This main point of this week- our news is in trouble.
A long going theme that I think we could include in every weeks discussion is the fact that when things change or a new way of doing things emerges, the major facets of our society have a hard time and are slow to adjust. Our news media is definitely one of those moving parts of our world that I think is still trying to navigate how to keep up with the technology that we now use to function.
Politics and the News
One of the major ideas that we were focused on this week included the fact that social media has been having a huge effect on our politics. This is really no news to anyone, as it has been the forefront of our attention for a few years now. One of the many issues has to do with bots and other interferences. As the “Political Bots” video can attest, bots are providing us with fake information or persuasive data without some of our knowledge. They are well disguised as people, and because of the internet’s dilemma of not being able to see who is truly on the other side of a post, they can be as convincing in giving information. Anyone who wants to convey their message broadly while looking like a regular person expressing themselves can pay for these bots that effectively spread their ideas. As bots and AI advance, this technology becomes more and more human like and less identifiable. This is dangerous in the political world and the news world in general.
Of course, we also have Russia. And they are not the only ones attempting to interfere wit the news through social media. I’ll spare you with the details, as I’m sure we all have been hearing about this for quite some time; however, it’s not something that we want to ignore, as it can be deceiving, and if we forget about it, we will forget that fake accounts can be as real looking as this:
Newspapers ===> Clickbait
At the end of the day, I think the biggest problem that we have in the news is that it has begun to gear towards what is going to generate the most views. I can’t say that this is a new concept; of course every newspaper wants the headline that’s going to get their viewers to buy the most papers. What I don’t think can be denied is that this has become more important with the introduction of social media, news apps, and touch notifications. Because we always have news and information in our faces, the news and other sources are trying even harder to generate that clickbait; they want to be the notification or the feed that you decide to click on. Even the use of data analytics, as expressed in the article The Traffic Factories, is often misused with news organizations. They begin to focus on the data that expresses the amount of traffic that their news sees rather than looking as well into the emotional side or the importance of what they’re reporting. This definitely seems to be one of the reasons that William Arkin quit NBC. As a longtime reporter with a focus on national security, how could he possibly feel fulfilled with reports of only Donald Trump’s acts every half hour? The fact that someone of his experience leaves his company due to this very problem really gives some perspective on these issues that we are and will continue to discuss as we see them, unfortunately, get worse before they get better.
Speaking of the News….
Here’s a link for you.
“Teen with van full of guns had checklist to ‘execute’ Joe Biden, authorities say” reads the headline. If you need a story that exemplifies every source of controversy, including but not limited to, gun laws, politics, and child pornography, this is one that you need to see.
SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIETY 
Hello Evelyn I agree with the post you got from the material for the week. I personally am not a fan of Donald Trump and think he does not deserve to be the president or given so much attention. What that reporter did I feel took a lot of guts, but had to be done. News is corrupt and there a real issues being ignored to talk about someone who really is not worth the time.
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Hey Evelyn, your blog regarding social media and politics was amazing. Media today has a major influence on younger generations and how we perceive politicians. Fame and the obsession with money has also taken away from authentic journalism and reporting. Bots are an issue with false information and the spread of certain information. However these platforms have provided measures for users to apply for voting. Applications such as Instagram push notifications about the election and tips when voting.
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It looks like being a journalist now a days can be a conflicting thing. I’m sure many journalist would like to stick to integrity but they have to try other methods to grab attention. Politics have made it difficult to also trust the media. A lot of them have been doing questionable reporting and also have sometimes proven to play sides. some people often cant distinguish the news from whats most likely fake and whats real. Hopefully things will get better for the industry since many rely on them for news.
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