ERA

13. 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 information
The redefinition of gossip as news, as it moves
out of the social pages and onto the front pages
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14. Today we have
magazines that
present
themselves as
“news”
magazines even
when all they
deal with is
celebrity
Photo Caption:
People Magazine

15. “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

16. 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

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

18. 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.

19. 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)

20. NEWS
ELECTRONIC
A NEW ERA
& MILLENNIALS

21. How College Students
Share News Through
Social Media
Students and Social News

22. “Reading newspapers has
not been a high priority for
this group, nor has
watching television
newscasts”
Sondermar, 2012; Pardun & Scott,
2004; Vidali, 2010
FACTS

23. 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

24. 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

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

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. What would your thrust?
Real Facts Vs. Facts

29. REFERENCES:
Nieman Lab
Americans 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