Look around you. Almost everyone has a cell phone in hand. In the streets, on the subways, out to dinner, and at the gym people all entranced on the screen that fits comfortably into their palm. In today’s society people would rather stare at a screen than communicate to the person next to them, a trend translates into the world of news.
It’s something I’ve also seen first hand as I watched different walks of life engage on their phones: men, women, teens, and coworkers. I can’t say I’m shocked in what I’ve witnessed and the results from this week’s poll. I conducted four polls on my professional and personal Instagram profiles, my professional Facebook, and my Twitter profile. When asked about how my followers consume news, ‘online and social media’ won in a landslide.
On Instagram, the online option received more than 90% of the votes compared to its counterpart of ‘television/newspaper’. However, it was interesting to see how a third option to the poll, available on Twitter, changed the responses. On Twitter, I was able to add the third option and the ‘combination of both’ response garnered nearly an equivalent amount of responses as just the ‘online’ option. It’s interesting to see how many people use television and newspaper as the ‘secondary’ option versus social media.
These answers were collected from a poll of people of different ages, genders, and location and still the overwhelming majority still consisted of news being consumed through social media. But, I also feel the need to mention the results may be skewed because the poll was conducted on social media and the respondents are all active social media users. I found that the highest response, at 23%, of using television or newspapers for the main source of news was through the poll on my Facebook. However, I the median age of my Facebook followers is older than those on Instagram and Twitter.
However, the results I found correlate with Reuters Institute’s 2019 Digital News Report. According to the report, “The smartphone continues to grow in importance for news, with two-thirds now using the device to access news weekly.” It also explains that most people are turning to social media and online based outlets, instead of traditional sources converted to an online platform. For example, the report shows “Apple News in the United States now reaches more iPhone users than the Washington Post.”
It’s a startling statistic for someone in the television news industry, but we are working to adjust and become more adaptive to online platforms. In Steve Hill and Paul Bradshaw’s book, Mobile First Journalism, they explain the challenges the industry faces due to changes in technology. They quote Ken Lerer, a cofounder of the Huffington Post, “You have to fix the okane while you’re flying it.” This quote explains the challenges we, as traditional television and newspaper journalists, face in the changing landscape.
However, I feel like local news will always stay relevant, it will just be consumed in a different way. People care about news that impacts their life and has proximity to their homes. My subjects I observed and interviewed all could recall the first news story they vividly connected with or remembered. All of those news stories connected with them as a young viewer because it impacted their life.
Olivia Schwartz is a senior at Hanover Area High School in Pennsylvania. She recalled the first time a new story really connected with her. She recalled a manhunt that spanned several weeks throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania. A man, Eric Frein shot and killed two Pennsylvania State Troopers. She said that story stuck with her because she has “family members who are state troopers. One of them was out searching for [Frein]” she said. “I remember hoping over and over again that nothing would happen to my uncle or anyone else searching for that man.”
Meanwhile, Jaclyn Cangro is a news reporter in New York. She says she connects with local stories on a daily basis. However, growing up the first news story she remembers connecting with was when she was just eight years old. “The first story I can remember actually breaking on TV was when JFK Jr.'s plane went down. I was at my grandparent’s house and the news interrupted regular programming,” Cangro recalled the 1999 tragedy. “I don’t remember everything that happened, but I knew it was a big deal. I grew up near New York City, so the story wasn’t just national news, it was local.”
The difficult part of news mostly being consumed in such an oversaturated and unregulated market like social media is the spread of “fake news.” We’ve all heard the term after President Trump’s rise in the 2016 election. Yet the spread of false narratives and misinformation is a real problem. According to Reuters, “[2019] has been a dramatic year for social media with Facebook and YouTube under fire for spreading misinformation, encouraging hate speech and online harm.”
I found in my interviews that females were more likely to point out they look for “credible” sources and outlets when finding their news online. Also some of the males I spoke with, including Nicholas Inco of Malta, explained that they aren’t necessarily looking to read or engage with news on social media but instead looking to solely engage with friends and family members. Most, if not all, pointed out that their main purpose of social media in their personal life is to connect with loved ones and friends.
While I expected my youngest interviewee to be the one most engaged online and social media, she says she checks her profiles ‘every few days’. The 17-year-old also explained that she watches the local broadcast news channel, WNEP, every night with her grandfather. I expected her cell phone usage to be much higher. On the other hand, most of the ‘millennial’ generation I observed seemed much more engaged with their phones and social media. An observation that came to my surprise.
At the end of the day, it is inevitable to dismiss the fact that technology is changing the way news is consumed. As a journalist, I am still working to see what and how is the best way to engage and connect with my viewers both near and far. Overall, what I found by observing my peers and those around me, did not come to my surprise. Rather, it is the inevitable It is an ever changing process, that we as journalists need to adapt to overcome the hurdles of social media and online consumption.
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